Centurion Media: Business Ethics

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Evaluation of Fowler’s Behavior
Bennett’s Dilemma and Options
Recommendations
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Joseph Fowler was named CEO of Centurion Media in 1999, joining the team after serving in Northpark. His organizational shift implied a change of organizational culture. Joseph Fowler performed many behaviors that were unethical and had negative repercussions. These problems and their repercussions may have been averted if he had gotten proper training and Centurion Media had created an effective company culture.

Evaluation of Fowler’s Behavior

The activities of Joseph Fowler need ethical reflection. Despite his efforts to defend Centurion Media’s values, his actions and judgments were not based on optimal ethical considerations. His action to broker a contract between Centurion and Northpark for cheaper advertising is a blatant breach of fiduciary duty. According to the fiduciary duty, every leader must make judgments and take activities that benefit all stakeholders in any business. Care, secrecy, loyalty, obedience, and accounting are examples of fiduciary obligations. The duty of loyalty obligates directors to avoid acting on personal interest in transactions involving the company and the third party. The duty of care is a legal responsibility placed on a person that requires adherence to a reasonable degree of care when conducting activities that might plausibly injure others. Joseph Fowler disregarded both duties by negotiating the agreement and signing the contract without informing the stakeholders. Centurion’s stakeholders include its workers, investors, shareholders, top management, present advertising purchasers, and marketing agencies. Because this decision had a substantial and possible negative influence on the majority of these stakeholders, it was immoral not to tell them in advance.

Procedural justice is built upon four key ideas involving understanding, voice, neutrality and respect. Fowler demonstrated a violation of each of those values as the key stakeholders in this deal were not consulted. The benefits sold to Northpark would be detrimental to existing sponsors and those on yearly contracts with Centurion Media because even if they paid in advance, their advertisements would not be given priority. This would cause them to portray the corporation as greedy corporate crooks, ruining Centurion Media’s pubic image and reputation among prospective investors, workers, and consumers. He deprived stakeholders of their voice in the discussion of the deal. Fowler demonstrated no compassion towards possible harm that this deal could bring, hence the breach in understanding. Respect and neutrality do not seem to be followed as the transaction seems to benefit Fowler only while damaging the public image of stakeholders.

Utilitarianism is a moral philosophy that argues for activities that promote happiness or pleasure while opposing actions that cause misery or damage. A utilitarian ideology would seek the welfare of society as a whole while making social, economic, or political choices (Marseille & Kahn, 2019). Therefore, a person that follows utilitarianism would consider the action of Fowler as immoral as the amount of utility or happiness it brings is lower in contrast to the harm. In this situation, his views and choices indicate a personal motivation to improve his compensation. Joseph Fowler was determined to boost the company’s yearly sales and profits at any cost, which included providing Northpark commercial space at steep discounts. He was eager to boost his income so that he could enhance his income via bonuses, gifts, and performance-based incentives. This resulted in happiness for him, but he fired any employee who disagreed with his ideals, reducing their happiness. Fowler did not undertake enough study or forecast the financial impact of this choice on the workers in the long run. Their incomes and benefits would be reduced in the near term, which was exacerbated by the fact that they were not informed in advance. This suggests that Joseph Fowler created a situation with a long-term prospect of unhappiness for many people.

Bennett’s Dilemma and Options

Richard Bennett was perplexed by Joseph Fowler’s choice to accept a deal with Northpark. His subsequent actions were confined to three possibilities, each with its own repercussions. First, Richard could have opted to challenge Fowler’s behaviour directly. Richard might utilize his position as Vice President to bring this unethical behaviour to the attention of the company’s board. This, however, would have required a confrontation and criticism of Fowler’s methodology. Any employee who questioned his views and practices was fired during all of Fowler’s management tenures. Richard would be fired because Joseph Fowler had persuaded corporate representatives that his plan was viable and that they were ready to take the risk.

