商业伦理,案例分析

A Conflict between Helping and Protecting Privacy

Zhang Xinyue

130200166

FinanceDescription:

During the last summer vacation, I faced an ethical problem about whether it is necessary to keep others’ telephone numbers as the privacy, and never give away them without permissions. It happened when I was signing up for yoga courses in a yoga club named Yogawave. The manager asked me to do him a favor for writing down twenty telephone numbers and names of my friends, because he needed to solicit more customers to meet the marketing goals, but it was nearly month ended. He also promised that the numbers would only be used to send an advertisement message, and he would not let others know who gave the numbers away to him. I knew that the telephone numbers might be important for him to achieve the marketing goals and keep the job. But I finally refused to help him in the end, which made me feel sorry to him.

Stake Holders:

Yogawave manager

My friends whose phone numbers were asked to be betrayed

Me

Laura Nash Model

1. Define the problem for me.

The problem for me was the choice between helping the manager and protecting my friends’ privacy. Considering receiving a publicity message would not really does harm to my friends, maybe I should chose to give the manager a hand to have a better performance on his job. However, if I gave the telephone numbers away and let the manager gained benefits from it, my friends’ privacy rights would be violated.

2. Define problem from other stakeholders’ shoes.One of the stakeholders was the manager of Yogawave. The problem of the manager was that the pressure of operating performance goals made him have to try his best to solicit large numbers of customers. One of his advertisement methods was to send publicity messages to potential consumer, and he chose to get numbers of target group by asking customers he had. He cannot be blamed because of working hard.

The others stakeholders were my friends whose phone numbers were asked to be betrayed. If I gave away my friends’ phone numbers of, which were considered as the privacy, they would be disturbed by advertisement messages that they might not want to receive. Besides, the staffs of the Yogawave might also exchange the telephone numbers with others to get more available numbers. Their privacy was put in a very risky position.

3. How did this situation arise?

The manager of Yogawave, who disregard ed the telephone owners’ privacy right, was mostly responsible for this arising situation. I would like to help him to have a better performance in job; however, it was impossible for me to meet his requirements without hurting the feelings of my friends and avoiding violating their privacy rights.

4. Who do you give and your loyalty to?

I give my loyalty to the telephone number owners. Because telephone number is a kind of privacy, I do not have the right to disclose the privacy of others. The manager has many other available marketing advertising methods to chose, instead of sending messages. However, for my friends, who are the telephone number owners, would get in trouble for a long time because of privacy information disclosing. Hence, the telephone number owners should get my loyalty.

5. What was your intention in making this decision?My intention in refusing to give away friend’s telephone numbers and names was to protect their privacy. Although I would like to help others, I could not violate the interests of my friend in order to satisfy the need of Yogawave manager.

6. How does this intention compare with the probable results?

My intention was to protect friends from privacy disclosing. There were two other probable results. One of them was that I could promise to invite a friend to take part in yoga courses instead of just refusing the managers’ requirement. The other decision that I can make was to give away my friends’ telephone number after as king for their permission. The two probable results would meet both the benefit of the manager and my friends, but I need to sacrifice more time to achieve the results.

7. Who could your decision or action injure?

The Yogawave manager would be injured by my choice to refuse giving away telephone numbers. The telephone numbers and names would be important for him to solicit new customers and achieve the month marketing goals. His bonus would reduce because of falling to meet the outstanding achievement.

8. Could you discuss the issue with affected parties before you make your decision?

I could discuss the problem with both the manager and my friends. For the manager, I could discuss the problem of violating privacy with him, and try to figure out some other available method to help him. For my friends, I could discuss this issue with them to ask if it is ok to disclose their telephone number for advertisement using.

9. Are you confident that your actions will be correct over a long period?

I am confident that my actions are correct both in short run and long run. Although it was wrong to refuse to help other people, the precondition of doing favor to someone was that it should not do harm to other parties. It would be correct for a long time for protecting my friends’ privacy.10. Were you embarrassed by your actions? Could you disclose your decision or action without qualm?

I am not embarrassed by my actions and I could disclose my decision without anxiety. For the manager, I felt sorry to not agree to give him the telephone numbers, but I can come up with some other methods to help him. For my friends, I did the right thing to protect them from privacy disclosing. I do not need to be ashamed to the other stakeholders.

11. What is the symbolism of your action?

The symbolism of my action is that it is ethical to refuse help others if the action of help may injure someone else. The ethical dilemma that I faced is a conflict between helping the manager and protecting friends’ privacy. I chose to refuse the manager for not hurting friends.

12. What ethical frameworks were you using to make decisions?

For the utilitarian approach, which was considered to do the right thing by creating the greatest amount of good, I protected the benefit of a large amount of people by injuring only the manager . For the universal ethics, I did not have the responsibility to help the manager, while privacy stealing or disclosing was a kind of illegal behavior. For the virtue ethics, it was both not moral to refuse help others or violate rights of others. I was using the utilitarian approach and the universal ethics. Conclusion:

The behavior of the manager should not be considered as ethical actions. When facing the ethical dilemma that a conf lict between helping the manager and protecting friends’ privacy, I chose to give my loyalty to my friends based on the utilitarian approach and the universal ethics. It is a choice that would be correct for a long period.