Chapter 3 - A Firm Production Date

1. Tom was obviously overconfident in the final stage of the testing process, but was
his behavior unethical? Why or why not?
In this case, Tom’s behaviour was unethical to the company. Tom had promise and
assured Scott that the product will be finish through RnD process at the exact time but it
is not. Tom also had dilemma between to make the things done without care the quality
or make a complete RnD by exceed the time should be done. Conflict happened between
Tom and Scott who are responsible in the RnD department and marketing department.
When the production cannot make it on the time, so problem might happened which
marketing department had promise the customers and dealers about the product. When
the product cannot deliver to the client at the exact time so will affect the company
reputation. It is important to achieve customers and dealers expectation to maintain the
company good image. To overcome this situation, Tom should have a backup plan which
to handle the risk might happen.

2. Given Scott’s concerns over R&D’s credibility, should he have taken Tom’s
production date as being absolutely firm?
Given Scott’s concerns over R&D’s credibility, Scott should not have taken Tom’s
production date as being absolutely firm. This is because if Scott was concerned about
R&D’s credibility as what showed in the case study, Scott should have keep follow-up
the progress reports and or the test results frequently in order to make sure that the
production date is locked in as what had been scheduled. Scott need to alert and aware of
the Tom’s word or promises as there was incident happened before, for instances during
the water purifier affair. Scott may need to think the alternative actions before he start to
commit to major ad campaign as things can go wrong even in the best situations, and
Scott should have been prepared of it so that it would not affect the customers’
expectation toward firm’s reputation and image if there were unexpected problems
happened before the production date.

3. In the fact, Scott was so skeptical of Tom’s production date that he recorded their
original conversation without Tom’s knowledge and then produced the recording
when Tom denied giving a firm production date. Tom responded:” You taped my
conversation without telling me! That’s unethical.” Was it?
Yes it is unethical, one tapping their conversation have to acknowledge by both people.
R&D firm is carrying the responsibility for the future growth of the organization and they
need to offering the better, faster or cheaper product which can attract more customer and
to prevent they lost customers. On the same time their products also have to be the
highest quality, safety and reliability. Even though Tom has no credibility with marketing,
Scott also cannot tapped their conversation without acknowledge. I think that Scott could
use another way to make sure Tom can make their promise for example through contract
agreement but not only verbally to have this promise. However, Tom also need to be

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 honest for his own promise but not change the way he was assure to the deadline he gave
to Scott.

4. Has Scott’s behavior damaged future relations between marketing and R&D? In
what way? How could this situation have been avoided?
Yes. From Scott’s opening remarks, the relationship weren’t that good to begin with, but
the behaviors on both sides of this situation have really just confirmed the suspicions of
both sides and cemented the mutual distrust even further. Scott’s approach was
accusatory and demanding which led Tom to conceal critical information for fear of
inciting Scott’s wrath and the inevitable “I told you so”. Scott’s decision to secretly tape
the meeting simply confirmed Tom’s low opinion of Scott as being devious and only out
of himself. This situation could be avoided in case there is an open and honest dialogue
between Scott and Tom. An ongoing communication pattern that disclose every single
information, discussing about the solution or back up plan could be a better choice for
them.

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