ASSIGNMENT 2

Conflict on a Trading Floor Case

Dear John (junior salesperson), I completely understand the dilemma you are facing right
now and would like to provide you some advice that I hope will help you guide your
thinking as you make this hard decision with very limited time.
First of all you should clearly identify all the consequences from the options you have
right now. By not sending the fax, you are:
-Risking your career at FirstAmerica Bank
-Probably preventing the transaction to take place and reducing the company profits in a
moment that they are really needed
-Disobeying authority and deceiving your direct supervisor, who has put a lot of trust to
you, even before you were hired
On the other hand, by sending the fax, you will:
-Make some immediate profits for FirstAmerica Bank, and also for you (bonus)
-Risk the companys reputation if the market finds out that you they took advantage of
Poseidon Cruise Lines
-Probably face legal consequences for fraud and deceiving the client
In my personal opinion, the dilemma you are facing right now is directly linked to the
short and long-term consequences of each of the options you have right now: (i) obey and
send the fax with the misleading information, (ii) refuse to send the fax and talk to Linda,
(iii) talk to Peter derivatives sales manager, (iv) talk to the Senior Vice president.
To help guide the discussion, I prepared the following exhibit to assess the possible risks
and benefits of each of the different options:
Strategy
Send the fax

Pros
Cons
- Higher short term return for him - Not ethical with the client
and the company as a whole

Talk to Linda

- Not clear if it is legal or not

- Mostly aligned with most values

- Its the most transparent way to - Hard to manage right now due

Strategy

Pros
Cons
address the issue, and he would to Lindas

volatile

and

hot

be talking to his direct supervisor, tempered nature

thus not excluding anyone in the - Linda really wants to close the
line of hierarchy

deal and will probably pose

resistance and try to counter argue

Talk to Peter

By

being

an

to convince John
intermediate - Peter has a track record of not

position, and not as senior as the taking action and is known for
VP, Linda would probably not being passive. It is possible that

Talk to S VP

react as badly

Johns words may fall on deaf

- Higher long term return

ears
- Not having a close relationship

- Scaling the issue with the SVP to the SVP, John might not be
will

definitely

avoid

any taken seriously

resistance that John might find - Linda might use her seniority to
when talking to Linda and will discredit John
avoid any retaliation that she
could have taken against him
From Platos point of view as explained in The Ring of Gyges the real proof of a
peoples behavior is they would act if they were invisible and couldnt be judged or
blamed for their actions. Applying this framework, the right way of proceeding would be
by doing whatever you would if you were certain that neither the Market nor Poseidon
would ever find out that they were charged higher than market prices, and that you knew
that there wouldnt be any legal consequences or processes against the decision. Also,
you should imagine that Linda will never find out if you send the fax or not, and thus
cannot make you accountable for your actions, or lack of them.
By knowing that you are not going to be held accountable by others for your actions, you
will act according to your principles and your true values.
In this order of ideas, the best thing to do would be to stick to your firm belief that all
people have an obligation to be honest, not send the fax to Poseidon, and talk to Linda
despite any consequences.

According to Aristotle as stated in The Moral Virtues, human beings should live and
act according to the virtues he defines with the Golden Mean Rule, where virtue is
nothing else than the mean between a vice of deficiency and a vice of excess. In this
situation, the vice of excess would be expressed as greed, while the vice of deficiency
would be generosity with the client. A reasonable middle point between these, could be
defined as moderate ambition that would allow John, Linda and FirstAmerica Bank to
make reasonable profits, while telling the truth to the client and charging them a
reasonable amount for the product being sold to them.
Kants principles expressed in Good Will, Duty and the Categorical Imperative, state that
a peoples actions should pass the test of universality, which means that they should only
act in a way that your actions become a universal law, and that it is sustainable that any
other person in the world can act in the same way. Also he defines that the one and only
good characteristic that one can portray is Good will, because all other good things such
as intelligence, wit, courage and perseverance can be misused for immoral ends. Then
good will is good just by itself and it is always good because it is like that and not
because it is purposed to reach any end. Following these two principles, John should take
an action that could be executed sustainably by all the agents in the universe, but that also
follows his good will. In this case, the action that should be taken is to be honest with the
client, which is his good will, but also can be turned into a universal law that can be
followed by all agents, as opposed to lying / hiding information, which is definitely not
sustainable in the long term.
Considering the different concepts and frameworks exposed, and the analysis of the
values and consequences at stake, the action that aligns the most with the advice of Plato,
Aristotle and Kant, would be not to send the fax and talk to Linda. John should expose
his values to Linda and try to convince her to act honestly with the client, while also
making profits for the company. Probably Linda will push back and continue with the
operation without Johns help, in which case he would be face with the ethical dilemma
of remaining silent and let the operation take place or escalate the problem in the
hierarchy of the company. In that case, John should talk directly to the Senior VP to
express him his concerns and explain the situation in the hope that he will take action and
protect him from Lindas possible retaliation. He might be faced to the risk that the SVP

also puts FirstAmericas interests on top of Poseidons interest and decides to go on the
operation, leaving him completely exposed and without any future within the company.
Although this might look as the worst case scenario, this is also a positive outcome for
John, because this way he will know that the values of his organization are misaligned
with his values, and he should definitely leave the FirstAmerica Bank, even if he has a
promising future there.
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