This question has two parts; be sure to answer each.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

First, describe the challenges of managing for ethical standards.

Second, suppose you manage a restaurant that works on extremely tight profit margins. You are examining the pantry and you realize that many of the food products have expired. The chances that someone will get sick from consuming the products are sli, and if you discard all of the expired foods you can kiss your profit goodbye this month. What should you do?

With the pressure to meet sales, production, and other targets, managers can find themselves confronting ethical dilemmas. Ethical behavior is not just a nicety; it is a very important part of doing business, regardless of the size of the organization or the product or service it sells. Business crime is not perpetrated just by respectable-looking people wearing suits.

Answers regarding the restaurant manager's ethical dilemma will vary, but here is one possible response:

The restaurant manager might think that discarding all of the foods is the ethical choice, and that she must do so in order to maintain ethical standards and protect her customers (as well as prevent possible lawsuits against the restaurant). However, she may have other options. For example, she might call the producers of the goods and ask if the expiration date means a "best when used by date," in which case the manager may be able to cut her losses by using some of the expired goods (as long as they pose no danger to customers). She still risks serving food that will not be as tasty as it would have been otherwise, but she will have to decide whether it is a risk worth taking.