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SOUTHEAST UNIVERSITY

Course Title: Business Ethics
Assignment Title: Ethical Dilemma

Submitted To: Submitted By:
Shaneela Naheed MD. Shazedul Islam
Lecturer ID: 2011010000173
School Of Business Batch: 27
th
(Currently 28
th
)
Administration
Southeast University

Date Of Submission: 13/12/2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This is our great pleasure to submit the course assignment of Business ethics as part of BBA
program, Batch-28, sec-C.
We would like to thanks our course lecturer Shahneela Naheed for her generous guidance to
completing our assignment.



















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To
Shahneela Naheed
Faculty school of Business
Southeast university
Subject: Submission of Business Ethics course assignment
Dear Madam,
We are pleased to submit the course assignment of Business Ethics to Shahneela Naheed for
semester-8, Batch-28, sec-C BBA program. This assignment contains discussion about Ethical
dilemma.
Thanks for your cooperation

Sincerely yours,
MD. Shazedul Islam
ID: 2011010000173
MD: Shohel Rana
ID: 2011110000169
Shomen Ranjan Kar
ID: 2011110000162
K. M. Hasibur Rahman
ID: 2011110000180





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Table Of Contect

Contents Page Number
Front Page 1
Acknowldgement 2
Submitting Application 3
Table Of Content 4
A short Review on the Story 5
Summery 6
Question 1 and Answers 7
Question 2 and Answers 8
Question 3 and Answers 9
Question 4 and Answers 10-11
Concluson 12
References 13
















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A Short Review on the Story:

I am a manager of an independent high street shoe store. Selling trendy shoes for both men and
woman. I have a small number of sales employee who helps me to run the store successfully. As
i am in a tough competition of shoe market to motivate the emplyees in selling i have launched a
scheme couple of years ago that gives 5% comission to the employees on their total selling.
Recently i have hired a new employee named Lola who is very good in selling, interacting with
the employees and customers. Since she has arrived i have noticed something unusual on her
selling activities. Some of her successful seles techniques do not rely too much on the truth.
Some examples could be, She sold a pair of shoes last week to an woman. Though the woman
was confused whether to take the shoes or not. But Lola influenced her to buy the pair of shoes
by saying that this is the last pair of shoes they have and it wont be available next month. Though
there were more pair of those shoes in stock with same design.
Another example would be, A customer wanted a shoe sized 43 but Lola found she has only 42
and 44 sized shoes available in store room. Picking both of them up Lola went to the customer
and said manufacturer do not produce 43 sized shoe so he should try between these. As 42 was
too small for the customer it didnt fit, then Lola have inserted an extra insole to the sized 44
shoe and it fitted the customer. Lola have charged an extra $3 for the insoles. The customer
happily agreed to pay and bought the shoes.
As a manager i was observing all her activities. She was clearly lying to the customers. Now i
got some thinking will there be any long term effect of such practices? What would the other
team think of it? Would they also start copying Lolas technique?









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Summary:
The story is about on unethical selling activities of a salesperson named Lola. She used to sell
product saying lie to the customers to have extra amount of comission in her salary. Though all
other salesperson uses the ethical way to sell products. It became a great reason to worry that will
it effect the company reputation in the long run if such practices continues? And will it influence
the other salespersons to do such practices to increase there comission?





















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Question 1: What are the arguments for and against Lolas action?

Arguments for Lolas action: Lola did all of her unusual activities to get extra comission. As
there was no condition in the comission scheme that how to sell the products, either in ethical
way or unethical way. To get more from the comission Lola have choosen the unethical way. She
had thought of no matter how would she sell the products she will get the comission. Another
one she might have thought that she was not lying too much to the customers, so she continued
these practices in her selling.
Like Lola most of the salesperson nowadays do the same. They try to influence the customers by
saying something extra about the product or presenting some urgency about the product. As it is
common in business activities Lola didnt have think this would be something unethical.

Arguments against Lolas action: Though there was no such condition about how to sell the
product, but Lola should have choose the ethical way. Only just to get more comission Lola
should not have loose her integrity. She was clearly cheating the customers by giving false
information about the products. If somehow the customers get know about the cheating they may
have a bad impression about the store, the manufacturar, the manager and all the employees
related with it.
Though this kind of activities are now common in business but Lola would have come through
out from this trend and try to sell the products in ethical way. By doing these kind of unethical
ectivities she is not just risking her career she is also spoiling the reputation of the manufaturing
company.








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Question 2: Do you think such practices are common in sales situation? What would
you think if you were a co-worker or a customer of Lolas?

YES, nowadays these kind of activities are common in sales situation. As most of the
salespersons and the other employees of the store do not care about customer satisfaction, they
do only concentrate on the product selling purpose. So these kind of unethical practices are
happening everyday and very much common in sales situation.
If i were a co-worker of Lolas i would think she was using a serious unethical way to sell
products. As she was lying to the customers they may be pleased right now, but when they get
know about this, it may have a bad impact on the reputation of the manuacturer and the store. So
Lola should definately stop these activities and try to do serve the customers in ethical way.
As a customer i would think she was influencing us to buy the product in unethical way. Though
we have egreed to pay willingly but the service we get is not on the basis of truth. If we knew the
actual truth about the product we may be able to search anywhere else to find our desired
product. Customers do trust the company and the employees who serve the customers. As a
result, most of the customers do not verify what the salesperson say about the product and do
believe what they say. Lola should not take advantage of this situation as customers trust is the
most importatnt asset of a company. So she should stop doing these unethical activities before it
effects company reputation.











