Prashanti Technologies:

A workplace romance
ethical dilemma
By Group A2
Deepak | Nikhil | Rahul Kaul | Richa | Sanjay

Executive summary of the case

1.
2.
3.

4.

Affair between VP and head of the FS division and

the product manager
The relationship appeared to be mutual
Bypassing Senior product manager Praveen and
complaint that he was becoming an obstacle in
her career.
Arun to HR Manager, Smita has worked on
special projects that her team leader is not privy
of.

Executive summary of the case

1.
2.
3.

Arun promised to take care of Praveen this

year.
Resignation of Laxman over rude speaking and
shouting issue.
Laxman said he was happy to be out of
Prashanti.
The
company
culture
and
environment was getting affected. Ill omen of
upcoming HR trouble.

Causes of Conflict of Interest

Paragraph

1 of the conflict of interest document

Involvement in relationship with company employee breached

point (a)
Position of deriving personal benefits breached point (b)
Because of the affair, the independent judgement went for a
toss. This breached point (c)

Areas of Conflict of Interest

Paragraph

2 of the conflict of interest document

Setting Smita up for big projects and clients was a clear breach
of the point (a)
Award of benefits breached point (b)
The interest of the company was indeed being compromised.
Point (c)

What to do?
Avoid

PDA
Dont discuss your relations with coworker:
Coworkers will gossip
Follow companys code of conduct
Dont keep it a secret from your boss. Talk with
your boss.
The affair shouldnt impact your work.
On the basis of the audit firms report all evidences
suggest serious breaches of companys code of
conduct and therefore Mr. Arun and Smita must be
tried.

Sleep test ethics

Lady

Macbeth how does it make you feel?

Ethics of intuition do what feels right
Me-ism = personally tailored religion by himself
Nintendo generation: nothing has to be fixed or
final by Kenichi Ohmai
However Aristotle believed that a moral intuition,
however clear and heartfelt, could not certify its
own moral soundness. Because there are people
who sleep soundly even after committing great
crimes.

Aristotle and sleep test

Hitler

sleeping well and Mother Teresa having

sleep problems.
The golden rule = One should treat others as one
would like others to treat oneself
Courage, justice, prudence and temperance

Sleep tests
When

faced with a difficult problem, looking deep

inside the soul, one may find reruns of TV
commercials or entertainment shows.
Intuition may not answer the question but
highlight the difficulty of the problem.
Managers must explain and justify their decision in
terms other can understand.
We cant outlaw sleep test because we inevitably
rely on our intuition. We are irrational, emotional
beings not objective machines.

The question is how to rely on our

ethical intuitions?
Oskar

Schindler knew what was right and he

knew it directly, swiftly and intuitively.
Epiphany -Wake up call, the girl in the red
Why it works?
Sleep test ethics is deeply personal
pragmatism

Expressive individualism
Development of the moral fiber and ways of
refining the intuitions.

Framework for reflection

Aristotle:

Instead of know the rules, know thyself

Ethical behavior should not be the outcome of laborious
calculation and reflection; it should be immediate,
spontaneous and governed by intuition.
In short Aristotle's criterion to use sleep test ethics was
me-ism.
A sound ethical intuition can be articulated and
explained to others
Grand principles define the boundaries between right
and wrong
William James: Give us lots of facts and give us plenty
of principles.