Assignment

Let us examine the course, Business Ethics, though the lens of your own experiences in business. Identify one company or organization (the "Company") that you have worked with or for, describe the basic structure purpose of the Company and then write a paper in which you respond to the following questions. In your response, include specific examples and incorporate concepts and terms you studied in the course. Also use at least two reliable sources on the subjects of Corporate Culture, Business Ethics and/or the Ethics of Marketing in addition to your textbook.

1. Corporate Culture: Describe the corporate culture of the Company. How does this culture compare to other cultures you have read about or worked with? What are the strengths and weaknesses of this type of culture? Did the Company have a Mission Statement or Credo? Did the culture track the Mission Statement? In what ways did it not? Can you identify specific reasons why you believe the culture was different than these professed mores and goals? How much of the culture at the Company came from the top-down as opposed to the bottom-up? Were you in a position to make changes or suggestions to the corporate culture? Did you do so? If so, what were the results? If you did not make suggestions, why didn't you? If you were to start a company of your own, what lessons in corporate culture could you take from the Company?

2. Meaning and Rights at Work: Was the work you did at the Company meaningful? Why or why not? In what ways could the leaders of the company make certain that the work was more meaningful? Why do we concern ourselves with whether or not work is or is not meaningful to us? Do you have a right to work at a meaningful job? Why or why not? What if the work is generally uninspiring but occasionally exceptionally meaningful-is that situation a meaningful job situation? Did you ever find yourself complaining about the lack of meaningful work or direction at the Company? Did the corporate culture help or hinder the amount of meaning people were finding in their jobs at the Company? Did you feel the amount of meaning people found in their jobs had any correlation to the amount of participation they were allowed in the decision-making process at work? Why or why not?

3. Marketing Ethics: Who were your customers at the Company? Were sales and marketing a major point of discussion within the Company? What sort of tactics and strategies were employed in order to maximize sales? Did you ever feel that the Company was acting unethically towards its customers via its marketing and sales techniques? How? If you were CEO for a day, how might you change these tactics to make them more ethical? At what point in the marketing process does "hard selling" become unethical? At what point does manipulating a customer's sales choices become deception or lying? Did you ever feel that those lines were being crossed in your Company? How?

SUMMARY: Final Project Requirements

4-5 pages in length (excluding cover page, abstract, and reference list)

Use at least two reliable sources in addition to your textbook.

APA format (including bibliography).