You are the ethics officer at Friendly Digits, a respected and profitable social media company in Colossal Corporation’s technology group

Subject:BusinessPrice: Bought3

Share With

You are the ethics officer at Friendly Digits, a respected and profitable social media company in Colossal Corporation’s technology group. Friday morning, you arrive at your office to find you've received a voicemail from Ernst Blofeld. Blofeld has been a vice president at Friendly Digits for several years, and was recently considered for promotion to a senior vice president position. Ultimately, the promotion was awarded to another long term employee, Tara King. You find it difficult to make out some of Blofeld's message. The words are occasionally slurred, as though he may have had a little too much to drink. I'm in Palm Springs for a conference, he explains, and I ran into a nice couple here at the hotel bar. You'd never believe it, but they're old friends of Tara's from school. I told them about her promotion, and they said she never finished her degree. She dropped out of the MBA program they all attended, and they never saw her again. You have to get to HR to check this out for me.

You check Friendly Digits policy manual, which states that potential employees must submit transcripts for all degrees listed on their resumes. But this requirement was not in place 10 years ago when Tara King was hired. King has received excellent performance evaluations during her time at Friendly Digits, and her leadership has led to increased revenue and positive press for the company. Her record of success is what led to her promotion. After a brief consultation with Mindy Wu, the director of human resources, you telephone King. Based on current HR policy, we're asking all employees who don't have official transcripts on file, to submit them to the human resources department. There is a silence at King's end, then in a shaky voice, she tells you that she does not in fact have an MBA. I was 12 credits away from completing my degree, she says, but then my dad got sick and I had to drop out. I really needed a job to support my family. I put the MBA on my resume because I hoped it would help me get hired. I always intended to go back to school, but I never did. It was a really stressful time.

You tell King that you need a little time to think about the situation. You promise to call her back as soon as possible. You know that an MBA was not a requirement for the assistant project specialist job King was hired for 10 years ago. But four years ago, it was made a requirement for the senior vice president position she holds now. Two of the current senior vice presidents do not have MBA degrees, because they were promoted before this requirement was in place. Mindy Wu has asked you to write a memo with your recommendations on how human resources should handle this issue. King has a record of excellence with Friendly Digits, and her superiors would be unhappy to lose her.

 

Step 1: Ethical Analysis

The ethical aspects of King's situation seem complex, and you realize that you need a structured way to think through the various possibilities and their implications. You know that there are many different schools of ethical thought and a variety of frameworks or approaches for analyzing ethical problems, but you decide that the best approach to this particular situation is Badaracco's Right vs. Right Framework.

Work through the Badaracco ethical analysis, considering the various options for action and the winners and losers for each option. What are your recommendations for the best ethical course of action?

When you've finished analyzing the ethical aspects of this case, continue to the next step, in which you'll consider any legal issues that could affect your decisions.

Badaracco’s Right vs Right Framework

There are a variety of ethical frameworks that may be used instrumentally to analyze those difficult questions that businesspersons must regularly address. Some ethical issues present clear "yes" and "no" answers, a clear "right" and "wrong," but other ethical issues are much more difficult to address.

Professor Joseph Badaracco developed a framework for addressing those more difficult questions, and particularly those questions of "right versus right"; that is, when an ethical dilemma could result in multiple "right" responses, based in attempted adherence to multiple, conflicting ethical values that cannot simultaneously be fulfilled. Badaracco's framework aims to resolve ethical dilemmas involving conflicting yet legitimate moral values.

 

Harvard FSS: Defining Moments: A Framework for Moral Decisions

 

 

Abstract:

Joseph L. Badaracco Jr. covers ethical decision-making in situations where there is no clearly inferior alternative. Such "right versus right" problems emerge frequently in business, and can be very uncomfortable to resolve. History provides four classic questions aimed at helping with such dilemmas, but circumstances can arise that confound each. The utilitarian injunction to do the greatest good consistent with the least harm can produce outrageous violations of human rights, for instance. Character, experience, hard work, and good judgment are what a decision-maker must ultimately place his or her trust in.

 

 

Step 2: Legal Analysis

In addition to the ethical aspects of King's situation, there may be legal implications that the human resources department needs to account for before moving forward with any plan of action. You realize that you need to review any relevant information about fraud that might affect what could or should be done about King, including employment at will.

Now that you've  worked through possible legal implications and arrived at a recommended course of action for Friendly Digits's HR department, it's time to present your analyses, recommendations, and action plan in a memo to Mindy Wu, the director of HR.

