Directions

The local community is very important to Gauze and Effect. It is a relatively new nonprofit with limited funding, so it must consider any new partnerships very carefully. Business partnerships could have a major impact on the nonprofit and the communities that it serves.

For this reason, you will need to investigate one of the businesses and its involvement in a controversy. Your work will help Gauze and Effect decide whether to move forward with the proposed partnership.

Follow these steps to develop your analysis and recommendation:

1. Organizer

Choose a business to investigate. To learn more about each company, visit the Businesses and Ethical Dilemmas List. In this project, you will select one of the following companies to investigate:

• Facebook and the data privacy controversy
• Mylan and the overpriced medications controversy
• Southwest and the safety violations controversy
• Volkswagen and the falsified data controversy

Investigate your chosen business and its ethical dilemma. Use the readings in the Businesses and Ethical Dilemmas List to learn more about each company and the ethical issues it faced.

Once you’ve read the resources, use the Organizer to guide your analysis. You’ll need to recommend whether Gauze and Effect should move forward with the proposed partnership.

You can also conduct your own research on the topic. Be sure to select authoritative resources and cite them appropriately.

Analyze the ethical dilemma you chose. Use the Organizer to guide your analysis of the ethical issue and aid in your decision making.

If you conducted any of your own research, make sure that your sources are trustworthy. Remember to cite the sources you use.

2. Email Recommendation to Dr. Lee

Next, write an email to Dr. Lee that summarizes the ethical dilemma and gives your recommendation about the partnership. Your email should include the following items:

• A brief summary of the ethical dilemma
• A description of how you approached the issue
• Your recommendation: Should Gauze and Effect pursue the partnership? This should be based on your analysis of the issue in your Organizer from Part 1.
• A justification for your decision: What other options might have worked? What were some of their advantages and disadvantages?
• A discussion of how your own ethics impacted your decision: Does your decision align with your personal ethics and values?

3. Targeted Message with Explanation:

Dr. Lee agrees with your recommended position on the partnership. Now he wants to share Gauze and Effect’s stance with the local community.

He has asked you to create a proposal that explains how you will create this message. Your proposal should contain the following:

• Your message to the community:

Change your message about ethics to fit a new context while staying true to the original idea behind it. Use the information you gathered in the previous steps to create your message to the local community. Your message should explain Gauze and Effect’s decision on the partnership. You could create anything, from a social media post to a press release.

• Your approach to crafting the public message:

As part of your message to the community, you should also explain how you updated the content for a new audience. Make sure to explain how you used specific ethical theories to create your message.

What to Submit

Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:

1. OrganizerOnce you have read the Businesses and Ethical Dilemmas List, answer the questions in this worksheet and submit it as part of the second deliverable, the email recommendation to Dr. Lee. This will guide your analysis of your chosen ethical issue and help you to make an informed recommendation to Dr. Lee.
2. Email Recommendation to Dr. Lee (300-500 words)Using the information that you gathered in the Organizer document, write an email to Dr. Lee that summarizes the ethical dilemma and gives your recommendation about the partnership. Review the Supporting Materials if you need help crafting a response. 
3. Targeted Message with Explanation (300-500 words)Propose a message to share with the local community. It should convey Gauze and Effect’s decision and explain the ethical theory you used to make the decision.

Project Rubric

OrganizerWhich Resources Can Help? Dissects the ethical issue; examines known facts, stakeholders, and potential options

• Unit Resources: Basic Ethical Concepts
• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

Gives reasons for recommendation and uses an ethical framework as context; references the ethical principles and concepts used to make the decision

• Unit Resources: Basic Ethical Concepts
• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

Email Recommendation Which Resources Can Help? Describes how you approached the ethical issue

• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

Makes a recommendation based on an analysis of the ethical issue; considers causes, known facts, and stakeholders

• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

Discusses the role of your personal ethics and values in your recommendation

• Unit Resources: Basic Ethical Concepts

Targeted Message Proposal Which Resources Can Help? Adapts a message about ethics to fit a new context while maintaining its original purpose

• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

Explains your approach to adapting the content for a different audience; references the specific ethical theories you used

• Unit Resources: Applied Ethics

General Which Resources Can Help? Written answers are clear; use correct grammar, sentence structure, and spelling; and show an understanding of audience and purpose

Lists sources where applicable using citation methods with no major errors