Week 10 questions

Discuss how adoption of the GRI and triple bottom line reporting enables organizations to manage
their risks.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) is a multi-stakeholder process and independent institution,
whose mission is to develop and disseminate globally applicable Sustainability Reporting Guidelines.

The GRI Guidelines are a framework for reporting on an organization's economic, environmental,
and social performance. 

The GRI assists organizations in managing their risks as it supports benchmarking and assessment of
sustainability performance with respect to codes, performance standards, and voluntary initiatives 

Triple Bottom Line Reporting can help organizations manage their risks as they can look at the social
and environmental risks it poses as well as the financial risks.

B&D p. 568 Case Study: Downsize of Bonus Allocation Decisions. Discuss and answer all questions at
end of case study.

What  would your answers be, and what would your reasoning be for each? 
If a termination was required, the people that may be considered are Carol, Jane or Hilary. In this
case, I would choose Carol as she misses deadlines. While Ralph is slow, he is a reliable employee
and has been with the company for the longest. Also, the redundancy package may potentially cost a
lot more than Carol's redundancy package as she has only been at the company for 5 years. While
Hilary makes costly mistakes, they can be used to help her improve her work which can potentially
increase productivity and motivation. Carol missing deadlines indicates carelessness and will be
harder to fix than Carol's mistakes. In terms of the bonus, I would give $15,000 to Gord as he is the
better performing analyst compared to Carol (who currently earns $12,000 more) and the remaining
$5000 would go to Jane.

B&D p. 571-572 Case Study: Jail and a German Subcontractor. Discuss the facts of this case in the
context of cultural perspective of ethics and answer all questions at end of case study.

Is this a fair law?

While the point of this law is to ensure that the executives are continuously aware and engage in
proper hiring practices, this law is unfair in this case. As a vice president, Harold would have many
responsibilities and hiring a subcontractor is probably something he has done many times and would
be considered a task that does not require as much importance compared to other tasks.

If you were  Harold Johns, how would you ensure that Barranca executives and Barranca itself would
never be vulnerable to such problems again?
To ensure this never happens again, Harold must re-look at the screening process for hiring
subcontractors, so this never happens again.
 Collecting knowledge about local legalities and customs
 Raising the awareness of executives and employees to the problem areas and to the
recognition of sensitive areas
 Design of a code of conduct that integrates desired behaviour
 Sign Offs of the code by new employees and suppliers, and also annual signoffs
  Training sessions  and  other notifications  to reinforce  expectations of proper behaviour
 Verification that company policies were followed by internal auditors or other means

B&D p. 572 Case Study: Aids Medication in South Africa. Discuss the facts of this case in the context
of cultural perspective of ethics and answer all questions at end of case study.

Is  it  legal,  moral,  or ethical  for  South Africa  to  override  AIDS medication patents? 
Whilst it is legal, or ethical towards the companies that have made the drug, it is morally the right
thing to do, IF the government is ensuring that people that require the medication are receiving it at
an affordable price.

Currently, legality depends upon the definition of a ‘national emergency’.  However,the Government
of South Africa can change their laws to make their interpretation legal.  It would be illegal based on
World Trade Organization (WTO) rules, but this is unlikely to be enforced except in the long term

Is it legal, moral, or ethical for drug patent holders to resist? 

Drug patent holders have the legal right to resist patent overrides. It is not moral or ethical,
however. While it may be legal, resistance without a humanitarian alternative program is likely to be
considered unethical. While the costs of R&D need to be recovered and a reasonable return earned
for shareholders to encourage them to continue to support innovation, new humanitarian programs
must respond to real needs as they arise.

If you were a  senior  executive  in  an affected drug patent holder, what solution would you
suggest? 
If I were a senior executive, I would first consider the company's financial security. If the company
had an agreement with the government of a third world country to forego the payment for the
patents and sell the medicine at cost price,I would first ensure that the government does not sell the
medication to more developed countries that can afford the medication at full cost as our company
would need those funds to survive.