Fraud

Fraud, often called misrepresentation, is a very broad legal concept that incorporates a variety of types of fraud and misrepresentation, both civil and criminal. There are considerable variations across the states as to the specific categorization of types of fraud as either civil or criminal law violations, or both. The federal government criminalizes a variety of types of fraud including mail and wire fraud, bankruptcy fraud, and securities fraud. These federal laws apply to everyone in the United States, regardless of the state in which the fraud occurs. Although there is variation as to which explicit types of fraud are criminalized within each state, in all states, some types of fraud unquestionably carry both civil and criminal penalties.

Résumé fraud is a specific type of fraud that may result in civil or criminal penalties, or both, depending on which state the fraud occurs in. In its most primal form, résumé fraud is a type of common law, civil fraud wherein the intentional misrepresentations of material facts are made in a résumé, and justifiably relied upon in the hiring of an individual for employment. In the absence of any statutory provision specifically addressing résumé fraud in a given state, the common law provides the remedy for résumé fraud typically in the form of damages (monetary compensation). However, many states have statutorily imposed sanctions specifically for committing résumé fraud. For example, in New Jersey, both persons and legal entities are prohibited from intending to deceive by falsely representing the receipt of a degree, credential, or certification, which one has not actually acquired "in connection with any business, trade, profession or occupation" (N.J.S.A. 18A:3-15.2). A violation of this provision is treated as a civil law violation, and each instance of résumé fraud carries with it a $1000.00 civil fine (N.J.S.A. 18A:3-15.5). On the other hand, in the state of Kentucky, "fraudulent use of an educational record" is considered a Class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 12 months in jail and fines (KY Rev. Stat. Ann. 434.442). The Kentucky statute explicitly includes making false written representations for certain educational achievements, such as a degree, in employment applications. The states do differ as to how they treat résumé fraud, but whether it is treated as a civil violation or as a criminal violation, résumé fraud is a dishonest practice that should be avoided.

At-will employees should be particularly aware that résumé fraud provides a justifiable basis for termination that may undermine otherwise legitimate arguments for wrongful discharge (or other exceptions to the employment at will doctrine). For contract employees, résumé fraud is often considered "just cause" for termination of an employee who would otherwise be protected from termination by contractual "just cause" provisions. Finally, in addition to the legal consequences of résumé fraud, the reputational damage of lying on a résumé could undermine one’s career prospects as it did for former Yahoo CEO, Scott Thompson, whose résumé represented that he had a double major, including a degree in computer science, from Stonehill College, a degree that was not awarded from until several years after he graduated. After being exposed by a Yahoo shareholder, Thompson stepped down from his position in disgrace (Mackay, 2012).

References

Mackey, M. (2012, May 15). Ex-Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson and seven other cases of resume fraud. The Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/yahoo-ceo-scott-thompsons-resume-fraud_n_1516061.html

What is “fraud”?

Fraud is the intentional misrepresentation of a material fact that is justifiably relied upon by someone to his or her injury. The false statement inducing the other party’s misunderstanding must regard a material fact about the prospective transaction. Fraud often involves intentional misrepresentations regarding ownership of property or one’s financial status.

· Note: Fraud may be an intentional failure to disclose a material fact that induces another into action which results in her harm. This may be the case when a legal duty to disclose the material fact exists.

· Example: Lying about assets or liabilities in order to get credit or a loan is a common form of fraud.

Discussion: How do feel about the requirement that fraud be intentional? Should a misrepresentation that is reckless and unverified be considered fraudulent, even if it is not intentional? Why or why not?

Practice Question: Daryl is selling a poster bearing the signature of a known celebrity athlete. Daryl advertises that the poster is 15-years old and was signed when the athlete was a rookie. In reality, the poster was signed recently, following the athlete’s retirement. If someone buys the poster based upon Daryl’s representations, is there a tortious act? Why or why not?

https://lti.umuc.edu/contentadaptor/topics/byid/f3d97aa9-6448-4a84-9550-ef62f7c92201

 

https://umuc.equella.ecollege.com/file/6aa8bfb8-7053-4fed-94f6-2547e454c501/1/web/viewer.html?file=https://umuc.equella.ecollege.com/file/612a3093-5f74-4ecc-910c-bbd2fd409f51/1/TheResumeIntroduction.pdf

 

Employment at Will

Employment at will is a doctrine of common law that allows either the employee or the employer to terminate an employment relationship at any time, for any reason, with or without notice, and even for a morally reprehensible reason, so long as the ending of the relationship does not fall into an exception to the employment-at-will doctrine.

