Tanima Islam
AMM-103, 0078.
Case Study#01
Chapter-05
10/30/08
Page 1 of 5
Discussion Questions
1. Evaluate this situation from the view point of David Edmondson’s ethical leadership.
What could Radio Shack have done differently?
In this world some people want money and power. To gain these two things often people
choose the wrong ways. David Edmondson is one of them, because he cheated on his
resume. David Edmondson is a fraud that means he is not an ethical leader at all. Because of
Edmondson’s cheating his company RadioShack faced losses, so he didn’t do ethical
leadership in his workplace. If a manager cheats, lies, steals, manipulates, take advantages of
situations, or treat others unfairly that is not an ethical behavior. That is called unethical
behavior. We can see lying on David Edmondson’s case, so we can say that he didn’t
behave as an ethical leader.
According to the text, “Ethical leadership is known as our core values and having the
courage to live them in all parts of our life in service of the common good.” Before entering to a
company a manager should know what is ethical leadership. If a manager doesn’t know what
ethical leadership is, then he/she will never fulfill their job properly. If a manager doesn’t have
knowledge about ethical leadership then he will do unethical things in a company. Also,
unethical leadership can create many problems, such as ethical lapses and social irresponsibility.
To prevent all of these things in an organization we have to give ethics training, independent
social audits and also give knowledge about formal protective mechanisms.
Tanima Islam
AMM-103, 0078.
Case Study#01
Chapter-05
10/30/08
Page 2 of 5
Radio Shack could have fired Mr. Edmondson, but before fire anybody they need to
background check, can check references, and hired someone outside to check independly
how Radio Shack getting losses and benefits.
2. What stakeholders might be impacted by this situation? What concerns might each stakeholder
have had? Were any of the stakeholder concerns in conflict with each other? Explain. What
impact might this have had on employees?
Robins and Coulter says, “Stake holders are any constituencies in the organization’s
environment that are affected by the organizations decisions and actions.” So in that case, Radio
Shack stakeholders might be impacted by the Edmondson’s unethical leadership. These
stakeholders might be concerned about their position, because this organization decision will
affect their relationship with RadioShack. They might be concerned will they get benefit from
Edmondson firing. Maybe radio shacks decision will harm stakeholder’s relationship with it.
Also, their concern can turn into conflict, because stakeholders don’t trust Radio Shack. If this
kind of unethical behavior rise in a company then stakeholders will not trust an organization so it
can create a problem, and that will give a bad impression to an organization.
Employees are also stake holders. Unethical behavior will also give a bad impression to them.
So employees will not trust to an organization. They can leave the job, so the company can face a
lack of workers. However, we can say that unethical behavior is always bad for an organization.
Tanima Islam
AMM-103, 0078.
Case Study#01
Chapter-05
10/30/08
Page 3 of 5
3. Do you think the board’s decision to fire Edmondson was “tough” as Len Roberts suggested?
Why or why not? Why do you think Mr. Roberts would have described this decision as such?
The board’s decision to fire Edmondson was “tough,” as Len Roberts suggested, but in
terms of ethics it is not at all tough decision, because Edmondson’s behavior violates the
company’s ethics and morality. Not only he does violate the company’s morality, but also
because of him the company faced losses for long time. If the Edmondson didn’t lie on his
resume then that decision could not be tough for him, however, he is a liar, so I don’t think that
decision was tough for him. Mr. Roberts describes this decision as such, because it may harm
Radio Shack’s reputation. Also, maybe company will face more losses if they flash out this
thing, that’s why Len Roberts described this decision as such.
4. What impact do you think the company’s severance package to Mr. Edmondson’s might have?
The severance package that Mr. Edmondson’s got while he was a CEO, it was his working
compensation. No matter how he cheats with company, but radio shack has done their job
properly. The company didn’t cheat with Mr. Edmondson. Radio shack gives Mr.
Edmondson’s more than $1.03 million dollars and so many facilities. So we can say that
radio shack did their job ethically.
5. Could an organization ever prevent a situation like this from happening? Why or why not?
What could they do? How could the company’s code of ethics play a role?
Tanima Islam
AMM-103, 0078.
Case Study#01
Chapter-05
10/30/08
Page 4 of 5
An organization will prevent this kind of situation if they adopt the company’s code of ethics.
According to the text, “Code of ethics is a formal statement of an organization’s primary values
and the ethical rules it expects its employees to follow.” If an organization manager knows what
a code of ethics is then before doing any wrong thing they will think what they are going to do,
but if they don’t know what is code of ethics then it is difficult for them to know what they are
going to do. The managers also need to know what ethics is. “Ethics is principles, values, and
beliefs that define what is right and wrong behavior.” Because ethics comes first then comes
code of ethics. They are combined with each others, so a manager must need to understand what
is ethics then he/she can follow the code of ethics.
Code of ethics plays a major role for an organization. Code of ethics shows how to be a
dependable organizational citizen, dependable organizational citizen shows safety, health and
security regulation. This cluster has nine rules. Second cluster says do not do anything unlawful
or improper that will harm the organization. This cluster has eleven rules. The last cluster says be
good to customers, and it has three rules. If any organization manager knows all of these clusters
then it will be easy to prevent unethical behavior in an organization.
6. In the March 2004 issue of Wired magazine, it reported that 44 percent of Americans lie about
their work history. What’s your reaction to this statistics? What problem can lying on a resume
create for an organization?
To tell a lie is bad every time. Lie is lie no matter what reason behind it, and tell a lie about
work history is more horrible than other lie. In March 2004 wired magazine reported that 44
Tanima Islam
AMM-103, 0078.
Case Study#01
Chapter-05
10/30/08
Page 5 of 5
percent of Americans tell lies about their work history. It is an extremely bad sign for our
economy. This kind’s of unethical behavior is bad for our society and an organization. We
have to prevent these kinds of ethical issues. T o prevent this kind of unethical issues we
have to find a whistle blower. According to the text, “A whistle-blower is a person who
raises ethical concerns or issues to others inside or outside the organization.” These kinds of
unethical behavior Whistle-blower can fix, because they are willingly come forward to
expose those person who are doing their job unethically.
In addition, tell a lie about their resume can create a major problem in an organization,
because when people tell a lie about their resume that means they have lack on that side.
Maybe they are not really graduate from college, or they don’t have work experience and so
on. If a person join to any job with all of these then an organization will never get an honest
person, also company can face losses because of inexperienced people, so telling a lie can
create a major problem in an organization. However, before appoint a person to a job we
should check their background so we can prevent these kinds of unethical behavior.