Running head: CONFLICTING PARADIGMS 1

Conflicting Paradigms

Gerardo Farley

South Texas College

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Problem

I was the acting Chief executive officer of General Motors in Detroit's Renaissance

Center. Many customers usually came for regular service and maintenance. Whenever a client

visits the center, they must fill some documents before any other process begins. A customer

attended the center late in the afternoon, and he completed all the documentation work, which

was required as per the term of our services. The workers in the service bay accessed the vehicle

and mentioned all the accessories needed to fix the vehicle. The customer went to the billing

department and paid the bill so that the car can be fixed and delivered the following day.

On the following day, the customer paid a visit and confirmed that everything that had been

mentioned the previous day was fixed.

The customer cross-checked the vehicle and confirmed that all had been fixed and even

thanked the workers for fixing the vehicle within a short duration. Unfortunately, as he entered

the car, he found the car matts and the locks were missing, and they were well indicated in the

list that was handed over. The customer raised a lot of complaints, and the personnel in charge of

the car service bay was called to intervene in the problem. The personnel indicated that he had no

idea about the missing matts and lock in any serviced vehicle.

Immediately the customer entered my office and indicated all that he had gone through

with my team of workers, and he feels dissatisfied with our services. I had the list of the car

which had been serviced, but I could not figure out what happened with this customer's vehicle. I

called the service bay team to fix the car as soon as possible, but they responded that the supplier

for Matts and locks had not delivered Matts for a while, and currently, there is the problem of

matt shortage and the locks. I was not aware of such issues raised in the service bay since the
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person in charge of supplies had indicated the matts had been delivered, and the invoice was

handed over to my office.

Why the case was problematic to me as a leader.

This encounter was so demanding to a point where I could not offer any answer to the

customer. I was the person who could offer every answer required about the company, but

everything was out of hand. The customer sat comfortably in my office, expecting everything to

be sorted from the top management, but I was unable to resolve the issue. I had no way to

consult him about the current situation in the company.

Solution

I considered informing the client to give us one more day so that we can fix everything

without haste so that I can inquire about the current situation in the company. After he left my

office, I summoned all the managers in every company department so that I can understand what

happened with the supply department. We held a 2-hour meeting and discussed the issues and

how it happened that the companies supplying locks and Matts could deliver their invoices

requesting payments while they had delivered nothing. The finance department indicated the

funds had not yet been released but they received a notice indicating that they should honor the

payments in the following week.

I called the management of the supply companies, and they declined that they issued

invoices demanding payment because they were told to deliver the supplies next month since the

existing supplies could take months before their exhaustions. To contain the issues in hand, I

requested supplies to be delivered in the next four hours. After four hours, the supplies were

delivered and cleared to be taken to our store, and the customers vehicle was fixed at midnight
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since I ordered all the service bay team to remain overnight to ensure they fix the vehicle for that

specific customer.

The following day the vehicle was handed over to the customer, and he congratulated me

for my efforts in ensuring his car was fixed. I summoned the police detectives to conduct an

investigation to know where the signed documents concerning supplies came from and who was

behind the idea of running away the company funds. After a few days of investigation. The

whole report was handed over to the manager for supplies because they are being responsible for

the current situation in the company. I issued a termination letter to the entire supply department

because everyone was aware of the tricks which were being played by the supply manager, but

they hesitated to report. I notified the human resource department to open new vacancies in the

supply department and ensure the empty position is filled with two weeks.

Why it is the best solution

The company had been experiencing losses and a shortage of supplies many times, and

the matter was investigated, but there was no exact clues to pinpoint exactly where the company

was failing to the point that it was running in losses. This was the best solution because the

supply team had failed in adhering to the company regulation and even to the point of being

involved in fraud cases. The termination of the supply department and announcing vacant

positions meant the problems encountered in the company have been fully solved and will never

arise in the future unless other company officials fail to adhere to their duties and

responsibilities.

Critique

As Aristotle, virtue ethics concentrates on the life of the moral character. This character-based

approach towards morality reveals that virtue is acquired through practice. When you practice
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being honest, generous, you will have an honorable moral character. Through honing virtuous

traits, people will be enabled to make the right choices whenever ethical challenges occur.

The solution adopted to the problem was a matter of ethical decision and analyzing whether the

solution selection is the best to solve the problem. It is important to analyze the impact of the

solution before implementing them because whenever an ethical decision does not apply to all, it

cannot be termed to be the best. Many families were impacted by the decision because their

work was terminated without notice. To be virtuous demands to be of good moral. Although it

was revealed on how the customer problems were attended only a small number of them were

involved in this fraud.

Virtue enables people to do the right things in the best way because virtue comes from

reasoning. Virtuous humans are said to be of good morals. A person can be termed to have bad

morals if he can negatively impact the feelings and happiness of others. Many employee’s

happiness was impacted because of rushing to make unethical decisions. This can be termed as a

bad moral and lack of virtuousness because the aim was to get the car fixed. As Aristotle

decision making demand the decision maker to have both theoretical and practical knowledge.

The theoretical and practical knowledge to have been utilized in this case to provide the best

solution was not utilized because it involved, understanding the situation well and its context,

searching for available alternatives, choosing the solution which is the best and implementing the

decision and finally follow-up to see whether the solution worked.

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References

(n.d.). Retrieved June 02, 2020, from https://www.iep.utm.edu/aristotl/