Richard’s second choice is to ignore the problem and let things evolve according to Joseph Fowler’s plan. Both Richard and Vicki Porter’s employment would be saved if this option was chosen. Richard would also continue to support his family, and his eventual retirement would enable him to collect his pension. Internal friction would, however, erupt inside the institution. Employees would choose to accept Fowler’s lack of ethical awareness but would be forced to act afterwards. The arbitrary dismissal of workers and the terrifying working circumstances would compel one of the employees to reveal the unethical concerns to the appropriate person. Centurion’s income and the public image would suffer as a result.

Finally, Richard Bennett would opt to ignore the situation at work but confront Fowler outside of it. This might be feasible by befriending Fowler at work and arranging a casual encounter with him, such as asking him to a weekend amusement. This would allow Richard to explain to Fowler courteously the action he decided to conduct and the potential implications. Fowler may be persuaded to listen if he is informed about the potential implications of his actions to the firm, stakeholders, and himself. The key stakeholders in each options are Bennett and Vicki as their jobs depend on these actions.

Recommendations

The third option is the safest route out of all the suggested scenarios. Confrontation bears risks for everyone, while feigning ignorance would result in the diminished efficacy of Bennett’s team. Therefore, the third scenario, where Richard directly confronts Fowler outside of the work environment, is the most effective scenario. However, this scenario may work under the condition that Fowler would be a person of reason and will demonstrate compassion to other workers, which he failed to do in his previous firings. Consequently, the chance of making a change would be diminished. However, Bennet may also continue trying to approach Fowler with other workers and discuss a clear strategy for changing the opinion of the top management with pressure from the masses. Although it will result in a strained relationship with top management, the effectiveness of the such strategy will be much higher in comparison.

If Fowler were a wiser man, he would be pushed to reassess his approach to ethics and company policies since his choice to sign the contract demonstrates a lack of understanding of the general company configuration and objectives. If Fowler behaved badly during Bennett and Porter’s altercation outside of the workplace, he would still have a lot to worry about in terms of the ramifications for Centurion Media and his personal reputation. His future judgments and activities would be guided by strict ethical concerns, which would benefit Centurion Media. Richard, as a staunch defender of ethics, should explore this option. This is because it poses little danger to his and Vicki’s jobs while benefiting the organization.

In the end, the failure of the company to recognize the problem in Fowler’s management reflects a fundamental problem of bureaucracy. Top management is inaccessible to those of lower rank, and core decisions are unquestionable. The company needs a definitive reassessment of its core values and stakeholders to follow a more effective strategy with minimized risks for its employees. Consequently, the decisions should have been made in a way that would address the ethical values of the company.

The company may utilize two alternatives to avoid such a predicament in the future. First, the company’s structure should be rebuilt by stressing the utilitarian approach and fiduciary responsibilities. Centurion Media should create and execute a successful culture that emphasizes stakeholder rights and duties, suitable communication channels, and an open-door policy for staff. This would reduce the rejection of relevant parties when making crucial choices, improve timely communication with workers about the same, and prevent instances of arbitrary dismissal and other types of power abuse by top management.

The second alternative, before taking on additional duties, Centurion Media should educate all new workers, including senior management, on the company’s basic principles and the appropriate code of ethics. If Fowler had been taught this before taking over as CEO, he would have been eager to assess the implications of the acquisition for the stakeholders and the business. He would have also included the relevant stakeholders in the transaction analysis, and the implied problem would not have happened.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that there is a need to restructure the internal settings of Centurion Media. The company under the CEO Joseph Fowler was following immoral practices from the perspective of utilitarianism. Fowler has broken his key fiduciary duties of care and loyalty. His practice deviated from principles of procedural justice and caused numerous negative consequences for the stakeholders of the company.

Reference

Marseille, E., & Kahn, J. G. (2019). Utilitarianism and the ethical foundations of cost-effectiveness analysis in resource allocation for Global Health.Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 14(1).

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