Personal Case Analysis: Ethical Frame

Christapher Cutting

Arizona State University

Pro-Seminar I
 Our organization was in need of an information technology (IT) systems refresh, with ageing

equipment our mission was exceeding the existing network and technical capabilities. As a preferred

vendor with an existing relationship and facility access, I engaged with Dell EMC for their services.

However, due to poor documentation and personnel departures, I was gifted this project with very little

information on the previous acquisition and processes. The Dell EMC representative was eager to

capitalize on this situation, and sought to garner a lucrative and inflated government contract. My role

was to consolidate and define the organization’s requirements, acquire the best solution for both our

organization and the tax-payer, while doing so in a relatively short period of time.

I was fortunate enough to have leaders within my organization that focused on ethical business

practices and the power of integrity. Over my career I’ve seen a tremendous number of managers pay

lip-service to ethical behavior, namely keeping tax-payers best interest at heart through any decision. A

powerful message when backed with action. Until I had arrived at this organization, I had never seen the

follow through on that claim. It wasn’t until I saw leaders truly take center stage and stand behind their

words and act with conviction in this regard.

As the Dell representatives sought to wring every possible penny from this contract, leadership

within my organization never faltered when it came to the funding of this project. If it wasn’t the best

deal possible for the tax-payer then we wouldn’t sign the contract. They were steadfast and backed my

position to seek additional quotes from this vendor, regardless of the potential for delays, as our existing

systems while archaic, were still functional. They could have easily signed the first bloated contract and

moved on, but the insistence for responsible fiscal spending was the foundation of their process. Ethics

over convenience.
 Applying the political frame to this situation, through the ethical lens, provides a different

approach, one that I had discussed in another frame. Using the jungle metaphor, the competitors exist

at every turn, in this case we merely needed to flip the script on who was the hunter and who was being

hunted. Dell had treated us as the lamb that lays with a resting lion, never resting while the lion, Dell,

sleeps easy (Bolman& Deal, 2017). Their pursuit of self-interests meant that they exerted their power,

access to market and size, over mutually beneficial power sharing. Their tight grip over their perceived

power created negative perceptions with observers as well as our organizational participants, including

myself.

To flip the dynamic, we could have leveraged our power of choice. Looking for other more

agreeable vendors, who were more eager to gain additional market share within the Department of

Defense. This would have forced a power shift away from Dell, and put the balance of power across

multiple vendors, if not completely flipping the dynamic on its head and giving us the power through a

competitive market eager for our business. The sheep becomes the sleeping lion in the vacuum of

power sharing.

Given Dell’s desire to drain the coffers of our organization, I would have liked to take a more

drastically different approach to this situation. Fighting a representative focused on exploiting the

system and leveraging their perceived position of power in a negotiation was a dead-end pursuit.

Instead, I should have pursued an appeal to the corporate values of “empowering individuals,

organizations and committees with technologies that solve the world’s biggest challenges” (Dell, n.d.). In

this regard, pursuit of the temple, or values and beliefs of an organization, at the corporate level, above
the representative could have provided a faster and more economical resolution. Dell’s own self

portrayal is that of an organization that is characterized by contributing to the success of others.

Leveraging Dell’s own marketing and values, to refocus negotiations on the best interest of both

participants could have been the path needed to achieve success. Doing so earlier in this endeavor,

instead of fostering distrust and ambivalence, could have generated a win for both parties. Focusing on

the legacy of the partnership, over individual accolades as a hallmark of utilizing the Bolman and Deal’s

ethical community of The Temple: a gathering place for people with shared aspirations, beliefs,

aspirations, and values (2017, pg. 395). Both organizations are founded on serving, safeguarding, and

acting with sound determination for their customers interests. From this frame, moving up the Dell

chain, I could have appealed to the organization values to infuse ethical and rational practices.

 
 Reference or References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2017). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership (6th ed.).

San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

Dell. (n.d.) What We Do. Retrieved on 23 June, 2020 from https://www.delltechnologies.com

/en-us/what-we-do.htm