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Case Studies

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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
10 views8 pages

Case Studies

case studies

Uploaded by

3amrithamanoj12a
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Case 1

Amritha has joined So-ho Corporation, which manufactures consumer


electronics, as a junior engineer. She was put in charge of quality assurance of
components bought from other suppliers. One day, while performing some
routine quality checks on components supplied by ABC & Co., she found that a
few of them did not meet the required quality and environmental standards.
On further investigation, she also found that So-ho received a moderate
number of customer complaints due to the failure of these components. When
she mentioned the matter to Vivek, the sales executive from ABC & Co, she
was assured that the issue was 'taken care of' and that there would be no
problems from the government. Failure rates too, were not very high and
could not be pinned on the sub-standard components. Currently, ABC & Co
offers large discounts for So-ho. They have also been doing business for years
and shared a very good relationship with the company. If So-ho refused to buy
the low-quality components, they would lose all the discounts as well as the
goodwill. There is only one other company – Goodman Ltd. - which supplies
high-quality products, but their prices are very high. When Amritha took the
matter to Rahul, her immediate superior, she was told not to mention the
matter in her report. He said,“Everybody uses ABC's components. We don't get
too many customer complaints. Also, we can't afford Goodman's products. As
for the environment, well, we are not the only ones polluting it, are we?! So
you just adjust some of your readings and don't mention this in your written
report, okay?”
1. Identify the major players in this case.
2. What are the ethical and moral issues in this case?
3. In this case, what options do the major players have?
4. What course of action could Amritha take after her conversation with Rahul?
Justify your answer.
5. When engineers become managers, they are also responsible for the ethical
behavior of their subordinates. Explain this statement keeping Rahul's actions
in view.
6. What professional responsibilities, if any, did the major players neglect?
Case 2
Mr. A – a believer in consequentialist ethics - was riding along on his scooter
one night along a dark, lonely street. Suddenly he heard someone shouting for
help and looked around. At one end of the street, a group of criminals had
cornered an old man and his daughter, trying to rob and assault them. The old
man was in no condition to fight them, and the young woman was in tears. In a
flash, Mr. A remembered that he cannot get any help until he reaches the next
junction – about a kilometre away. He also noticed that a couple of the
gangsters were looking at him in a rather threatening manner.
1. What options does Mr.A have in this situation if he is an ethical egoist?
What might the consequences of his action be?
2. What should Mr.A do if he is an ethical altruist? Explain ethical altruism in
the light of his choice.
3. What is meant by utilitarianism? As a utilitarian, what options would Mr.A
have? List out three of them.
4. Would Mr.A feel that it is his duty to help the old man and his daughter?
Explain why or why not.
5. If you were in Mr.A's place, what course of action would you take? Why?
Case 3
Arjun, Eric, Namita and Karan co-founded an internet-based business –
Kane.com, for senior citizens. In the group, Eric and Arjun handled the
technical aspects while Namita and Manu took care of the business angle.
Their business was doing pretty well and had around 15,000 registered
customers. As the administrators, Eric and Arjun had access to all the details of
the customers and were in a position to gain access to their browsing patterns,
interests etc. One day, Namita was approached by Rahul, an old classmate who
works for Metro Marketers, with a proposal – Metro wanted to buy the
personal information and browsing data of all of Kane's customers for a
substantial amount. Metro planned to use this for marketing a healthcare
related product. He also hinted that they had first planned to approach
SeniorCare – Kane's competitor, where they are sure the response will be
positive, but he personally asked that Kane may be given the first chance. Since
