Question

PART 2 CASE ETHICAL CHOICES IN EMPLOYEE DISCOUNTS Angela is feeling a lot of stress at work these days and she's worried that her behaviour over the past few months will get her into trouble, not only with her boss and the company she works for, but also potentially with the police. It all started a few months ago, when one of Angela's old classmates came in to the store where she worked. Her classmate explained that she was just starting a new job, and she'd had a really tough year, and she asked if she could use Angela's employee discount to buy some things. At first, Angela was surprised because she hadn't seen the classmate in a few years and they weren't really friends, but the classmate persuaded her that it wasn't a big deal since she wasn't stealing or anything—the company would never even know that Angela herself wasn't the one buying everything. Then, a week later another friend came in, who told Angela that she would owe her a favour if she could also buy some clothing using the employee discount. Angela felt very uncomfortable using her discount again, but she realized that the company was probably still making money, even at the lower price level, and surely the company would prefer to make a sale than to have the item remain in inventory, so she said yes. Since then, there has been a fairly steady stream of people coming in to use Angela's employee discount. Unexpectedly, Angela received a huge benefit from allowing her friends to use the discounted rate; a glitch in the computer system used to calculate sales gave Angela credit for the full price of those purchases, so while she was helping her friends out, she was also able to increase her sales numbers by a large percentage. The company that Angela works for offers very generous bonuses for the top three salespeople each quarter, and Angela quickly realized that if more of her friends bought at the employee discount price, she could exploit the computer system glitch to gain the highest sales for the quarter and win the bonus. While she liked the idea of getting the bonus, what Angela really liked was the idea of everyone recognizing her achievement, because she's been working with the same company for two years and has never been recognized for anything Angela feels like she works as hard as the other salespeople, and maybe even harder but that for a variety of reasons beyond her control, her sales numbers just aren't as high. For instance, Angela works at a store location that isn't as busy as some of the other stores in her city, and she can work only certain non-high-traffic hours, so she can't make as many sales as other people who are able to work in busier stores during busier times. Also, Angela is only 23, so she's much younger than some of her coworkers and doesn't have the same level of experience as they do, which impacts her ability to make sales. Also, Angela does a lot of work around the store that no one appreciates, such as watering the plants and cleaning the windows that are important to the overall functioning of the shop but aren't rewarded. Angela feels like she is entitled to earn a bonus for having the highest sales this quarter even if she didn't really make the highest sales, because she's pretty sure that the salespeople with the highest sales are probably cheating in some anyway. Angela's plan worked really well; her friends came in to buy merchandise at the employee discount rate, and Angela's sales reflected the full price of those purchases, and Angela became one of the top three highest salespeople within her company over the past quarter. However, a discrepancy has recently been noticed by someone in accounting, and Angela's boss mentioned that something didn't add up in the quarterly reports for their store. Angela's worried that her boss will realize she's hiding something because Angela is finding it very difficult to continue to act innocent. Angela is considering how best to handle the situation. She thinks maybe she could approach her boss and say that she's being framed by Becky (a coworker she doesn't like) in order to escape being blamed and to, she hopes, have that coworker fired.

Apply Your Knowledge

1. Examine components of Angela's personality using “the dark triad . ”

2. How could Angela's boss use Kelley's covariation model to assess Angela's significant increase in sales in the past quarter? What would Angela's boss likely conclude?

3. Describe the role of cognitive dissonance in Angela's behaviour

4. Was Angela's behaviour unethical? Why or why not? Consider the factors that affect ethical behaviour

. 5. Using Maslow's need hierarchy as a framework, consider the various needs that Angela may meet by achieving the quarterly sales bonus.

6. How might equity theory explain Angela's dishonest behaviour?

7. When Angela first conceived her plan to achieve the sales bonus, the added work and stress helped her to perform better, but now she is feeling the negative effects of stress. Describe some of the costs associated with unhealthy stress.

Answer 1

1. Components of Angela's personality using “the dark triad" are the Machiavellianism and narcissism. In Machiavellianism person is cynical, in an amoral self-interest sense, not in a doubtful or skeptical sense. In Narcissism person display grandiosity, entitlement, dominance, and superiority. In angela's case both of them fits because she is in need of dominance and superiority in her company to gain bonus and recognition by doing and amoral act in self-interest.

2. In Kelly's Covariation model- an effect is attributed to the one of its possible causes with which, over time, it covaries. That is, a certain behaviour is attributed to potential causes that appear at the same time.The Attribution in this model are made based on three criteria: Consensus, Distinctiveness, and Consistency, by assessing the levels of consensus, distinctiveness, and consistency in a given situation:

Low Consensus, Low Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Personal Attribution
High Consensus, High Distinctiveness, High Consistency = Stimulus Attribution
High Consensus, Low Distinctiveness, Low Consistency = Circumstance Attribution

3. The role of cognitive dissonance in Angela's behaviour- cognitive dissonance theory suggests that we have an inner drive to hold all our attitudes and behavior in harmony and avoid disharmony or dissonance. When there is an inconsistency between attitudes or behaviors, something must change to eliminate the dissonance. Dissonance is caused due to- forced compliance behavior (such as in angela's case. she was forced to use employee discount), decision making (when angela is not able to decide if she should help her classmates whom she has had no contact for so long or not), and Effort (effort to achieve something and then evaluated it negatively, when angela is having negative thoughts about her acts).

4. In the workplace, unethical behavior certainly includes any deeds that violate the law, such as theft or violence. But unethical behavior can involve much broader areas as well, such as deliberate violations of company policies, or using hard-sell sales practices that may be legal, strictly speaking, but that take excessive advantage of human frailties. Behaviors aare-

1. Deliberate Deception in the Workplace

2. Failure to Honor Commitments

3. Violation of Conscience, and

4. Theft and Other Unlawful Conduct.

5. When applying Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Angela's case, the various needs that Angela may meet by achieving the quarterly sales bonus are-

1. Love and belonging- If you don’t feel a sense of belonging, you may not feel as engaged at work or as motivated to succeed.
2. Esteem- Esteem is the belief that you are contributing to a higher goal and that the contributions you make are recognized. In the workplace, it is important to feel that you’re growing, advancing and achieving results, and that those around you recognize those results.

Angela is already fulfilling her phsiological needs such as- steady income, and work place environment. Her need of Safety is also been fulfilled in workplace.

6. Equity theory can be a model for measuring how satisfied an employee is in their job. But, what an employee thinks of their current input-output balance can change day-to-day if they think one of their colleagues currently has a better balance between what they give and what they get back. In the theory, Adams labelled the colleagues as “referents”. The referents are anybody your employee feels they are in a similar situation to—for example, if two people have the same job title and duties.

7. The feeling of chronical fatigue, loss of interest in things that previously gave you pleasure. There may also be physical symptoms such as headaches, stomachaches or other pains, and irritability. Undereating or weight loss, Sleeping too much.

Becoming aware of how you typically handle stress can help you make healthy choices. If you normally reach for a sugary snack, for example, you might instead call a friend. Choosing to connect rather than consume can relieve your stress. Studies suggest that emphasizing social ties can provide definite health benefits