Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?

Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?

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Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?

The reasons as to why George might act unethically and remove the filters

Abstract

George stein who is a college student secures an employment for his summer by the Eastern Dairy, if faced by an ethical dilemma. He is supposed to decide whether he will remove the filters from the piping system which will allow the production run of the milkshake to be contaminated. This course of action is believed to save the company money particularly in the short run, as well as allow George’s shift to be able to go home on time. George is also disturbed by his image of children taking contaminated milkshakes while he weighed his options (Calabretta, Durisin and Ogliengo, 2011).

The first reason why George may act unethically is explained by the social learning theory. Previous analysis shows that the perceived opportunities for learning were enabled, constrained and shaped by various structural, cultural, and social, as well as imperatives that are process related. This social theory argues that people learn via observations, as well as their direct experiences with other people. In this case George is facing an ethical dilemma. There is also the social network that is not formal and the management system, Paul, who oversees the crew at nights. George has been posted in the job recently and thus he is new and this means he has first to learn from the perceived environment. In order for him to acquire a promotion he has to observe the superiors. Paul tells George to pull all the filters almost all the time and this makes the procedure a habit for that environment. According to George’s social learning theory, organizational culture and social network will pull out the filters

According to Smart and Conant, (2011), the other reason why George may act unethically is because of the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs theory. An article from the Stanislava University of Economics whose title is From Motivation to Well-Being Spasova gives details on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. It describes Maslow’s theory in association to human behavior and motivation. Spasova states that Maslow described the hierarchy of needs beginning with people’s most basic needs for their survival and also rising ultimately to-self-actualization. George’s case expresses an immediate and urgent need for money for cars and dating. Eastern daily is considered as the pay leader in George’s case. Earlier parts of the article George has stated that the wages offered in Eastern daily is twice the minimum wage compared to what his previous employers had offered him. This is the main reason why he is very interested in this position.  Higher wages are satisfactory as it will assist him in meeting his basic needs for his survival. The money enables him to procure shelter and food as well as improving his ability to meet his urgent basic needs. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs the physiological needs are at the top of the triangle (Byrne, Pitts, Chiaburu and Steiner, 2011). From this illustration I predict that higher wages in George’s position will play a bigger role in influencing the decision George uses in acting unethically in the job.

According to Ibrahim and Angelidis (2011), the other third reason why George may act unethically is because of Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory.  Frederick Herzberg’s two factor theory is basically based on the intrinsic factors that involve job satisfaction. This theory mainly presupposes the employees’ feelings, especially about their jobs. Reports show that high job satisfaction increases the productivity of a firm. The one end of the stated continuum was supposed to actually represent a high level of the satisfaction with a job. The other end was purported to indicate a high level of dissatisfaction with the job. The points between these two extremes were assumed to indicate the various degrees of dissatisfaction or satisfaction. George mentions the company policy, focus on pay, relationship with peers, particulars of his personal life, relationship with the employees and lack of supervision when he talks about his job. He also mentions a little with no emphasis on regards to his growth opportunities that are possible within the organization. He also tends to drive towards achievement and recognition awards, and also there are no long term goals that are expressed on staying at the Eastern dairy following his graduation. All these indicate the signs of extreme job dissatisfaction which is mentioned in chapter 11 of the text that is given (Robbins, 2013). Since George is describing his work as low job satisfaction, then one can deduce that this provides evidence to the fact that George will not act ethically in this scenario. George will thus go on with removing the filters and thus continue to allow the maggots to remain in the mix. There is high chance that George is just interested in working from nine to five and thus he is not seeking for a promotion. Thus he would not go all the way to risk the job through stopping the production for this particular evening (De Jong and Bruch, 2013).

Reasons why George may act ethically and refuse to remove all the filters and thus reporting the maggot problem to the management

According to Ibrahim and Angelidis (2011), the cognitive dissonance theory states that the existence of needs using the context of discrepancies between attitudes and behavior. This theory describes the discrepancies as upsetting towards the individuals. The theory can be viewed as inspirational since the dissonance motivates the individuals in changing their behaviors. In George’s case his first sight of the maggots appalled him and he quickly informed Paul on what was going on with the filters. George says that he had knots that were forming in his stomach and also he had a face of disgust all just at the thought of taking off the filters. This discomfort is because of discrepancies between behaviors and attitudes .George’s reaction, both mentally and physically, as well as in disgust, mainly implies that he does not have an attitude of a person who would consider removing the filters. Cognitive dissonance in this case implies that George will be inspired to act according to his attitudes, as well as behave in a manner that is consistent with George’s beliefs. According to this theory, I think George will behave in an ethical manner and thus decline to remove the filters and report the maggot issue to the firm’s management.

The other major reason for why he may act ethically is because of the theories that involve a person’s personality. There is a lot of research on whether personality is a good predictor of behavior and job performance. These terms are used to describe the personality traits of a person. Personality is a special combination of thought, behavioral and emotional patterns which affect how people reacts to interactions with others and situations (Robbins. 2013). There are five major factors used to describe personality. These five factors are Extraversion, Agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability and openness to experience (Dornstein, 2011).

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