Kane really needed the money, Namita wanted to give her okay to the plan,
but Eric and Karan were against it. Eric said, “Sure we can collect all the data
they require, but it doesn't seem very ethical. And it's even more wrong if we
were to sell it for money. If we are giving them the data, we must alert all the
customers and ask for their informed consent.” Karan's opinion was that going
with Metro' plan would be against the privacy policy, terms and conditions etc.
that customers agree with when they join the site. “If people come to know
about it, we will be in big trouble. All the bad publicity will negatively affect the
business.” However, Arjun contended that people don't read the privacy
policy, anyway. So it is highly unlikely that anyone would notice what it says.
'Informed consent' notifications will probably just scare away customers.
Namita too, agreed with Arjun and said, “If Kane doesn't give the data, then
SeniorCare will. And we can really use the money since we need to invest more
to grow. Also, Rahul put this deal through as a personal favour. He is a very
influential businessman.” Finally it was agreed that Namita can take the
decision and the others would go along with it.
1. Who are the key players in this situation?
2. What options does Namita have in this case? List them.
3. What are the moral and ethical issues that arise in this situation?
4. It is common knowledge that very few people read documents such as
Terms & Conditions, policies etc. What steps can be taken to avoid the
communication gap that occurs due to this?
5. How can Kane go into the deal while ensuring that they don't do anything
unethical?
6. If you were in Namita's position, what would you do? Justify your answer.
Case4
(Case study) The Exxon Valdez oil spill occurred in Prince William Sound,
Alaska, March 24, 1989, when Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker owned by Exxon
Shipping Company, bound for Long Beach, California, struck Prince William
Sound's Bligh Reef, 1.5 miles west of Tatitlek, Alaska at 12:04 am local time and
spilled 10.8 million US gallons (or a mass of 35,000 metric tonnes) of crude oil
over the next few days. It is considered to be one of the most devastating
human-caused environmental disasters. Prince William Sound's remote
location, accessible only by helicopter, plane, or boat, made government and
industry response efforts difficult and severely taxed existing response plans.
The region is a habitat for salmon, sea otters, seals and seabirds. The oil,
originally extracted at the Prudhoe Bay oil field, eventually covered 1,300 miles
(2,100 km) of coastline, and 11,000 square miles (28,000 km2) of ocean.
According to official reports, the ship was carrying 53,094,510 gallons
(1,264,155 barrels) of oil, of which about 10.8 million US gallons were spilled
into the Prince William Sound. During the first few days of the spill, heavy
sheens of oil covered large areas of the surface of Prince William Sound.
Multiple factors have been identified as contributing to the incident: Beginning
three days after the vessel grounded, a storm pushed large quantities of fresh
oil on to the rocky shores of many of the beaches in the Knight Island chain.
Exxon Shipping Company failed to supervise the master and provide a rested
and sufficient crew for Exxon Valdez. The third mate failed to properly
maneuver the vessel, possibly due to fatigue or excessive workload. Exxon
Shipping Company failed to properly maintain the Raytheon Collision
Avoidance System (RAYCAS) radar, which, if functional, would have indicated
to the third mate an impending collision with the Bligh Reef. Captain Joseph
Hazelwood, who was widely reported to have been drinking heavily that night,
was not at the controls when the ship struck the reef. Other factors, included:
Ships were not informed that the previous practice of the Coast Guard tracking
ships out to Bligh Reef had ceased. The oil industry promised, but never
installed, state-of-the-art iceberg monitoring equipment. Exxon Valdez was
sailing outside the normal sea lane to avoid small icebergs thought to be in the
area. (Source: Wikipedia).
a) Identify the key players in the case (4)
b) What are the professional responsibilities neglected by each of the key
players in the case? (4)
c) What are the ethical issues attached to the case? (4)
d) How do you think that the disaster management team of the Exxon reacted
to the accident? (4)
e) What are the lessons learned from the Exxon Valdez oil spill? (4)
Case5

