Kaushik Chaudhuri Case Study in Business Ethics Course for MBA, Shiv Nadar University, only for teaching and discussion.

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Alia’s case

Alia is the office manager for a Grocery Distribution warehouse in Gurgaon, NCR.

Alia’s facility is part of a large US based conglomerate that wholesales and

distributes gourmet specialty food products throughout the Northern part of India.

Alia’s been at Grocery Distribution for four years, starting as an administrative

assistant in the sales department. She was promoted to office manager 18 months

ago and reports directly to the district manager, Sallu Mia. Alia likes her job. She

enjoys her co-workers and hopes to make a long-term career at Grocery

Distribution. As a single parent of two young daughters, she was delighted with the

salary increase that came with her promotion. Sallu is a new district manager for

the Gurgaon facility. He has made some changes in the structure of the

organization, which, for the most part, have been well received by the staff. Kate

is the receptionist. She works at the front desk, greeting visitors, scheduling

appointments and taking care of the mail. Alia is Kat’s supervisor.

Kate recently went through a difficult divorce, and now that she lives alone, Alia

knows that Kate struggles to make ends meet on her receptionist’s salary. Outside

of work, Kate is active in community theatre. At Kate’s most recent opening night,

Alia and several other Grocery Distribution employees were in the front row of the

theatre cheering on Kate’s starring performance. Kate had some rough patches

during the divorce, when she was understandably distracted, but overall, Alia is

pleased with Kate’s work. Kate has received positive performance appraisals.

Sallu Mia does not like Kate. He claims that she is careless and makes far too

many mistakes, and with her casual attire, she doesn’t “look good” at the front

desk. “Besides,” he says, “she’s not really that interested in her job. That

community theatre thing takes way too much of her time.” When Kate asked to

take the morning off the day after her opening night, Sallu commented that now

she’s undependable and insisted that Alia talk to Kate about it, even though Kate

seldom misses work and her absence that morning was easily covered by other

staff.

Friday morning, Alia is called into Sallu’s office. It has been a busy week because

Sallu is getting ready to leave for a two-week vacation. Several projects must be

completed or offloaded to other staff before he leaves. It was decided that Alia

would take care of some of Sallu’s projects while he is gone, and she is confident

things will go well in his absence. While Alia is gathering up her papers at the end

of the meeting, Sallu says, “There’s just one more thing, Alia. While I’m gone, I

want you to document Kate’s poor performance and write up an appraisal on her.

Kaushik Chaudhuri Case Study in Business Ethics Course for MBA, Shiv Nadar University, only for teaching and discussion.

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Have the paperwork on my desk and ready for me to sign when I get back, and

then you can terminate her. I want her out of here within the next 30 days.”

Alia is stunned. She knows Sallu dislikes Kate, but she is not sure how she can

document Janet’s “poor” performance because she believes Kate is a good

employee. Any time she has talked to Kate about Sallu’s concerns, Kate has tried

to improve. Kate knows Sallu does not like her, and she has made it clear to Alia

that if Sallu has any problems with her work, she wants to know immediately so

she can correct the problem. “I don’t want to lose my job,” she’s told Alia.

Alia wonders what to do. Grocery Distribution has a published Code of Ethics,

and there is an HR department at headquarters in Mumbai , but there is no HR

representative at Alia’s facility in Gurgaon.

What would you recommend to Alia? What consequences may occur as the result

of her actions?