Reference no: EM134008488

Assignment:

Melissa works for a small company that tests electronics products before they are released to the market. The company performs independent quality assurance tests to certify that the products meet all government regulation standards.

Melissa's company signs a contract with a large cell phone company; this contract is the first major contract the company has received and has the potential to greatly increase their revenue. Melissa is then assigned to conduct all the tests on the cell phone company's latest product which contains a lithium-ion battery.

In February 2018, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reported over 25,000 overheating or fire incidents involving more than 400 types of lithium battery- powered consumer products occurred over a five-year period. As a result, they are required to be tested in accordance with UL 2054 and, where applicable, certified by a testing lab such as Melissa's.

Melissa conducts all the tests and finds that the phone is up to regulation on almost all tests. However, the product fails to meet the Federal regulation requirements for lithium battery safety. Melissa knows that this test is not always reliable and repeats it a couple more times.

While she is repeating the test, the president of the phone company (Vanessa) visits her in the lab to see how the testing is going. When Melissa tells her that the product is consistently failing the lithium battery safety test, the president proceeds to tell her, "That is truly unfortunate as there are literally hundreds of people whose livelihood depends on the release of this new product." Additionally, she tells Melissa that she has worked as a test engineer herself and knows the test is not always accurate, and it would be in everybody's best interest if Melissa could just go ahead approve the phone. "After all," Vanessa says "you have a 50/50 chance of being right!"

Melissa is shocked that the president would come up to her in the lab and imply that she should falsify data. She is unsure of what to do and knows that if she stands up to the president, her company could lose out on the large phone company's business. But if the product is not certified for release, hundreds of people could lose their jobs.

1. Who is the protagonist and who are the primary stakeholders?

2. What are the ethical issues?

3. What could the protagonist do?

4. What should the protagonist do - and WHY?