Employment at will is the prevailing legal doctrine concerning employment relationship termination in 49 US states (not Montana). In the overwhelming majority of the United States, employment at will and its exceptions govern the rules by which one may legally terminate an employee.

The generally accepted exceptions to employment at will include

· express contract

· implied contract

· promissory estoppel

· public policy violations

· good faith and fair dealing

We discuss these five exceptions below.

Express Contract Exception

If an employer terminates an employee in violation of the terms of an express contract between the employer and employee, then the employee can sue the employer for breach of contract (and, in some states, wrongful termination).

Examples: An employment contract guarantees that the employee will be employed by the employer for a definite duration of time, with cognizable boundaries, such as a "one-year period" or "for six months." The employer terminates the employee before the stated period has expired, and that termination is not otherwise permitted by the contract.

A similar case: An employment contract states that an employee can be terminated only "for cause" or "for just cause." The employee is terminated without cause.

Implied Contract Exception

Implied contracts are contracts created by the conduct of the parties, which include any representations or assurances made by the employer prior to or during the term of employment. In some states, an implied contract is an exception to the employment-at-will doctrine.

Example: If an employer provides an employee handbook to a new employee, the provisions in the handbook may be considered part of the contractual relationship. Often, such handbooks outline a procedure for performance review, discipline, and discharge of the employee. An employer who fails to live up to procedural obligations prior to discharging an employee could be liable.

Promissory Estoppel Exception

In many states, promissory estoppel acts as an exception to the employment-at-will doctrine. That is, when an employer makes a promise to an employee of employment or a period of employment, and the employee relies on that promise to his detriment, and it leads to injustice, then an employee may be able to have that promise enforced regardless of employment at will.

Example: John is offered a job with Widget Co. He discusses with Widget's manager that, to take the job, he needs to move from California to New Jersey and give up an already lucrative position with benefits. The manager assures John that he will have gainful employment and a substantially larger income with Widget Co. for at least a year if he makes the move. In reliance on this promise, John quits his job and moves to New Jersey to begin work at Widget Co. After one week, John is laid off. Despite being an employee at will, John may be able to recover under the theory of promissory estoppel.

Public Policy Violations Exception

Most states in the United States prohibit an employer from firing an employee if the reason for the action violates some readily accepted public policy. This prohibition prevents an employer from terminating an employee for exercising a legal right, including a right contained in state and federal laws; or for failing to perform an illegal act for the employer.

Examples: Firing an employee for performing some public duty (showing up to jury duty), for exposing illegal conduct (such as reporting violation of some law to the employer or a government agency), or for exercising her rights as a US or state citizen (such as voting) are all against public policy.

This exception to employment at will encompasses the inability to terminate an employee if doing so would violate her state or federal statutory rights. If an employee is terminated because of her race, this may be a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and so an otherwise at-will employee would have a claim against the employer for violating a federal statute.

Moreover, it is against public policy to terminate an employee for refusing to commit an illegal act, such as a crime.

Good Faith and Fair Dealing Exception

A minority of states impose upon the employer a duty to exercise good faith and fair dealing in regard to all employees. This doctrine, to varying degrees, means that an employer must treat an employee fairly in the decision to fire her. This generally means that an employee would violate these duties in firing an employer without due cause or justification.

The preceding five generally accepted exceptions to employment at will allow injured parties to seek recovery even in the face of the employment-at-will doctrine. As such, they limit the circumstances by which an employer can terminate an employee.

Business Law: An Introduction by TheBusinessProfessor.com, Jason M. Gordon & Colleagues has been adapted with permission from Jason M. Gordon. © Business Professor, LLC.

Step 3: Write Your Memo

First, review how to write a memo. Once you have a sense of memos in general, use your outline and research notes to prepare your memo. Be sure to meet the following requirements:

· Using the Badaracco framework and your legal analysis, prepare a memo for HR.

· Format your memo following the library’s example. You must also include APA-formatted in-text citations and an APA-formatted reference list (do not format the body of the memo using APA style, just the reference list). See references and citations for details.

· Include a specific recommendation on what actions, if any, HR should take based on your analysis and conclusions.

· The memo should be no more than 10 pages (double spaced, 12-point font; the reference list does not count towards page limit).

· Title your file using this protocol: yourlastname_King_date.