Project Two Guidelines and Rubric
Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
- Differentiate between matters of law and matters of ethics in business situations
Scenario
A few years ago Clare Applewood started a small outdoor equipment business called Mountain Top View. The company is a sole proprietorship. The company began as a single storefront and has grown rapidly to include online ordering through the company website. The company’s website includes the statement, “We are committed to keeping customer information secure and protected.” Clare also uses social media sites to market the company.
Carlos Rodriguez has worked for the company since the beginning. He oversees both store and online operations. Clare and Carlos make most decisions together.
Steve, the company’s Information Technology lead, discovered that the company database of customer information was hacked. Customer names, addresses, and phone numbers were accessed for only those customers who placed online orders in the first quarter of the year. Steve was able to correct the code that allowed the hack and is confident that the database is now secure.
When Carlos overhears Steve talking about the database fix in the store break room, he questions Steve about why he did not bring the breach to anyone’s attention. Steve explains that because he was able to quickly correct the code that led to the breach, and because only address and phone number information for a handful of customers was accessed, he didn’t think it was necessary to say anything.
Clare asks Carlos to evaluate whether the company has an ethical and/or legal obligation to report the breach to its customers and to recommend a course of action. She also asks Carlos to select an ethical test or framework that all employees can use in the future to help guide their decisions.
Directions
Report
Evaluate whether the company has an ethical and/or legal obligation to report the breach to its customers. Your evaluation should be framed as a report for the owner, Clare, that includes the following sections and information. Cite your sources using APA style.
- Introduction
- Include a definition of ethics and explanation of how ethics compares to law.
- Provide an explanation of corporate social responsibility and how it relates to ethical business practices.
- Analysis
- Provide a summary of the ethical and/or legal issues involved in this situation.
- Briefly describe the relevant stakeholders, the key facts, and the potential implications or impact of the situation.
- Recommendation
- Provide your recommendation for a course of action supported by relevant resources, such as specific laws and commonly accepted ethical practices.
- Explain the reasoning behind your recommendation and use reliable sources, such as the textbook and other course resources, to support your position.
- Conclusion: Describe how advances in technology in today’s business world have both legal and ethical implications.
Ethical Test or Framework
Select a test or framework for all employees in this company to use. Demonstrate how it can be used when faced with an ethical dilemma. Cite your sources using APA style.
- Test or framework
- Select a text or framework option from among those described in the textbook.
- Name the option you selected and describe the test or framework, including its advantages and potential shortcomings.
- Explain why the test or framework that you selected is appropriate for this company; justify your selection.
- Apply the test or framework to the scenario to demonstrate how Steve could have used it to guide his decision-making and actions.
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following:
Report
Your submission should be a 3- to 5-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.
Ethical Test or Framework
Your submission should be a 1- to 2-page Word document with 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, and one-inch margins. Sources should be cited according to APA style.
Solution
INTRODUCTION
Business law mainly determines the minimum standard in order to understand the behavior while expected to bring the advertisement based on the companies and sole proprietorships. Apart from this, I really liked that you have helped me to learn about business ethics to go beyond simple legality. Thus, this helps in describing the business behavior, based on the legal obligation.
Ethics is based on science which has a standard based on human conduct. Thus, the law mainly consists of setting certain rules based on the rules and regulations. On the other hand, ethics have been compared based on certain guidelines based on principles in order to create information based on the people live and behave in a particular situation. Thus, the law mainly helps in creating a legally binding, ethics that does not bind the people. in order to define ethics, which sets a moral value based on the individual that helps in establishing oneself and personal behavior. Hence, Law is mainly structured with the rules in order to be utilized by all belonging to the organization (Menyhárd 2021).
Corresponding with the case, given, which eventually describes how Clare Applewood started a small outdoor business and named it Mountain Top View, as this company is solely dedicated with a sole proprietorship company basis. Thus, this company eventually discloses about protecting the storefront, with Carlos Rodriguez, who has been working by following the ethics of the business since the beginning of the company. On the other hand, Steve is another employee, who is the leader of the IT sector. Thus, his duty is also to follow the ethics and continue the understanding in order to deal with the customer.
Corporate social responsibility is the concept, that deals with several companies, in order to integrate with social as well as environmental concerns based on the business operations as well as interaction with the stakeholders. Thus, it is concerned with protecting the interest of the stakeholders, like the employees, the customer the suppliers, and the communities, where the business is actually operated. Thus, Corporate Social Responsibility mainly includes the humane employee and their practices to care for the environment, while engaging with philanthropic endeavors.
ANALYSIS
Compared with the situation, I would like to mention that Clare Applewood started an outdoor business, which is solely her own business, as the company is based on sole proprietorship. Thus, this organization has two main leaders namely, Carlos Rodriguez and Steve. As they often take up the decision with Carlos, with Steve to be the IT lead.
