Please submit ?in your Assignment Folder (AAP Issues tab), the following assignment:
1. ?A statement and brief explanation of 3 specific ethical issues related to the facts set forth in the Authentic Assessment Project (AAP),
?Next, develop a brief phrase or sentence statement of each of the three (3) ethical issues identified in and pertinent to the facts set forth followed by a 1-2 sentence explanation for each explaining why it is an ethical issue in the scenario; do not include legal issues in this assignment; please refer to the INFO: ?AAP conference and the info below for details about ethical issues.?
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2. ?Next, prepare a bibliography listing of 3 outside resources to be used in the AAP paper to address the ethical issues you have identified. ?These must be actual resources, not merely databases, and should come from academic resources; please refer to the INFO: AAP conference and the info below for details about resources.
Treatment of employees/evading established laws applicable to employees/questionable means to avoid claims, should help get you started on what issues to discuss. PLEASE THREE BIBliography SOURCES Read this authentic assesment below and come up with three ethical issues.
AUTHENTIC ASSESSMENT PROJECT FACT PATTERN AAP project
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Consolidated Northern was a long-term military contractor and munitions manufacturer, with annual revenues of $500 billion. The company employed 105 workers, each highly paid UAW technicians and mechanics. Consolidated Northern manufactured body armor and armored vehicles for the United States military.
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Contrary to international law and treaties, it also manufactured land mines, exporting them to Afghanistan and Iran, two of its foreign customers. More than half of its profits derived from these clandestine operations.
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All of Consolidated Northern’s products had problems. Although paid handsomely for its body armor and armored vehicles, the materials used in manufacturing were substandard. The body armor did not protect service members from most antipersonnel ammunition. The simple addition of a standard issue flak jacket would prevent most injuries, but Consolidated did not tell the military because it feared it would lose its contract. In addition, its armored vehicles, although quite sturdy and strong on the sides and top, had only a thin sheet of steel on their undersides, making them especially vulnerable to roadside bomb explosions.
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The land mines that it sold to the Taliban in Afghanistan and to the Iranian government were themselves defective. Many of those who attempted to plant the mines were themselves killed in the process because of the use of faulty trip switches. Most of the victims of the faulty mines were either soldiers or children.
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As the US military began to understand the problems with the body armor and armored vehicles that it had purchased form Consolidated Northern, Department of Justice lawyers became involved and the families of injured or killed US service members consulted attorneys. Northern’s corporate leaders were now faced with the threat of criminal prosecution, and classes of plaintiff were forming and growing quickly. The Consolidated board knew the company’s days were numbered. Although it could afford to pay the class action damages to the plaintiffs, and that if its top executives were to be imprisoned, they could be replaced, the board came to the conclusion that its fiduciary duties to shareholders would best be fulfilled by leaving its production facilities in? America and to establish a factory in Argentina, a country that did not extradite to the United States, and to Colombia, where union organizing is not a problem because union organizers are regularly murdered.
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But first Consolidated felt it must try to get out from under the potential legal liabilities both to the families of service members who had been killed or injured by defective Consolidated products, and to the workers in its American plants who are protected by a collective bargaining agreement as well as by US labor and employment laws.
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Since Consolidated had more than 100 employees, under THE WORKER ADJUSTMENT AND RETRAININT NOTIFICATION (WARN) ACT, (See http://www.doleta.gov/layoff/pdf/WorkerWARN2003.pdf ) the company would have had to give employees 60 days notice of its departure from US operations/ Such notice, however, would have several undesirable consequences. First, it would also give notice to plaintiffs and the US military that it was planning to leave the country. Second, the Company was concerned that the exceptionally militant and well-paid UAW workers would undertake acts of sabotage, or, alternatively they would leave on their own terms rather than when Consolidated preferred that they would go. Violation of the law would impose significant back pay liability on the company, which it wished to avoid. Even if the WARN Act were complied with,under the UAW collective bargaining agreement, workers were entitled to significant amounts of severance pay in the event of a plant shutdown or mass layoff.
