Question

Discluser Dilemma Case Study:

Dylan is a manager at a leading consumer electronics company. In his role, he must  frequently interact with industry partners and customers. One day, Dylan met with a customer of one of his company’s custom products. The custom product was a special chip for an electronic appliance that was currently in its final stages of review before market release. During the meeting, the customer wanted to know the method of making the chip, a process which was not specified in the given datasheet. The client claimed this information was needed to ensure that the chip would function properly when it was integrated with electronic appliances.

At first, Dylan was uncertain. He wanted to give his customer more details if it was for the benefit of his client’s final product, but, at the same time, was concerned because the requested information was protected under his company’s non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

Dylan decided to discuss the matter with his supervisor; however, Dylan’s manager was overseeing many projects and, knowing that Dylan was capable and experienced, entrusted him to take care of the situation. When he returned to work the next day, Dylan received an email from his customer. The message stated that, if the chip’s manufacturing methodology was not disclosed, the customer would cease further investments in the product.

Shocked, Dylan believed that if the customer could not abide by the NDA, he should tell the contract should be broken off. However, doing so would mean losing a significant amount of profit they had intended on garnering from selling the chip. On the other hand, sharing confidential information with his customer could cause negative repercussions, especially if his company were to discover the legal breach.

Although it is highly unlikely that the extra chip information would be used by Dylan’s client for malicious purposes, its disclosure co uld potentially affect his company’s reputation, lead to mistrust in the company and compromise Dylan’s position. What should Dylan do?

Question :

write the three different senarious describing what Dylan might do if he applied each of the three frameworks. More specifically decribe Dylan action if he applied the utilitarianism, the principle-based, and the virtue-based models.

Answer 1

Answer:

The customer of the consumer electronic company wants to know about the manufacturing methodology of the special chip for the electronics appliances and this information was not provided in the given data sheet to the customer. Dylan was dealing with the customer and he wanted to furnish as much information to his customer as it was needed to him, however, Dylan was in dilemma about furnishing the information needed by the customer as it would be against the non disclosure agreement of the company. However, the customer stated that if the information is not provided to him then he would cease further investments in the product.

Keeping the above information in mind, Dylan has three options to deal with the situation:

1. Using utilitarianism model: utilitarianism is a theory where it supports those acts which adds to the happiness and overall benefits rather than causing the harm.

Under this theory, Dylan is required to explain the policies of his company and should inform the customer about the non disclosure agreement. Even then the customer do not agree with the situation of Dylan than he is required to report about the requirement of the customer again to his manager and should also forward the mail received from the customer. And if the manager asks Dylan, in writing, to take the decision on his own than he should not accept the demand of the customer as it would be against the ethics and the policies of the company.

2. Using principle based model: principle based approach is more flexible keeping in view the various circumstances that arises out of the situations required to be faced by the company. Thus, in principle based approach, there is no particular set of rules. Companies are sometimes allowed to ignore some of its guidelines for some of their situations. Under this principle based model, Dylan can disclose some of the less important functional information associated with the manufacturing of the chip. Dylan should not disclose the most important information such as research and development process, designing process, raw material vendors, key operational processes and the process of quality assurance of his company. Prior to disclosing, Dylan should communicate with his manager about the various information which he is going to disclose with the customer and should take the consent of the same from his manager in writing. This would help in retaining the customer.

3. Using virtue based model: Virtues are associated with the moral values that an individual should follow. If an individual feels that his action would benefit the company than he should take that action without. This model gives less emphasis to the rules and regulations and the consequences of the action. Under the virtue based model, Dylan can disclose the less important processes of manufacturing methods for making the chip and should not disclose the most important information as discussed in the principle based model. Prior to disclosing, Dylan should communicate with his manager about the various information which he is going to disclose with the customer and should take the consent of the same from his manager in writing. Taking action using this model would also help the company to retain the customer.