Apparently, this case focuses on how Steve discovered the company’s database and the information got hacked. Thus, Steve could correct the code, as that was hacked and it is quite confident based on the database which is not that secure. Thus, the unethical deed of Steve mainly focuses on how, Carlos caught hold of Steve, doing a wrong job, as he overhears Steve who was fixing the store break room, and was unable to answer why he did not bring forth the information of breach to anyone in the business. Thus, Steve is considered to be acting as a breach of the sole proprietorship business, because, he did not say about his discoveries of the customer information getting hacked. Thus, strict action based on the ethical issue shall be taken by the Mountain Top View organization.
The relevancy of the stakeholder is involved within the organization because a stakeholder is recognized to be the party whose interest within the company is recognized to have an effect on the business. Thus, in the case of the primary stakeholders, the typical corporation is mainly based on the employees, the customer, the investors as well as the investors. Thus, the key facts state that there are different stakeholders, based on different interests as well as the companies in order to face the trade-offs while trying to please them all.
The key facts based on the potential implication, based on the situation:
As all companies are developed in order to please their customer. Thus this company began with a single forefront that has grown on a rapid scale that includes online ordering through the website which is created by the company. Thus, this was mainly accessed by Steve, who was the Information Technology lead of the organization. Thus, in this situation in order to follow certain guidelines, the organization has set certain principles in order to develop the fact, that is applicable for all the employees. Thus, Steve followed an unethical process and breached the guidelines of the company. As mentioned by Carlos hat he has the records of the customer, but he quickly rectified them, which eventually lead him to breach the company as well as the customer’s trust. Therefore, he did not find it necessary to inform the employees. Apparently, being the sole proprietor of the organization Clare Applewood trusted both her lead employees, Steve, and Carlos Rodriguez. Hence, Carlos being one of the honest, employees of the organization could recognize the breach done by Steve.
RECOMMENDATION
In this case, this company is required to inform the local authority as well as the legal person, who shall accept the customer and develop brand loyalty, their customer retention to be a well-maintained place (Gaglione 2019). Therefore, the company shall ask for an apology from Steve to the existing customer while they create an inability to maintain the personal information of the organization. Thus, every company focuses on discussing any decision with Carlos Rodriguez who often deals with the disciplinary aspect of the company, along with the customer dealings, Thus, Clare has given priority to Carlos to work for the company from the beginning. Thus, he is also responsible to take care of the overseas store as well as an online operation, as most of them take up the decision. Thus, Steve on his defense is trying to convince that he is an expert at fixing the database of the store, and has discovered that the company’s customer information is hacked. Thus, Steve did not give any information that he was correcting the code, without any information to the organizational head. Thus, this leads him to breach the contract. Thus, Clause 1 Article 418 of the Civil Code, mainly stipulates, the penalty given to the breach done by the employees, based on the agreement between the parties and the contract of the employees. Therefore, a breach of the organization, of Clare Applewood’s company, and the penalty given to Steve should be under Section 74 in regard to the breach of contract and breach of information based on the customer database (Mamytov & Petsche 2019).
Based on reliable sources, I would like to recommend that penalty charges are applicable to Steve as e without informing any of his staff or coordinator, took the decision to rectify the code and carry on his customer database. Thus, Carlos overhears that he was fixing the customer database of the store, as he did not find it possible to inform about the necessary things about the customer and their data, as they place an online order for the first quarter of the year. Thus, I would recommend that Steve is required to get a jail sentence so that he can pay for the impeachment he did. The reason behind, giving out this recommendation, as per the legislation based on the organizational breach. Thus, the privacy and the data of the customer are based on the various information and technological laws, which are applicable to this case situation against Steve. Hence, this Steve, the employee stakeholder of the organization, shall get the penalty of fine, under the management of the organization to give strict legal punishment that can lead to imprisonment.
CONCLUSION
This technology is mainly based on creating an analysis as well as a discipline from science. Thus, in today’s world, which is based on new technology it is often governed by several legal legislations. On the other hand, technology made it possible with legal issues that involve IT-based privacy, security, and all the other aspects. Thus, it is very significant to learn about the company that often uses the information as well as the information based on technology to reach the company in order to take care of the situation faced by the organization.
References
Menyhárd, A. (2021). Liability for breach of contract in Hungarian law. In The Law of Obligations in Central and Southeast Europe (pp. 103-124). Routledge.
Gaglione Jr, G. S. (2019). The Equifax Data Breach: An Opportunity to Improve Consumer Protection and Cybersecurity Efforts in America. Buff. L. Rev., 67, 1133.
Sahebjam, S. (2021). Hierarchy and Change of Remedies for Breach of Contract: Analysis of International Instruments and Iranian Law Approach. Jurisprudence and Islamic Law.
Mamytov, Z., & Petsche, M. (2019). Fundamental Breach of Contract: A Comparative Study of the CISG and Kyrgyz Law.
Zakharov, D. E. (2020). Causation as a Condition for Liability for Breach of Contract Under German Givil Law. Legal Concept= Pravovaya Paradigma, 19(1).
