Critical Thinking Exercises

1. Give an example of an action that fits in each of the four quadrants of the legal versus ethical chart shown in Figure 1-2—ethical and legal, ethical and illegal, unethical and illegal, and unethical and legal.
2. Critical Thinking Exercise: Cut Testing Short
   You are a new hire at a large software firm and have been working overtime for the last two months trying to complete the final testing of a new software release for the firm’s flagship product, which is used by thousands of organizations worldwide. Unfortunately, the software has many bugs and testing has taken weeks longer than expected. This afternoon your boss stopped by and asked you to “sign off” on the completion of your portion of the testing. He explains that the project has gone over budget and is in danger of missing the committed release date for customers. When you object because you feel the software is still buggy, he says not to worry, whatever bugs remain will be fixed in the next release of the software. What do you do?
3. Critical Thinking Exercise: Oracle CSR Program
   Oracle Corporation, a multinational computer technology company with headquarters in Redwood City, California, offers a comprehensive and fully integrated set of cloud applications, platform services, and engineered systems. Oracle has 132,000 employees and more than 420,000 customers, and its software is deployed in more than 145 countries. For fiscal year 2016, the company’s total revenue was $37.0 billion, with net income of $8.9 billion. Oracle has set corporate social responsibility goals in the areas of sustainability, education, giving, and volunteering. Develop two goals for each of these areas that you feel would be reasonable for Oracle to achieve. Download the 2016 Oracle Corporate Citizenship Report at https://www.oracle.com/corporate/citizenship/index.html. After reviewing the report, comment on the difference between the goals you identified and Oracle’s actual programs.
4. Critical Thinking Exercise: Regulating CSR Spending

Section 135 of the India Companies Act of 2013 requires companies with net worth, revenue, or net profit above certain established thresholds to spend at least 2 percent of their average net profit of the preceding three years on CSR activities. The act has had a major impact in increasing spending on CSR activities in India. Four of the country’s top IT service firms—Tata Consultancy Services Ltd., Wipro Ltd, Infosys Ltd., and Tech Mahindra Ltd.—spent about $96 million on CSR activities within India during the first year this rule was in effect. That is 4.7 times the amount they spent on CSR initiatives the previous year, when the rule was not yet in effect. Collectively, these four firms generate over $35 billion in annual revenue.
The companies’ CSR activities include efforts to eradicate hunger, poverty, and disease; promote education, gender equality, and women’s empowerment; reduce child mortality; improve healthcare and sanitation; and provide safe drinking water.
Does mandated CSR spending by all organizations within a particular country or market reduce the benefits an individual organization can expect to gain from its CSR programs? Do you think the United States should pass a law similar to Section 135 of the India Companies Act? Why or why not? If so, should the amount required for CSR spending be higher than two percent of average net profit?

5. Critical Thinking Exercise: How Does Your Employer Rate?
   Audit your most recent place of employment using the checklist in Table 1-4. Assign one point for each “yes” answer. What is your employer’s score? What changes would you like to see made within your organization to improve that score?
   Table 1-4
6. Critical Thinking Exercise: An Overwhelmed Employee

You are the customer support manager for a small software manufacturer. The newest addition to your 10-person team is Elliot, a recent college computer science graduate. She is a little overwhelmed by the volume of calls, but is learning quickly and doing her best to keep up. Today, over lunch, one of the other members of your team informed you that she overheard a phone conversation in which it sounded like Elliot was talking with a headhunter and expressing unhappiness with her current situation. You’re shocked and alarmed. You had no idea she was unhappy, and your team desperately needs her help to handle the onslaught of calls generated by the newest release of software. If you’re going to lose her, you’ll need to find a replacement quickly. Should you confront Elliot and demand to know her intentions? Should you avoid any confrontation and simply begin seeking her replacement? Is some other action appropriate? Follow the five-step process for ethical decision making to decide what your next steps should be.

7. Critical Thinking Exercise: CIO Surprises CFO

You are the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a midsized manufacturing firm with annual revenue exceeding $100 million. You have heard nothing but positive comments about the new Chief Information Officer (CIO) you hired three months ago. As you listen to her outline what needs to be done to improve the firm’s computer security, you are impressed with her energy, enthusiasm, and presentation skills. However, your jaw drops when she states that the total cost of the proposed computer security improvements will be $250,000. This seems like a lot of money for security, given that your firm has had no major incident. Several other items in the budget will either have to be dropped or trimmed back to accommodate such an expenditure. In addition, the $250,000 is above your spending authorization and will require approval by the CEO. This will require you to defend the expenditure, and you are not sure how to do this. As you look around the conference room, you can see that other members of your staff are just as surprised as you. What serious mistake has the CIO made and how could this have been avoided?