The Problem: The Case of the Cell Phones

You have been hearing complaints in the break room and around the water cooler that one or two members of the administrative staff are "constantly" on their cell phones talking to either friends or their children. As you poke around, you find out that the receptionist, a single mom, is on her cell phone multiple times a day, which means that either the main company phone is answered slowly or that others have to pick up the phone in order to avoid it being unanswered. When asked, she says that she is just checking up on her children to make sure they are OK or that she is fielding calls about her children. Other employees also use their cell phones for personal business, however being available to answer the company phone is not as important for some employees as for others.

A) Be Reasonable

Preserving Rights and Responsibilities Compare and contrast at least two options, preferably three. Choose one option which you intuitively believe is the right answer and then choose another with which you disagree or which is a close second. As you work through the four lenses, you will find words to support your first choice or discover that another option is in fact preferable.

After brainstorming with the leadership team, you have identified three options:

1) Restrict the use of cell phones at work for all employees. Cell phones can only be used during breaks and at lunch.

2) Restrict the use of cell phones only for those whose primary task is answering the phone for the company. Those people can use their cell phones during breaks and at lunch.

3) Do not make any change in company policy but talk to the receptionist who seems to be the problem and put a formal complaint in her personnel file. Handle these situations in the future on a case by case basis.

In three to four coherent paragraphs, compare and contrast your options using the Rights/Responsibility Lens. In the process, consider the following questions:

a) Motive: What are the reasons that the ethical agent would choose these options?

b) Universalizability: Can everyone use these reasons for acting in choosing what to do?

c) Reversibility: Am I willing to have someone else use either of these reasons how they treat me (reversibility)?

d) Prior Agreements: Am I treating people the way they have freely consented to be treated? Am I treating them as means to my ends or with dignity, as ends in themselves?

e) General Expectations: How does this option meet the general expectations of duties in our community?

B) The Greatest Good

In three to four coherent paragraphs, compare and contrast your options using the Results Lens. In the process, consider the following questions:

Influence Factor: Given that different stakeholder groups are affected in different proportion, determine the impact that the decision will have on various groups?

Criteria for Happiness: What are the criteria for happiness for the various stakeholders? In considering the criteria, determine what options may be "deal breakers" and what factors might be "tipping points."

Units of Happiness: How many "utils" of happiness do each option provide to each stakeholder?

Greatest Good: Determine which option creates the greatest good for the greatest number of people.

Assuring Justice In three to four coherent paragraphs, compare and contrast your options using the Relationship Lens. In the process, consider the following questions:

Basic Liberties: What are the basic liberties to which each person is entitled? These liberties include right to speech and right to notice.

Just Savings Principle: Which option best assures that our resources will be available for next generations?

Equal Opportunity for Success: How well does each option assure that social and economic inequalities are arranged so that all constituents have an equal opportunity for success?

Reflective Equilibrium: Using the tool of reflective equilibrium, which option gives the best advantage to the least advantaged without unduly burdening those who are the most advantaged? .ting people the way they have freely consented to be treated? Am I treating them as means to my ends or with dignity, as ends in themselves?

Ecology of Care: Which option best contributes to an ecology of care? Which option best meets the requirement for building a strong community and strong institutions?