Susan went through her pile of “to-do” lists, checking off item after item. Done,
done, done, done, done, done. With each flick of the pen, one more task was
lifted from her shoulders. Then she copied the tasks that remained on to a new
list: To- Do
1. Get status of annual sponsorships
2. Write personal thank you letters from last event
3. Recruit new leaders from community (must!)
4. Ensure the training for new volunteers is done this week
5. Submit budget report to National Office, which was due…like,
yesterday…
6. Meet with staff to brainstorm ideas to sell annual sponsorships She
paused in dismay. These were all the most critical priorities! What had
she been doing when she should have been completing these tasks? She
glanced at her outlook schedule; yesterday there was that meeting with
Tony that she really didn’t have to go to. Then she and Shelley spent the
rest of the morning discussing the office supply situation. She had a
meeting with Lisa to help her with the revenue report and Major Donor
prospect plan. That and promptly returning e-mails during lunch, took
better part of the afternoon. She had done everything she was supposed
to in using her time better. Made schedules and “to- do” lists, screened
her calls and returned them all at once- and now everyone else was
going home, and she hadn’t even really started! What was the point of
all her careful time management when she still was overworked and
frenzied?

1. Based on the above case study on time management, substantiate


the statement “The cardinal rule of time management is to get your
priorities right”
2. List down some key ideas/thoughts/advice you would give Susan
3. Briefly discuss a possible solution
4. How do you think a “ to-do list” should be ideally structured for
effective time management
Case6
Ramanujan Shastri, secretary in the ministry of defense, is a respected and
admired bureaucrat. Defense minister trusts Ramanujan and has given him a
free hand in the ministry. Ramanujan, who is at the fag end of his career,
recently lost his elder son and wife in an accident and ever since, he has kept a
low profile and has grown more fond of his other son who now just finished his
graduation from an ordinary institution in the capital. In a deal involving direct
government to government contract with a major arms supplier, Ramanujan is
tasked with speeding up the contract agreement and finalize the deal. The
manufacturer, who will benefit immensely if the process is expedited, on many
occasions has personally contacted Ramanujan and expressed his frustration in
the slow movement of files in the ministry. Ramanujan's younger son wants to
study in a world's most reputed university for which he needs a lot of money
and good references. Son has his father's complete support and he himself is
contemplating the idea of moving out with his son to a new place, but money
is the constraint. The person from the company who is in touch with
Ramanujan comes to know about this and in one of his meetings with
Ramanujan, he assures him to look after his son's entire higher education costs
-- from admission to placement to a well paying job -- provided he speeds up
the finalization of the deal. Because of unexpected political circumstances, the
defense minister now wants to scrap the deal. From his experience Ramanujan
senses that the present controversy is temporary and somehow the deal will
be inked later. Ramanujan who has few months of service left with him is in a
dilemma. He doesn't want to disappoint his son and at the same time he wants
to be in good terms with the minister. The deal, if signed, doesn't harm
anyone's interests. The products are of world class and are sure to add value to
the country's defense arsenal.
a) Identify the key players in this case.
b) What should be Ramanujan's course of action in this situation?
c) How Ramanujan deal with his son and manufacturer?
d) Discuss the ethical issues in private life versus public relation.
Case7
Geetha, a junior member of the staff has just returned to work after taking
special leave to care for her elderly mother. For financial reasons she needs to
work full-time. She has been having difficulties with her mother's home care
arrangements, causing her to miss a number of team meetings (which usually
take place at the beginning of each day) and to leave work early. She is very
competent in her work but her absences are putting pressure on her and her
overworked colleagues. Bhathra, Geetha's manager, is aware that the flow of
work through the section is coming under pressure. Kumar, one of Geetha's
male colleagues, is beginning to make comments such as "a woman's place is
in the home", and is undermining her at every opportunity, putting her under
even greater stress.
Questions:
a. Identify the key players in this case
b. How should Bhathra deal with Kumar ?
c. Name the people that may need to be involved in the resolution of this
problem?
d. If you are Bhathra, what are the possible strategies that you can consider to
solve this problem?
e. Are there any moral/ ethical issues involved? If yes, enumerate.
Case8
Ms. Sherin was a competent consulting structural engineer. A client
approached Ms. Sherin to review structural design of a multi-storeyed building.
He wants the report within one week. Ms. Sherin agreed to review the design.
Due to the pressure of other assigned works, Ms. Sherin assigned the task to a
site engineer in her company, Mr.Abhinand, who was experienced in
construction related works, but had little background in structural design. As
the assigned task was beyond his knowledge and as Ms. Sherin was busy with
other works, he approached his friend Mr. Akash, who is a project engineer in
another construction company, doing construction of multi-storeyed buildings.
Mr. Akash was also not competent enough to review structural design. With
the help of Mr. Akash, Mr. Abhinand prepared the report and submitted to Ms.
Sherin. Due to work pressure Ms. Sherin mailed the report to the client
without reading it. When the client received the report, he was shocked and
phoned Ms. Sherin that he was unhappy with the report and would not pay for
it. He reported the incident to the Association of consulting engineers where
Ms. Sherin was registered and requested them to take disciplinary action
against Ms Sherin. The Secretary of the association send her a memo seeking
explanation regarding the issue.
(a) Identify the key players in this case.
(b) What are the professional responsibilities neglected by the key players in
this case?
(c) Consider yourself in Sherin’s role. What would you do when a client
approaches to get a report very quickly?
(d) If you were the site engineer, what would you do at this time?
(e) What are the choices available to Ms. Sherin in responding to the Memo
issued by Secretary.
(f) What disciplinary actions could Ms. Sherin expect from the Association?
(g) Write down the main points to be kept in mind, while continuing in the
engineer’s profession.

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