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Business Problem Solving Project 1

Jacob D. Sheridan

BDA 2003: Business Problem Solving

Aron T. McDonald

September 19, 2020

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Ethical Dilemmas Case 1:

The ethical dilemma in case one is that due to long hours at work, employees use
company time and computers for purposes not related to work. On one side, you have the
employers, whose main concern is that these activities have contaminated the company
computers and network with adware, viruses, and spyware. On the other side, the employees are
unable to perform certain tasks during business hours because they are at work, so they might
need to do these tasks online while at work.

One potential solution is to ban the use of company computers for tasks that are not
work-related. While this solution would solve the concern of the employer, it would leave the
employees unable to perform these critical tasks to their daily lives. Another possible solution
would be to remove any restrictions on company computer use that may already be imposed.
This would have the opposite effect of the previous solution, satisfying the employees but
leaving the company’s network extremely vulnerable to adware, viruses, and spyware. Another
possible solution would be to impose some restrictions on how much the company computers
could be used for tasks that are not related to work. This would reduce the risk of adware,
viruses, or spyware while also giving the employees some time for those tasks they need to
complete that are not directly related to their jobs.

An ethical reasoning principle that would apply to this situation is the principle of risk
aversion. The solution to this ethical dilemma lies in the smallest amount of harm for both
parties, both a reduction of the risk of malware for the company and an increase in time for other
tasks for the employees. There wouldn’t be any legal or professional issues in this particular
ethical issue. The harm in this solution for the company is that there is still a risk of them getting
malware on their network. The harm for the employees is that they would lose valuable time for
completing tasks that are not related to work.

I believe the best solution to this problem is to restrict the use of the company computers
for outside activities but not to ban it completely. I feel that this solution is the best way of
minimizing the risk to both groups while still giving them what they want as well.
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Ethical Dilemmas Case 2

The ethical dilemma, in this case, is whether or not the situation surrounding this
assignment justifies plagiarizing your friend’s work. From your perspective, you sacrificed your
own work to rescue this friend when they were stranded previously and some form of
compensation for that would feel appropriate. From the friend’s perspective, it seems they wish
to provide some form of compensation for the sacrifice of your own work progress. Another
perspective to consider is that of school policy. From that perspective, it is against the rules to
plagiarize any assignment, no matter how small.

One possible solution to this dilemma is for you to not copy your friends work at all and
lose points for this assignment and find some other way for them to pay you back for helping
them the night before. Another possible solution would be for you to copy some of your friend’s
work, but not all of it, and turn that in. This would keep you from losing as many points and
allow your friend to pay you back, while also reducing the risk of getting caught for plagiarizing.
You could also do exactly as your friend suggested and copy their entire assignment and simply
change the name on the top, but this would carry a high risk of getting caught for plagiarism.

The suggested situation in the case where your friend doesn’t turn in their own
assignment out of solidarity with you is a poor solution because it is the exact opposite of a
utilitarian solution, it only increases the bad in the situation. By Kant’s Categorical Imperative,
the idea that you should plagiarize your friends work at all is a poor solution to the problem.
Descartes' Rule of Change also applies to this situation; since plagiarism isn’t right to do all the
time, it isn’t right in this situation either. There wouldn’t be any legal or professional issues in
this particular ethical issue. The most likely consequence to you would be the loss of points due
to an incomplete assignment. If you were to plagiarize your friend’s work, even with their
permission, you risk you both losing points on this assignment or worse, depending on the
severity of the punishment for plagiarism is at your school.

I believe that the right solution, in this case, is for you to lose the points on this
assignment and for your friend to make up for it in some other way, such as buying you a meal
or some other method. I believe this is right because by doing this, you completely avoid risking
your friend’s grade and you also follow the rules of your school by not plagiarizing. The
situation surrounding this case does not justify breaking the rules in my opinion.
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Ethical Dilemmas Case 3

The ethical dilemma, in this case, is that another group of students is not following the
rules of this assignment by working in a group to complete an assignment that was intended to be
an individual assignment. From your perspective, you could gain by joining this group of
students. From the perspective of the group, they are already gaining a lot by working in a group
even though they are not supposed to. The other perspective to consider is that of the professor of
the course that this assignment is for; they specifically stated that this assignment was an
individual assignment, not one meant for groups.

