Question

PART 2 CASE

ETHICAL CHOICES IN EMPLOYEE DISCOUNTS

Angela is feeling a lot of stress at work these days and she’s worried that her behaviour over the past few months will get her into trouble, not only with her boss and the company she works for, but also potentially with the police. It all started a few months ago, when one of Angela’s old classmates came in to the store where she worked. Her classmate explained that she was just starting a new job, and she’d had a really tough year, and she asked if she could use Angela’s employee discount to buy some things. At first, Angela was surprised because she hadn’t seen the classmate in a few years and they weren’t really friends, but the classmate persuaded her that it wasn’t a big deal since she wasn’t stealing or anything—the company would never even know that Angela herself wasn’t the one buying everything. Then, a week later another friend came in, who told Angela that she would owe her a favour if she could also buy some clothing using the employee discount. Angela felt very uncomfortable using her discount again, but she realized that the company was probably still making money, even at the lower price level, and surely the company would prefer to make a sale than to have the item remain in inventory, so she said yes. Since then, there has been a fairly steady stream of people coming in to use Angela’s employee discount. Unexpectedly, Angela received a huge benefit from allowing her friends to use the discounted rate; a glitch in the computer system used to calculate sales gave Angela credit for the full price of those purchases, so while she was helping her friends out, she was also able to increase her sales numbers by a large percentage. The company that Angela works for offers very generous bonuses for the top three salespeople each quarter, and Angela quickly realized that if more of her friends bought at the employee discount price, she could exploit the computer system glitch to gain the highest sales for the quarter and win the bonus. While she liked the idea of getting the bonus, what Angela really liked was the idea of everyone recognizing her achievement, because she’s been working with the same company for two years and has never been recognized for anything. Angela feels like she works as hard as the other salespeople, and maybe even harder but that for a variety of reasons beyond her control, her sales numbers just aren’t as high. For instance, Angela works at a store location that isn’t as busy as some of the other stores in her city, and she can work only certain non-high-traffic hours, so she can’t make as many sales as other people who are able to work in busier stores during busier times. Also, Angela is only 23, so she’s much younger than some of her coworkers and doesn’t have the same level of experience as they do, which impacts her ability to make sales. Also, Angela does a lot of work around the store that no one appreciates, such as watering the plants and cleaning the windows—tasks that are important to the overall functioning of the shop but aren’t rewarded. Angela feels like she is entitled to earn a bonus for having the highest sales this quarter even if she didn’t really make the highest sales, because she’s pretty sure that the salespeople with the highest sales are probably cheating in some way anyway. Angela’s plan worked really well; her friends came in to buy merchandise at the employee discount rate, and Angela’s sales reflected the full price of those purchases, and Angela became one of the top three highest salespeople within her company over the past quarter. However, a discrepancy has recently been noticed by someone in accounting, and Angela’s boss mentioned that something didn’t add up in the quarterly reports for their store. Angela’s worried that her boss will realize she’s hiding something because Angela is finding it very difficult to continue to act innocent. Angela is considering how best to handle the situation. She thinks maybe she could approach her boss and say that she’s being framed by Becky (a coworker she doesn’t like) in order to escape being blamed and to, she hopes, have that coworker fired.

Apply Your Knowledge

1. Examine components of Angela’s personality using “the dark triad.”

2. How could Angela’s boss use Kelley’s covariation model to assess Angela’s significant increase in sales in the past quarter? What would Angela’s boss likely conclude?

3. Describe the role of cognitive dissonance in Angela’s behaviour.

4. Was Angela’s behaviour unethical? Why or why not? Consider the factors that affect ethical behaviour.

5. Using Maslow’s need hierarchy as a framework, consider the various needs that Angela may meet by achieving the quarterly sales bonus.

6. How might equity theory explain Angela’s dishonest behaviour?

7. When Angela first conceived her plan to achieve the sales bonus, the added work and stress helped her to perform better, but now she is feeling the negative effects of stress. Describe some of the costs associated with unhealthy stress.

QUIZ QUESTIONS

True/False

_____1. Angela believes that her sales are consistently low for reasons beyond her control. This is an example of the Sensing/Intuition (S/I) dimension of personality.

_____2. The g factor could be used to measure Angela’s fundamental level of honesty.

_____3. Angela’s difficulty in continuing to act innocent and like she has no idea what the problem could be is an example of emotional dissonance.

_____4. Individuals differ widely in their susceptibility to persuasion, and Angela’s age was likely one of the characteristics that affected her ability to be persuaded.

_____5. Motivation theories cannot be used to analyze this case scenario because motivation theories do not apply to unethical or dishonest behaviour.

_____6. Angela’s desire to be recognized by others for having the highest sales figures can be best described by McClelland’s need for power (nPow).

_____7. Angela is experiencing stress as a result of the discrepancy between her ego-ideal and her real self-image.

Multiple Choice

1. Angela believes that the other salespeople with the highest sales are probably cheating in some way. This is an example of which attribution bias?

(a) self-serving bias (b) projection (c) the halo effect (d) self-fulfilling prophecy

2. Angela’s dishonest behaviour can best be examined using which measurement of personality?

(a) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (b) Big Five Personality Trait Model (c) HEXACO (d) core self-evaluation

3. Fear over getting into trouble with her boss, her company, and the police describes Angela’s current

(a) attitude (b) ethic (c) perception (d) emotion

4. The elaboration likelihood model of persuasion suggests that since Angela was motivated and able to process her classmate’s persuasive message requesting to use the employee discount, that her change in attitude came about through which route?

(a) the central route (b) the peripheral route (c) the ethical route (d) the Machiavelli route

5. Angela believes that she works just as hard, and maybe even harder than other sales people but receives less recognition than they do. Expectancy theory suggests that Angela is having difficulties with which component of the performance process? (a) instrumentality (b) valence (c) fairness (d) expectancy

6. If Angela wanted to achieve the top sales figures for the quarter honestly, goal-setting theory suggests that she should set goals that are SMART. That is, specific, achievable, relevant and time-bound. What does the M stand for? (a) multifaceted (b) measurable (c) maintainable (d) motivating 7. Ethics violations are likely to cause what type of conflict? (a) Person-role conflict. (b) Task-demand conflict. (c) Role ambiguity. (d) Interpersonal conflict.

Answer 1

True/False

True 1. Angela believes that her sales are consistently low for reasons beyond her control. This is an example of the Sensing/Intuition (S/I) dimension of personality.

False 2. The g factor could be used to measure Angela’s fundamental level of honesty.

True 3. Angela’s difficulty in continuing to act innocent and like she has no idea what the problem could be is an example of emotional dissonance.

True 4. Individuals differ widely in their susceptibility to persuasion, and Angela’s age was likely one of the characteristics that affected her ability to be persuaded.

True 5. Motivation theories cannot be used to analyze this case scenario because motivation theories do not apply to unethical or dishonest behaviour.

True 6. Angela’s desire to be recognized by others for having the highest sales figures can be best described by McClelland’s need for power (nPow).

True 7. Angela is experiencing stress as a result of the discrepancy between her ego-ideal and her real self-image.

Multiple Choice

1. (d) self-fulfilling prophecy

2. (a) Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®

3. (c) perception

4. (b) the peripheral route

5. (b) valence

6. (b) measurable

7. (a) Person-role conflict.

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