Ethical Issues

Throughout this course, you will prepare a business report in which you will analyze a business that has experienced an ethical crisis and make a recommendation for how the situation could have been handled differently. This project will have a research stage, a first draft stage, and a final report submission.

The first step is to select a business on which to do your report. Select a business from the following list:

1. Adelphia Communications Corporation
2. Arthur Andersen LLP
3. Coca-Cola
4. Countrywide Financial
5. Galleon Group
6. Global Crossing Ltd.
7. ImClone Systems Inc.
8. Microsoft
9. Monsanto
10. Nike
11. Tyco International
12. WorldCom

If you would prefer to complete this assignment using another business that has experienced an ethical crisis, but is not included in the list of suggested companies, you must first obtain approval from your instructor.

After you have selected your business, research the business and the ethical crisis the company has faced. Conduct research, locate at least one source for each of the report topics described below, and complete the “The Ethical Issues in Business: Preliminary Research Table” template with the required information. This research table will provide the foundational knowledge you will need to produce the final report (analysis and recommendation) according to the directions provided in the topics below.

Using the “The Ethical Issues in Business: Preliminary Research Table” template, provide an APA reference note for each source and an explanation of how each source will help you address these topics in the Benchmark – Ethical Issues in Business: Final Report and Analysis assignment later in the course:

1. Company Background: Summarize relevant information regarding the business and its history.

1. Crisis Details: Summarize the ethical crisis details. What stakeholders were involved? What actions did they take? What were the results of those actions?
2. Ethical Issues and the law: Explain the ethical issues surrounding the crisis. Did the company act within the basic tenants of the law? Include any related legal issues.
3. Influencing Factors: Describe pertinent information related to the wider scope of the ethical issue. What elements in the company’s culture, the external environment, or other factors influenced the ethical crisis? If it was portrayed in the media, how was it portrayed?
4. Recommendation: Propose how the company would have handled the crisis differently and the impact on the stakeholders discussed in the Crisis Details topic.
5. Business Impact: Describe what other businesses can learn from the ethical crisis of the business you selected. If the situation was handled well, what could other businesses learn and why are these lessons valuable? If the situation was handled poorly, what could other businesses learn and why are these lessons valuable?

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the assignment criteria and expectations for successful completion of the assignment.

You are required to submit this assignment to Turnitin. Please refer to the directions in the Student Success Center.