Phil Lee was a newly graduated MBA professional and landed his first job as an IT consultant at Orion Information Technology Consulting. Three months into his new job, he was flown to New Delhi, India to meet with officials of Kirat Housing Development Society (KHDS), a luxury property developer, for what he thought would be a "pre-bid" negotiation. However, the assistant to the head of procurement proposed that in exchange for Orion winning the bid, Orion would have to offer him a $200,000 contract as an "independent consultant." Lee was also given a diamond pendant. Lee was an amateur at this kind of transaction and did not know how to address the problem.
Alvaro Sandroni and Farhad Aspy Fatakia
Harvard Business Review (KE1044-PDF-ENG)
December 19, 2017
Case questions answered:
- What are the ethical issues in the Kirat Housing Development Society case study? Identify the issues and describe why they are ethical issues. You should be able to identify at least two or three ethical issues.
- Identify as many stakeholders as you can and explain why they are stakeholders. You should be able to identify at least six or seven stakeholders or stakeholder groups.
- What are your alternatives to resolving this issue? List at least three alternatives, and number each alternative so that you can refer to the alternative in your response to question 4. Provide a good explanation for each alternative.
- For each alternative that you identified in question 3, list the pros and cons. When listing the pros and cons, consider the viewpoint of multiple stakeholders. This is important – something might be a pro from the viewpoint of one stakeholder group but a con from the viewpoint of a different stakeholder. You must describe why something is a pro and why something is a con because it might be listed as both a pro and a con. You should be able to list a large number of pros and cons for each alternative. Use a table like the one shown below (which contains an example) to type your answers to the question.
- After reviewing the pros and cons of the alternatives you listed in question 4, which alternative would you choose? Provide a thorough explanation of your choice by describing why the pros outweighed the cons.
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Kirat Housing Development Society Case Answers
1. What are the ethical issues in the Kirat Housing Development Society case study? Identify the issues and describe why they are ethical issues. You should be able to identify at least two or three ethical issues.
One of the ethical issues in the Kirat Housing Development Society case study is that Orion Information Technology Consulting needs to decide whether it should go with the bribe or not, as requested by the Indian partner.
The second ethical issue about this situation is that the partner of the Orion project, Yousuf, who is the assistant to the General, is the one who asked for a trip to Las Vegas. He suggested this solution during the conversation with Phil.
Another ethical issue specific to Phil is that if the company decides to pay the bride money to the Indian firm, should he be a part of that or not?
And lastly, it is also an ethical issue when, during Phil’s trip, the KHDS tries to bribe Phil with a small teardrop diamond pendant. The case was not clear about whether Phil indeed accepted the bribe and put the box of diamonds in his package or not.
2. Identify as many stakeholders as you can and explain why they are stakeholders. You should be able to identify at least six or seven stakeholders or stakeholder groups.
In the relationship between Phil and his father, Eric, they are both stakeholders individually. First is Phil himself. Phil just finished his MBA program, and luckily, he got a job at Orion Information Technology Consulting.
But his dad, Eric, is sick. Eric was diagnosed with lung cancer. Therefore, both Phil and Eric became stakeholders in the family situational problem.
In the relationship between Phil and his company and concerning the partner company with which Orion is working for a project, several parties are stakeholders in this case study:
The two companies involved in the situation are Orion Information Technology Consulting and the Kirat Housing Development Society.
In each company, several specific people are involved:
For Orion Information Technology Consulting: Phil, Karl, and the Chairman of the Orion company. Phil is the one who takes charge of the deal between the two companies. Karl is the chief officer and supervisor of Phil. He has been following the project for some time now and has been in a similar situation a long time ago.
And, since the project is managed by Phil is an important one, and because of the issues involving the project, the Chairman of Orion Information Technology Consulting will be included as he will be the one to decide whether to continue the project or not.
On the side of Kirat Housing Development Society (KHDS), there is Colonel Bhaman and his assistant, Yousuf. These two people are the ones who directly work on the project with Orion Information Technology Consulting. There is also General Ravani and his buddy in the army, who established the firm KHDS.
3. What are your alternatives to resolving this issue? List at least three alternatives, and number each alternative so that you can refer to the alternative in your response to question 4. Provide a good explanation for each alternative.
There are several alternatives to resolve this issue…
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