Subject category:
Ethics and Social Responsibility
Published by:
Harvard Business Publishing
Version: 14 July 1994
Length: 8 pages
Data source: Field research
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Abstract
A product manager at a health products company is responsible for marketing sharps containers, which hospitals use to store used needles in order to protect medical workers from being pricked with AIDS- contaminated needles. After hospitals report repeated instances of needles penetrating the container walls, she realizes the defective product poses a health hazard for medical workers. The product manager must decide whether or not to fix the containers when doing so would significantly decrease her profit performance for the year. The company mission statement stresses quality commitment to customers, but all compensation and advancement incentives are geared solely toward profit objectives.; To give students a chance to think about ethical dilemmas they are likely to face in the business world. Is a manager morally delegated to take active steps to protect the safety of his or her customer when neither the law nor the company is compelling him or her to do so?
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Abstract
A product manager at a health products company is responsible for marketing sharps containers, which hospitals use to store used needles in order to protect medical workers from being pricked with AIDS- contaminated needles. After hospitals report repeated instances of needles penetrating the container walls, she realizes the defective product poses a health hazard for medical workers. The product manager must decide whether or not to fix the containers when doing so would significantly decrease her profit performance for the year. The company mission statement stresses quality commitment to customers, but all compensation and advancement incentives are geared solely toward profit objectives.; To give students a chance to think about ethical dilemmas they are likely to face in the business world. Is a manager morally delegated to take active steps to protect the safety of his or her customer when neither the law nor the company is compelling him or her to do so?