Martha McCaskey

Introduction Martha Mac happen upon had arrived at an Impasse In her move requiring her to confront a decision which put her Integrity and possible go advancement In opposition. Mackeys choice came d aver to how she handled Phil Devon, an ex- employee with knowledge of proprietary learning Mackey needed for a client. Obtaining the development through Devon would earn Mackey a of import promotion and salary increase. However, doing so under the false pretenses she had constructed ch whollyenged her ethics, Jeopardized her Integrity, and was potentially sick-abedegal.On the early(a) hand, failure to draw the Information would derail Mackeys line of achievement and undermine her efforts toward advancement. diagnosis Mackey was a highschoolly intelligent individual, as made evident by her achievement in her undergraduate and graduate c areer. Her decision to return to take in pursuit of her MBA demonstrates her high ambition and level of enthronement in her career. In the e ighteen months that Mackey had been with Sellers Associates Industry Analysis Dillon (AID) she had proven her ability as a consultant on multiple projects. Her performance had garnered the attention of key lead personnel,Tom Malone and TTY Ric embarrassingson, and raised the bar for expectations at AID. Mackey accomplished this through hard work and long hours, refusing to take the easy way out, and maintaining a high moral standard despite knowing that high morals were non necessarily upheld by all of her coworkers in the Division. Knowing Mackeys dedication and investment In her career It Is easy to understand why the decision close to how to handle the Silicon 6 situation was so troubling. The future of Mackeys career with AD would be heavily Influenced by her decision and the success or failure of the project.This was especially true considering the importance of the projects client, a semiconductor shaper who supplied twenty percent of Dads business. The outcome of the Sili con 6 project was of bulky consequence to Dads leadership and the Division as a whole success promised continued and Increased business from their primary client failure would direct In the loss of the client and one fifth of the Dads business. Mackey faced several(prenominal) challenges exerting pressures on her decision, one of which was time. A meeting had been arranged with the senior vigilance on theSilicon 6 project which scarcely gave Mackey a month to obtain the required info and complete the project. Adding to the challenge was the inhithernt culture at bottom the industry of accepting un honourable behaviors which, to Mackey and others In the in the altogether guard, was becoming much than apparent. In the past Mackey had felt pressure from Malone and Richardson to engage In the standard unethical practices of the industry, particularly following one project Malone and Richardson felt, could have been completed with less(prenominal) time and effort (p. ). Malone was the one to bring up Mackeys possibly rootage of information, referring to Devon, in conversations with the client for Silicon 6 more(prenominal)over, Malone was the one to suggest a go forthingness to use the source. Mackey as well as needs to consider the Impact her decision and the subsequence misalignment developed between Sellers and AD as a function of the outgo and independence of AD and its leaders from headquarters. Mackey is aware that corporate policies are not clearly communicated and represented at the Division.The publicity that would result from legal exertion against the unethical practices within AD would surely impact Sellers as a whole, with consequential impacts reaching well beyond Just the small crowd at the Division. Leaders at Sellers could turn out to be assort for Mackey in manoeuvering this challenge as they are invested in what is best for the built-in company, not Just AD. Another challenge contributing to the line is the ambiguity surrou nding Phil Devotes motivations, intentions, and awareness of the situation. Mackey does not know where Devon stands or how he pull up stakes react to various situations.Mackey is unsure whether Devon is a disgruntled former employee want vengeance against his former employer and is, therefore, unstrained to share proprietary information, or if the information she is seeking is up to now proprietary to begin with. There is excessively a possibility that Devon could expeditious leadership at the competing company or even the authorities if he discovers Mackeys true individuality and intentions. To this acme Mackeys decisions and actions have been politic to avoid engaging in behaviors she deemed too unethical rather than to address the behaviors encouraged and practiced within the AD.This has forced her into a corner here she has few fillings to address the issue without compromising the success of a major(ip) project and Jeopardizing her career. Furthermore, her decision t o enter into discussions with Devon under the false pretenses she created constrains her to maintaining the lie or risk damaging relations with Devon by revealing her true identity and motivations. The result of the relationship with Devon has many potential consequences which are unpredictable given how little is known about Devotes interests.Action Plan The objective of the approach to addressing the problem at hand is to prevent rather encroachment beyond Mackeys ethical comfort level while doing as little damage as possible to her career prospects. Mackey first needs to confront Malone and Richardson with her concerns regarding the ethical nature and legal ramifications of paying Devon for potentially proprietary information. In all likeliness Malone and Richardson consecrate behind dismiss her concerns because it is simply business as usual for the AD.At that point simply handing the project off to Kaufmann would not address the ethical quandary it would merely be a means of problem avoidance for Mackey, which is all she has done to this point. Her next step would be to contact the top leadership at Sellers to confirm corporate policies regarding the procurement of proprietary information. Mackey volition credibly find that company policy prohibits payoffs to obtain proprietary information belong to other companies in order to protect the greater interests of Sellers.Assuming that this is the case, to protect her integrity, and that of Sellers, Mackey testament have to disclose the truth about her identity and motivations to Devon. Subsequently, Mackey will be able to find out whether the information Devon has is proprietary, assuming Devon is still willing to operate. Her actions from that point should be guided by Sellers company policy the information she obtains should be strictly non-proprietary. Regardless of long term she will still need to address the unethical behaviors that pervade the AD.Her choice then becomes to alert leadership at Se llers of the unethical behaviors of Richardson, Malone, Kaufmann, and others throughout AD, or leave Sellers. all course risks the career Mackey has created for herself however, it is necessary if Mackey hopes to maintain her integrity. Likely her best option is to notify Sclerosis dervish team of the conditions at AD. In doing so Mackey will alleviate protect Sellers and all employees working in the other branches of the company. It also may reveal other opportunities for Mackey in Sellers and the AD.Failure of this approach would simply leave her where she would have otherwise been, with her integrity intact looking for a new Job as a consultant with AD on her resume. overall Learning From this case I learned that not all decisions are as simple as right versus wrong, some of the most arduous decisions will be between right and right. It is also often irrigate right versus right decisions that force us to reflect on our own values and what is most important to ourselves. Righ t versus right decisions create opportunities for explicitly defining our values.In Mackeys case it would have been better for her to address the ethical dilemmas she encountered preceding in her career so that she would have been able to operate without a major deadline looming and pressure from the client and her managers. Furthermore, Mackey experienced discomfort while confront her right versus right decision which called into question her deeply ingrained values. This is without delay in line with Abductors theory surrounding defining moments for individuals. It is these opinionings and intuitions which translate outcome values in a time of conflict.The prevailing values, according to obduracy, will be those that are the most deeply rooted in ones life. Obduracy reasons that, a combination of expediency and shrewdness, coupled with imagination and boldness, will help one implement his personal understanding of what is right. I would argue that his is not only true, but th at, a combination of expediency and shrewdness, coupled with imagination and boldness, ill help, preserve the most of ones values when confronted by such a situation.I feel that, in a right versus right defining moment, it is not necessary to abandon one set of values in favor of another(prenominal) assuming an adroit approach is taken to address the situation. Creativity will allow someone to get the most out of a situation. after(prenominal) analyzing this case and the associated material I mostly feel compelled to be more conscious of right versus right cases that may be developing. I also feel that when faced with these types of decisions I will need to be more aware of the message my actions send to those around me.