Reference no: EM13314702

"George Green is president of Gamma Construction Company which is in the process of putting together a written bid to build a new hotel for Global Hotels. It is clear to everyone that Gamma’s chief competitor, Sigma Construction Company, will also be submitting a bid. The company whose bid is selected by Global is expected to earn up to $10 million in profit on the project. It is clear to everyone that no other construction companies will be bidding on the hotel project. Mike Mason is Gamma’s vice president, and is in charge of preparing Gamma’s bid. Once Mike prepares Gamma’s written bid, it will need to be signed by George Green, Gamma’s president. When George returned home last night, he discovered a recorded message left by Mike on George’s home telephone answering machine. Mike’s message said that while Mike had been waiting alone in a conference room at Global Hotel’s headquarters where he was to meet with Global executives earlier that day, he found a piece of paper on the floor. Before putting the paper in the wastebasket in the conference room, Mike noticed that the paper had Sigma Construction Company’s logo on it, so he looked more closely and discovered that it was a photocopy of Sigma’s itemized bid to Global for construction of the hotel. Mike’s recorded message continued by saying that Mike now knew the exact total price at which Sigma was offering to build the hotel. Mike’s recorded message also said that Mike had also learned other important information from the document, namely the prices which suppliers of major components of the building had agreed to provide their goods. Mike said he knew prices which suppliers would charge Sigma for furnishing steel, glass, plumbing and HVAC (heating, ventilating, and air conditioning) equipment. Mike also said he knew the names of suppliers and that all were “mainstream” companies. The prices of “mainstream” companies are usually higher than those of “discount” suppliers. Mike’s recorded message, however, did not mention the total price of Sigma’s overall bid, or the prices which suppliers had quoted Sigma for the components to be used in the building. Mike's message ended by saying that Mike put the Sigma document in the wastebasket before anyone from Global Hotels entered the conference room, and that he had not told anyone other than George about the document and its contents. All of that information was in Mike’s head. After the recorded message ended, George immediately realized that Mike’s knowledge would allow Gamma to find cheaper prices from discount suppliers so that it could prepare a bid to build the hotel for a significantly lower price than Sigma’s bid. It was clear to George that if Gamma used the information which Mike learned from Sigma’s document, Gamma would almost certainly have its bid accepted by Global Hotels. George's conscience, however, was uneasy. He wondered how he should respond to Mike's message and what he should do about preparation of Gamma’s written bid that Global Hotels expected in the next few days. --> Using the Secen Step Process of Ethical Decision Making 1. Determine the relevant facts 2. Identify the ethical issues 3. Develop alternatives for resolving ethical issues 4. Identify the stakeholders for each alternative 5. Evaluate the ethics of each alternative 6. Take stock of the practical constraints 7. Decide on and plan th implementation of an alternative.