Running head: DOES THIS MILKSHAKE TASTE FUNNY?

Does This Milkshake Taste Funny?

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 DOES THIS MILKSHAKE TASTE FUNNY 2

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

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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
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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
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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).

There is an article titled “A Matter of Context: A Meta-Analytical Investigation of the

Relative Validity of Contextualized and Noncontextualized Personality Measures by Shaffer.

In this article, Shaffer takes the five major factors and then applies the person interaction

theory. This theory argues that personality is not necessarily a consistent predictor of

behavior that is across various situations (Shaffer 2012).The environment is also considered

along with the types of personalities that strengthens the validity of the Big Five factor test. It

also considers the validity that concerns personality relations with both the behavior and

performance of the job (Grant, 2013).

According to Belcourt, McBey and McBey (2010), George may be argued that he can

have an extravert personality type due to some of George’s interests and activities. George is

seen as very sociable by his friends and coworkers due to his capabilities to adopt different

work environment. He is also considered sociable because of his interests to hang out the

local gathering place for the teen that is the drive-in restaurant. His act of joining the union at

the Eastern dairy shows the need for belongingness. George also has the ability to get along

with the co-workers through his assertiveness and talkativeness. These abilities can be
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attributed by George’s ambitions to make marriage arrangements at the end of sophomore

year and also going through school. He has a positive attitude and goals. This extra-version

personality is a predictor towards sales positions and management roles (Robbins. 2013). The

individuals who have management potentials have the qualities that reflect that George might

act ethically in this given situation. Given this situation an extrovert personality would

behave in a manner that is relevant to his personality type (Shaffer, 2012). It can be argued

that George would act ethically in his activity which regards the removal of the Eastern Dairy

filters (Gronum, Verreynne and Kastelle, 2012).

The other reason why he may act ethically is because of the McGregor’s XY Theory.

Douglas McGregor has been famous due to his inspirational models of approaching human

nature. The first theory states that the employees dislike and also avoids work and thus they

will find themselves in an environment difficult to control. The second theory states that the

organizational activities are the origin of personal satisfaction. Managers are encouraged to

view employees in a positive, but in contrasting some attributes given to the theory X and

later to theory Y and which characteristics that encompass George. I would argue that

through George’s ambitions and membership all in the efforts to improve himself, he actually

enjoys his work. He is also looking for the advancement chances and exercises self-direction

via engagement to Cathy and college enrollment. Thus, if George considers his employment

as a source of his individual satisfaction he would take the action of stopping the pollutants

from engaging in the contamination of the mix in the firm. For this reason, one would believe

that he would behave ethically and thus not pull the filters (Kuvaas, 2011).

what I believe that George should have done

I believe that George pulled the filters and went on producing for that particular night.

With the evidence that support George’s job dissatisfaction through his learned environment,

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two factor theory he will continue to produce.
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He has a nice pay and the social environment is also enforcing production. Nonetheless, I

believe he will go on with his pursuit to inform the upper management on the quality control

efforts that the night staff enacts. George wants to bridge the gap between his behaviors and

attitudes in the Cognitive Dissonance Theory. With his disgust of the process and his positive

attitude will in the long last lead to a decision to inform the management about quality control

efforts at Eastern Dairy. This has also been accentuated by the McGregor’s XY theory and

personality theories as explained above (Fassin, Van Rossem and Buelens, (2011).

Recommendations on what George stein should have done

According to Bageac, Furrer and Reynaud (2011), George should encourage the

managers to develop a quality control and quality management systems. This would ensure

that the stuff behaviour, administration and quality of products are all in control. George

should also encourage the company to design a monitoring situation. He can advise the

company to set a superintendent at night who will monitor stuff as well as quality production.

I would suggest that Eastern Dairy create a code of ethics so that the employees know the

specific types of behaviours that are expected in honouring these values. George should also

advise the management to establish an ethical concept as well as corporate social

responsibility to the stuff. George should also encourage the managers to try and improve the

culture of the organization. Eastern dairy should also create a code of ethics to govern the

employees on their expected behaviours and how they should resources to assist them in

making ethical decisions (Dennis, 2011).

Action plan of how George should have handled the situation

According to (Neck and Greene, 2011), George should have begun by helping the

other workers to see the potential damage that the 500 pounds of the contaminated milkshake

would cause the company. He should show them the reactions of the customers once they

found out that the company does not care. He should then advise the workers to help clean
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the filters and use them in production for the night. Later George should have convinced the

employees to forward the issue of the maggots and the faulty filters to the managers to help

the management team to make necessary adjustments. He should also have convinced the

management on the long-term effects of producing contaminated gallons of the milkshake

mix (Calabretta, Durisin and Ogliengo, (2011).

Link: Retrieved from http://www.scribd.com/doc/169502078/Milkshake-Case-Study-

Does-This-Milkshake-Taste-Funny.
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References

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