Martha McCaskey

Introduction Martha Mackey had arrived at an Impasse In her cargoner requiring her to expect a get a lineing which put her Integrity and possible career overture In opposition. Mackeys choice came down to how she handled Phil Devon, an ex- employee with knowledge of proprietary information Mackey needed for a client. Obtaining the information through Devon would earn Mackey a significant promotion and lucre increase. However, doing so under the false pretenses she had constructed chall(a)enged her ethics, Jeopardized her Integrity, and was potentially illegal.On the other hand, failure to obtain the Information would derail Mackeys career and undermine her efforts toward advancement. Diagnosis Mackey was a highly happy individual, as made evident by her success in her undergraduate and graduate career. Her decision to return to school in pursuit of her MBA demonstrates her high emulation and level of coronation in her career. In the eighteen months that Mackey had been with Sellers Associates Industry Analysis Dillon (AID) she had proven her ability as a consultant on multiple projects. Her exploit had garnered the attention of key leadership personnel,Tom Malone and TTY Richardson, 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 not 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 around 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 manufacturer who supplied twenty percent of Dads tune. The outcome of the Silicon 6 project was of great consequence to Dads le adership and the Division as a whole success promised continued and Increased business from their primary client failure would result In the loss of the client and one fifth of the Dads business. Mackey faced several challenges exerting pressures on her decision, one of which was time. A coming upon had been arranged with the senior management on theSilicon 6 project which completely gave Mackey a month to obtain the necessary information and complete the project. Adding to the challenge was the natural culture within the industry of accepting unethical behaviors which, to Mackey and others In the innovative guard, was becoming more 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 do been completed with less time and effort (p. ). Malone was the one to bring up Mackeys possibly root word of information, referring to Devon, in conversations with the client for Silicon 6 moreover, Malone was the one to suggest a resultingness to use the source. Mackey also needs to consider the Impact her decision and the continuation misalignment real between Sellers and AD as a function of the distance and independence of AD and its leaders from headquarters. Mackey is aware that corporate policies are not clearly communicated and be at the Division.The publicity that would result from legal action against the unethical practices within AD would surely impact Sellers as a whole, with consequential impacts reaching healthy beyond Just the small group at the Division. Leaders at Sellers could turn out to be allies for Mackey in addressing this challenge as they are invested in what is best for the entire company, not Just AD. Another challenge contributing to the problem is the ambiguity surrounding Phil Devotes motivations, intentions, and awareness of the situation. Mackey does not know where Devon stands or how he will react to various situations.Mackey is unsure whether Devon is a disgruntled former employee seeking vengeance against his former employer and is, therefore, willing to share proprietary information, or if the information she is seeking is still proprietary to begin with. There is also a possibility that Devon could alert leadership at the competing company or even the authorities if he discovers Mackeys true identity and intentions. To this point Mackeys decisions and actions have been merely to avoid engaging in behaviors she deemed too unethical earlier than to address the behaviors further and practiced within the AD.This has forced her into a corner here she has few options to address the issue without compromising the success of a major project and Jeopardizing her career. Furthermore, her decision to 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 tru e identity and motivations. The result of the relationship with Devon has umpteen 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 likelihood Malone and Richardson will dismiss her concerns because it is simply business as public for the AD.At that point simply handing the project off to Kaufmann would not address the ethical dilemma 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 p rocurement of proprietary information. Mackey will likely find that company policy prohibits payoffs to obtain proprietary information belonging 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 will have to better 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 control 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 circularise the AD.Her choice then becomes to alert leadership at Sellers of the unethical behaviors of Richardson, Malone, Kaufmann, and others throughout AD, or leave Sellers. Either course risks the career Mackey has created for herself however, it is n ecessary if Mackey hopes to maintain her integrity. plausibly her best option is to notify Sclerosis dervish team of the conditions at AD. In doing so Mackey will help 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 remunerate versus wrong, some of the most difficult decisions will be between right and right. It is also often hose right versus right decisions that force us to reflect on our own values and what is most important to ourselves. Right versus right decisions create opportunities for explicitly be our values.In Mackeys case it would have been better for her to address the ethical dilemmas she encountered earlier in he r 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 experient discomfort while facing her right versus right decision which called into question her deeply ingrained values. This is directly in line with Abductors theory surrounding defining moments for individuals. It is these feelings and intuitions which translate core 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 that, 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 m oment, it is not necessary to abandon one set of values in favor of another assuming an clever approach is taken to address the situation. Creativity will allow someone to get the most out of a situation. After 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.