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Fact Pattern for Code of Ethics
You were recently hired as a consultant for a small manufacturing operation in Charles Town, West Virginia. The business, named Rev-em Up Parts, manufactures specialty after market auto parts for high-end retailers. The business has been family-owned since the 1950s. It’s a privately held corporation with twenty-two employees. It’s a successful business overall. Stewart Workeman has always prided himself on using the best quality for his parts, well above industry standard and grade recommendations. In addition, Mr. Workeman has always treated his employees incredibly well: helping them when they were sick and needed additional leave; providing for their families in the event of an accident with one of the machines (although that was a rare event); and compensating them very well above the market level. As a result, the business has managed to weather numerous recessions with very little loss in profits and an annual employee turnover rate of less than 10% a year. However, the majority of his employees are male. Mr. Workeman doesn’t consciously discriminate in his hiring practices against females, it just so happens that the majority of those who apply and interview are males. Qualified females are hired, but still make up less than 10% of the employee force. Until recently, none of them ever got pregnant so Stewart never had a maternity leave policy other than the federal law requirements. Thus, when Karina, an employee of two years, got pregnant and she went to Mr. Workeman to request paid maternity, he didn’t know what to tell her. In fact, he thought it unfair to provide her with paid maternity leave when none of the male employees would ever need maternity leave. He also knew that if he provided her with paid maternity, the other women, if they got pregnant, would expect the same. Ultimately he decided not to provide her with paid maternity leave, which considerably upset her but she said nothing. After much thinking, Mr. Workeman realized he was not comfortable making tough decisions like that and should have a corporate code of ethics for him to use as a decision-making tool. So he has called your office to give you the task of drafting a corporate code of ethics that reflects his current policies and practices – and perhaps provide a consistent policy where he has none by looking at comparable codes of ethics from other corporations. Your assistant, Amy Pollan, conducted numerous interviews with employees. Based on the information gathered and what Mr. Workeman has told you, it is your duty to put together a corporate code of ethics.
Summary of Interview with James Dean (age 29), had worked 11 years at the garage, Machinist.
Mr. Dean has had a positive experience. Mr. Workeman has been generous, granting them three weeks of vacation a year, in addition to birthdays and holidays. Mr. Workeman has always pushed workers to produce the best products but never cut corners to meet deadlines. Mr. Workeman once fired somebody for stealing parts, but that was a long time ago, and Mr. Dean can’t recall any other incident in which somebody was caught stealing. There was one incident in which an employee was providing weird accounting information to a supplier, but Mr. Workeman only warned the employee since that employee had worked at the garage for twenty years and they were old friends. The only concern Mr. Dean had was that Mr. Workeman talked a lot of remodeling the whole garage to update the equipment, but it hasn’t happened yet because of the downturn in the economy. The machinery is getting “tired” and needs to be updated. A few guys on the line have been injured but Mr. Dean can’t remember if it’s because of the equipment or general negligence or stupidity. Mr. Dean has not mentioned this to Mr. Workeman because he is afraid that Mr. Workeman will have to reduce pay for the workers in order to afford the new equipment. Usually Mr. Workeman just gives the injured employees some extra cash and asks them not to file claims.
Interview with Channing Smith (age 44), has worked 20 years at the garage, Garage Manager
Mr. Smith has been garage manager for ten years and thinks it’s a great place to work. Mr. Workeman and the garage have a great reputation in the area and in West Virginia. But that reputation is of utmost importance to Mr. Workeman, and sometimes he will sacrifice a lot just to keep a disgruntled employee from spreading any negativity. Mr. Workeman has worked really hard to keep the employees from unionizing. So he created this “No solicitation” rule in which the employees are not allowed to solicit in work areas. But the thing is, he doesn’t really enforce the rule unless it’s about a union. He fired someone once for talking union, but he gave that employee a severance package to keep that employee from saying anything else. By the way – “You did not hear this from me,” said Mr. Smith.
Interview with Samantha Morris (age 55), has worked 30 years, Bookkeeper
Ms. Morris often works as bookkeeper and secretary, and is the person who works closest with Mr. Workeman. She enjoys working in the office because she’s given a lot of respect from the other employees in the garage and is often referred to as “Ma.” She likes to keep a big bowl of candy on her desk for the employees to come by and eat, and chat with her. She also makes the best chili, a favorite at the Holiday Party. She knows all of the employees’ names and family members’ names. She often got off track during the interview to talk about something unrelated, and I wasn’t sure if it was because she is that distracted or was avoiding my questions. When I asked about whether Mr. Workeman planned to update the machinery any time soon, she looked nervous. I asked more questions about the general accounting of the garage, and she also dodged the question. When I asked about why there was a recent installation of a state-of-the-art security system, she sighed and said that someone has recently been stealing from the garage, and they wanted to know who it was – now they know, but aren’t sure how to deal with it. It’s a sensitive employee and Mr. Workeman wants to think about the best way to handle it so as not to have too much backlash.
Interview Gary Nutelberg (age 50), worked at garage 30 years, Waste Systems Management
Mr. Nutelberg likes his job, although he does wish he could have some more help. Mr. Workeman said he can’t afford to pay more workers, he’d rather pay higher wages to encourage who he has to work harder. Mr. Nutelberg is also not sure about the environmental practices, but hasn’t questioned it. Any time he brings up the topic of updating the system, Mr. Workeman brushes it off. Mr. Nutelberg thinks it’s probably only because the EPA has never come by to check so he hasn’t bothered with fixing what “ain’t broke.” Interview with Lily Tempest (age 25), worked at garage 2 years, Assembly Heard about Karina not getting any paid maternity and believes Mr. Workeman may be sexist. Very few women work in the garage, and any women who do come to work don’t often stay long because they can’t stand the “macho” atmosphere. Mr. Workeman often comes to the floor, and he’s respectful, but he doesn’t talk to the women quite like he does the men. With the men, he talks about sports and fishing and seems to pal around with them. But toward the women, he asks general questions and then moves on.
Instructions:
You are required to draft a corporate code of ethics based upon the attached fact pattern. The code should be no more than 4 pages, double spaced.
The code must represent original thought (in other words not cut and pasted from any other source).
Keep in mind some of the facts that are given may not be directly translated into the code of ethics but instead, you should think of as foundations to give you an understanding of the culture and tone of the corporation.