One potential solution is for you to join the group of students and receive some help in
the assignment and potentially raise your grade. Another solution would be to continue working
on your own to complete the assignment as the professor requested. You could also remain
where you are in the library and eavesdrop on what the group is saying and glean some help from
them by doing that. Another solution would be for you to complete the assignment by yourself
and report the actions of the group to your professor.

The ethical principle to consider here is the Golden Rule, do to others what you would
like done to yourself. By this principle, you should not report the group to the professor for
working in a group. You should also not join their group because it would be breaking the rules
on your part to join them. You can’t control the actions of others, but you can control your own
actions. There wouldn’t be any legal or professional issues in this particular ethical issue. The
consequences of this situation, were you to join the group, would be that you would risk losing
points on the assignment by not following instructions. The consequence to the group would be
the associated risk of being discovered working in a group and losing points.

I believe that the correct solution, in this case, is to complete the work on your own to the
best of your ability and turn it in to your professor, but not report the group for working in a
group. This feels like the most ethical choice to me because you maintain your own innocence
and you don’t risk angering a group of fellow students by tattling on them for this assignment.

Ethical Dilemmas Case 4

The ethical dilemma, in this case, is that the student is continuing the abuse a
vulnerability in his school’s computers to access things he should not be access. From the
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student’s perspective, the vulnerability is one he informed the school about and they have yet to
fix. From the perspective of the school, this student is clearly breaching the privacy of the school
and its faculty and students. Another party to consider is the faculty and students whose
information is being accessed. Despite the fact that they are unaware that their information is
being viewed, they would likely not like that their information is being viewed without
permission.

One potential solution to this would be for the student in question to report to school that
the vulnerability is still present and that it hasn’t been fixed yet without revealing that he had
viewed private information on their network. Another solution would involve much the same
thing except they would admit to viewing other’s information. The student could also continue
with their actions without informing the school that the vulnerability was still there.

An ethical principle that certainly applies to this situation is the Golden Rule. The student
who is viewing the information wouldn’t appreciate it if his information was being viewed by
someone without permission. There are also legal issues involved in the situation here. The
student is breaking the fair notice and consent portions of Fair Information Practices (FIP) while
the school is failing on the security portion of the FIP. The student is at severe risk in this
situation. They are risking legal retribution if it is discovered that they are viewing the
information of others without permission. The school is also at risk if it is discovered that they
neglected to fix a known problem with their network.

I think that the best solution here is for the student to inform the school that the
vulnerability is still present and that it hasn’t been fixed. He should also stop searching for other
vulnerabilities in the network. This is the best solution because it reduces the risk for both the
school and the student.

Ethical Dilemmas Case 5

The ethical dilemma, in this case, is that the programmer has received orders from his
superiors to do something that would circumvent the normal route for completing this task. From
the perspective of the programmer, this is a potentially dubious request that could also open the
company’s finances to undue risk. From the perspective of the executives, this is a method of
increasing efficiency where the benefits outweigh the risks.
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The programmer could simply do as requested of him and create this set of programs to
circumvent the normal accounting controls in the business. He could perform his own tests on
the safety of this plan while still working on the task he was given. Another possible solution
would be for the programmer to ask for a second opinion on this proposed set of programs to
determine if it was a safe method of achieving what the executives wanted.

It is the responsibility of the programmer to do as he is instructed by his employers, but it

is also his responsibility to do a good job. There wouldn’t be any legal or professional issues in
this particular ethical issue. The potential risk to the programmer would be that he would risk his
job if he did a poor job on the set of programs or if he refused the job. The risk to the executives
comes with the vulnerability created by implementing these programs within their accounting
systems. This could potentially allow a thief to hack into their system and mess with their
numbers.

I personally believe that the best solution to this dilemma would be for the programmer to
perform his own tests as he worked to make sure what he was doing was safe. This way he can
still make progress on the task presented to him by the executives, but also ensure that everyone
was safe from the risk of there being a vulnerability in the accounting systems.