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Question 3: To what extent do you think your incentive scheme has contributed to
Lolas action?
I agree that Lola had done these activities to get more comission, but i do not think my incentive
scheme has any contribution to Lolas these kind of actions. Doing an action either in ethical or
unethical way fully depends on an individual. Other sales person also included in incentive
scheme but they are not selling products in unethical way. Lola has choosen herself to serve the
customer unethical way.
My incentive scheme was for motivating my sales team, to increase my selling and to get more
profit by the best service. I have never encouraged my salespersons to accomplish their job in
unethical way. It was just a compensation scheme to get out the best service from the
salesperson, it was never an unethical encouragement motivation scheme for the salespersons.
Only Lola have choosen this path to get more comission, no other sales employee of my store
did this. If my incentive scheme do have any contribution to these kind of unethical activity,
most of my employees may have started to do this activities before, not only Lola.
Lola personaly encouraged herself to loose her integrity by serving customers unethically. So, i
dont think my incentive scheme has any contribution to Lolas these kind of activities. Lola is
individually full responsible for her unethical actions.













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Question 4: How would you approach this situation as Lolas manager?

As a manager of the store i have to handle the situation very carefully. Thinking about the
company reputation and the customers i would take the the following steps that will definately
able solve the situation created by Lola.
Stetp 1: Determining the problems that creating this kind of situation
Step 2: Finding and applying possible solutions

Determining the Problems:
1- Lack of proper conditons in the incentive scheme
2- Lack of training about ethical selling activities to the salesperson
3- Unethical activities are common practice nowadays
4- Lack of realization about personal integrity
5- Taking advantage of customers trust
6- Less awareness of the customers

Possible Solutions:
1- Adding Proper conditions in the incentive scheme: As there was no condition in the
scheme how to sell the products either in ethical or unethical way, Lola has diverted
herself to serve customers unethically. To get rid of from the situation some condions can
be added in incentive scheme.
a- Incentives only applicable for those salesperson who are selling product ethically
b- Hiding or extracting the product features to the customers is restricted
c- Have to give full information about the product and one should not force any
customer to buy the product.
This is how would leave her unethical serving activities.

2- Arrenging a trainning session about ethical activities: Most of the salesperson do not
have any trainning about ethical behavior or activities. So they never able to differ
between ethical and unethical actions. Preparing them by ethical trainning would help to
get rid of from the situation.
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3- Making them realize about personal Integrity/Honesty: Honesty or integrity is the
most important asset of a humans life. Loosing integrity just to have some extra
comission is a great mistake. By realizing about personal integrity salesperson would
never try to do any unethical srvice.

4- Talking directly with Lola: As Lola is doing unethical activities i should directly talk
with her. Serving the customers with wrong information is not good for her sales career.
So she should leave this activities and start serving the customers ethically.

5- Making Lola realize about the long term impact on company reputaion for her
unethical actions: Lola did not understand by her unethical activities it could get a bad
impact on the manufacturing company. I should make her realize about the long term
impact on the company reputation. By realizing she may stop this actions.

6- Arrenging a meeting with all salesperson: An urgent meeting with all salesperson may
help to realize what she is doing. Discusing about the matter with all others may help her
to relize her unethical activities.

7- Inform the higher authority about this mistreatment: As the company has a good
reputation in the society, before taking any steps i should talk with my higher authority.
They can advice me how to handle this situation without hampering te company
reputation.

8- Warn her about the mistreatment she is doing with customers: If the above solutions
do not work i will warn her to change her activities. This may help her to realize that she
is doing wrong.

9- Reducing the incentive percentage for her unethical activities: If she continues to do
this kind of actions i will reduce the incentive percentage till she stop the mistreatment.

10- Suspend her for unethical actions: If the above solutions do not work at all, i will use
the last step to suspend her permanently from the job. Just to give her incentives i can not
risk my company reputation.

Best Solution: Above all the solutions i think number 2 and 4 are the best solution to handle this
situation. Arrenging a trainning session about ethical activities, letting them know about
importance of ethics will help to solve the problem and will also reduce the chance to create the
same situation in the future. Talking directly about the problem and making her rialize she is
doing wrong would help her to leave these activities and making a good sales career in life.
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Conclusion: Unethical activities are now common in business areas. Though this is because
most of the business persons do not meet any ethical training or any education about business
ethics. So they can not make a difference between either they are doing wrong or right. They
think making profit by cheatng, lying or giving wrong information to customer is a business
skill. But they do not realize this kind of activities can hamper their business in the long run. So,
adding business ethics in the ducational sector and arrenging ethical training for the employees is
very important to reduce unethical actions. Though public awareness is also important to
diminish the unethical actions of business employees, salespersons and workers.




















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References:
1- Text Book Business Ethics
2- Class Lectures