Description

Brooklyn College School of Business

Assurance of Learning – Ethics

November 2016 – “Martha McCaskey” HBS Case

Instructions to Students

Estimated time to purchase, read, and write essays (5 hours, 15 minutes)

1. Please purchase the Martha McCaskey case from Harvard Business School ($6.93).  In the search

box on the top of the screen, please type (or paste) Martha McCaskey. Select the Martha McCaskey case

and add to your cart. Click “checkout” on the upper right of the screen. Purchase and read the case

2. Read the Harvard Business School case Martha McCaskey. Then please complete the following

assignment.

It is a Sunday afternoon.

[4pm] You are getting ready to watch a movie on NetFlix before going out to an early dinner with friends.

You’re winding down from the workweek and a busy Saturday when the phone rings. It’s a San Francisco

number and you wonder who it could be. You pick up the phone, and it’s one of your old classmates from

Brooklyn College who got a job with a prestigious consulting firm. It’s Martha McCaskey. It’s a pleasant

surprise. Martha sat next to you in Principles of Accounting and you became good friends, but you have

both been working long hours since graduating and you haven’t spoken to Martha for almost a year.

You and Martha chitchat about the exciting developments at your jobs, and she shares with you some of

the challenges she is facing at her job. After chatting for some time, you need to say goodbye to Martha

in order to join some friends for dinner.

[9pm] Throughout dinner, you could not stop thinking about Martha and her difficult situation at work.

It sounds like Martha faced a dilemma, although she didn’t use that exact word. Martha’s situation with

a particular client is causing you to be concerned about the choices she needs to make. As a friend, you

decide to send Martha a short email of 200 words summarizing (1) your concerns and (2) your advice on

what she should do. [Please compose a 200-word email to Martha – it should be friendly and informal,

but please use proper grammar.]

[10pm] You feel better now that you have written Martha and shared your concerns and advice. You

believe that you gave Martha good advice, but in a Brooklyn College philosophy course you learned that

there are often several legitimate perspectives on a situation such as this one. Because you miss writing

papers for Brooklyn College professors, you sit down to write a short 200-word essay on possible

alternative viewpoints and advice compared to what you offered Martha in the 9pm email. You don’t

want to confuse Martha, so don’t send her this essay describing alternative viewpoints! [Please compose

a 200-word essay describing alternative viewpoint(s) and advice to the one offered in the email to

Martha.]

[11pm] You reflect on the email and subsequent essay you wrote in the past two hours. Tomorrow is a

busy day, but you are a perfectionist and a loyal friend. In your gut, you know that you gave Martha

good advice, but you feel the need to explain to yourself why you gave the advice you did rather than the

alternative viewpoints you described. Before going to bed, you decide to write another 200-word essay

on why you feel comfortable with the advice you gave Martha in the email. This essay should not simply

repeat the points you made in the email but should compare your advice with the alternative

perspectives. Explain why you feel more comfortable with the advice you gave rather than the

alternative perspective. [Please compose a second 200-word essay describing why you feel

comfortable with the original advice you gave Martha, as opposed to the alternative viewpoint(s).]

Time Estimate

1. Read the Martha McCaskey case – 2 hours.

2. Compose the email to Martha – 1 hour

3. Describe alternative viewpoints – 1 hour

4. Explain why you rejected the alternative viewpoints – 1 hour