560 Week3
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Introduction:
The simulation focus is on a company named Alumina which is based in the USA. Alumina is a maker of Aluminum and operates in 8 countries: Alumina Inc is a manufacture of automotive components, packaging materials, bauxite mining, alumina refining, and alumina smelting. As a company dealing with Aluminum, they have to deal with the issue of staying within Environmental regulation. Alumina has dealt with environmental violation in the past. According to the simulation, Alumina was reported to be in violation of environmental discharge norms in a routine Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) compliance evaluation inspection 5 years ago. The EPA found that the PAH level was above the prescribed limit. The violation was promptly addressed and noted as corrected by the EPA. Alumina is not only a company that has to deal with Environmental regulation, they also have to deal with there public image.
Brief Summary of Simulation
In the simulation Alumina has reported in the local daily paper (The Erehwon Reporter) allegation that there company has repeatedly contaminated the waters of Lake Dira. These accusations came from a 38 year old single mother Kelly Bates who feels that her 10 year old daughter has leukemia due to consumption of the contaminated water. The senior team of Alumina now has to deal with how the public views the company after these allegations. To insure the company is in compliance with Environmental regulation, Alumina conducted an impendent study. In that study it revealed that Alumina was under the level of PAH required by the EPA. After that issue was taken care of The Erehwon Reporter and Kelly Bates requested that information be given to them regarding the violation 5 years ago. Under the Freedom of Information Act, Alumina must comply with the request. According to the Department of Justice (DOJ) it is generally required under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to disclose records requested in writing by any person. However, agencies may withhold information pursuant to nine exemptions and three exclusions contained in the statute. The purpose of this FOIA act is to allow citizens the right to request information. In respond to the request the Senior team will allow partial release of it information by doing so this will not jeopardize the information or trade secrets that make them different from there competitor . After the company released the information requested, Kelly Bates threatened to file lawsuit against Alumina stating that the company maybe the cause of her 10 year old daughter leukemia. To address the issue of a possible lawsuit the senior team will use a third party mediator to address the possible lawsuit. In the mediation process this will allow Alumina a chance to put these allegations behind them with Kelly Bates agreeing to sign and not go forward with the lawsuit and for Kelly Bates 10 year old daughter she will receive expense for her past medical care and lump sum for future care and an education fund will be setup for her daughter.
Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas
Conflicting interests are relevant when you address each stakeholder’s viewpoints. According to Reed, Shed, Moorehead, and Corley “Ethics and law have similar or complementary purposes. Both consist of rules to guide conduct and foster social cooperation.” The stakeholders in this simulation are the clients, employees and the management team. To address the view points of the clients, the clients will view this as a negative due to there public image as well. For example if the company was a buyer of Alumina this could cause a negative image of the buyer for doing business with a company that is not following the Environmental regulation. With the employees view point they may feel they are working for a company that is not complying with Environmental regulation and this may cause the employees to ask questions about what direction is the company going .These issue can also affect the employees because they live within the community dealing with these allegation. For the views of the senior management not only does this affect there public image but they have to worry about there clients, employees, and the community in which they stay in or families stay .Both will focus on what is best for the company as a whole. The ethical dilemmas are that each party will look at the situation differently; it is up to each of these parties to come to a decision that will allow everyone to be successful.
Alternative:
As an alternative to deal with the issue allegation of contaminating resources in the community we would like to implement a cost efficient program called Alumina Community Relation Program (ACRP). This allows Alumina to work with the local newspapers The Erehwon Reporter