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Consolidated formulated a plan. First, it would outright fire five workers for no cause, and would offer an early retirement package to five others, too good for them to refuse. This would bring the number of workers to 95, which would remove the company from the jurisdiction of the WARN Act. Then it would file for bankruptcy under which it was certain to be able to reject the collective bargaining agreement. [When a company files tor bankruptcy protection, the Bankruptcy Court has the power to relieve the bankrupt company from its contractual obligations, when this is necessary. Bankruptcy is often used by companies who feel excessively burdened by Union demands.
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These two courses of action were successfully undertaken in remarkably short order. Consolidated now had neither notice requirements under the WARN Act, nor severance liability under the now rejected collective bargaining agreement.
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The bankruptcy also ?short-circuited the class action suit brought by the families of killed or injured service members. With all remaining assets of Consolidated in the hands of a court-appointed trustee in bankruptcy, no one would be paid for anything.
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In the interim, Consolidated had established relationships with contractors in Argentina and Colombia and had factories up and running even before the bankruptcy papers were filed in the US. Company assets had been transferred to banks in Argentina and in Switzerland, which assured customers that money would be safe from creditors, whether these creditors are foreign governments or other parties. Consolidated profits and share value were maintained.
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Argentina and Colombia were ecstatic to have Consolidated in their countries. Individual and lower-level administrators in these countries were handsomely rewarded by Consolidated for enabling the businesses to function smoothly and bot be bothered by the host countries’ environment laws, labor laws, and other (admittedly minimal) business restrictions. Argentinean and Colombian government leaders believed that the radiation and chemical leaking into the local groundwater was a small price to pay for the cut-rate military equipment it received in return, enabling it to battle insurgents, union activists, and drug dealers.
How to Identify Ethical Issues:
As you approach this assignment and read the facts of the Authentic Assessment located in the Week 8 Conference, please keep in mind what comprises an ethical issue. ?These are issues that:
arise from facts and situations but are different from facts and legal issues;
are specific, precise statements of an ethical issue, not merely general explanations of an ethical concern/problem?
are fully explained in the context of related facts, but are different from facts
are directly related to facts in the fact pattern, but not statements of fact.
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Example Bibliography of Resources: ?
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Example of Bibliography resource listing using APA style format:
Smith, Phillip, (2009) The heart of ethical analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 3 (5), 263-266.?
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Bibliography/Resources Info:
Resources must be only approved resources (refer to INFO: ?AAP conference for details) ?and only in APA(American Psychological Association) format; please closely review the info in the PROJECT: AAP conference and below for details about resources:?
????Database vs. Resource:
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A database is not a resource, so while your databases might be substantive (i.e., all UMUC databases, Lexus, etc.) they are not?resources. ?The quality of a database is unrelated to the quality of a resource (i.e., an article, etc.) you find on a? database. ?Most any database is fine to use to search for resources; the Webliography sites are useful for resources.
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????Resources:
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Your resources for the APP paper should come mostly from academic journal articles, such as business and perhaps law review journals, The?Economist, etc.. ?You are permitted to use business periodicals, or The Wall Street Journal very sparingly. ?I suggest you have not more than 1?business periodical as a resource (i.e, as Business Week), and not more than 1 Wall StreetJournal reference. ??If you must use more than 1?business periodicals and/or 1 newspaper resource, count only 1 business periodical and 1 Wall Street Journal in the required # of resources. ??If? you are unsure about a specific resource, ask by posting ?it in Q&A.?
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NEVER use a blog, newsletter, law firm website, company website as resources in an academic paper (they are not academic resources). ?These are unacceptable. Also, business or legal organization websites, such as the Midwestern Business Persons of America, the Trial Lawyers of America, are not academic resources and typically will not contain usable info. ?
Treatment of employees/evading established laws applicable to employees/questionable means to avoid claims should help get you started on what issues to discuss. PLEASE THREE BIBliography SOURCES
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