WEEK 1 EOC: Chapter 1, Question 3

Laurie Tenk is a purchasing agent for a restaurant chain.  One of her suppliers has been late on deliveries the past two weeks.  She has discussed this with the salesperson, and he assures her that the problem will be solved.  In an effort to "make things right" the salesperson delivers two cases of hot dogs to her office for "sampling".  She plans to have a back yard barbecue this weekend for her neighbors.  The free hot dogs would lower her cost of this event considerably. 

From an ethical point of view, how should she handle this situation?

Explain your decision making process and defend your answer.  Use the five Ethical Guidelines in this chapter as a basis for your answer to explain what should be done with the hot dogs.

Answers:

a. Is it legal?

yes it is legal. 

b. Does it hurt anyone?

it does hurt the comapny. if an employer were to find out about her taking the samples home they would be upset that they didn't fairly share the supplies with the rest of the company.

c. Am I being honest?

No, the purchasing agent is not being honest with her employers. As I said in the previous answer if the employers were to find out about her actions, some of them would be very unhappy.

d. Would I care if it happened to me?

If i was the owner of the business I would immediately let my higher ups know about the situation at hand

e. Would I publicize my action? Yes I would because at the end I would know that I did the right thing

f. What should be done with the two cases of hot dogs? Given to my bosses