Project Two Ethical Test Southern New Hampshire University BUS 206 Business Law
Public Disclosure Test Ethical frameworks or tests are important because help a company understand or analyze a moral decisions or dilemma when it comes to their business, and they give the company reasoning or perspective on what ethically sound action they should take and why and what might be the future outcome. According to McGraw Hill textbook the WH process of Ethical Decision Making that companies should use, the WH Process of Ethical Decision-Making is "W- Who i.e. stakeholders, employees, customers, management, general community, and H-How i.e. guidelines for public disclosure, universalization and golden rule" (Kubasek, N., 2-3). There are several tests that can be used in ethical decision making for companies for instance the Public Disclosure Test. The Public Disclosure Test is to practice transparency with the public and to disclose actions the company has made. The test I selected for this scenario with Mountain Top View is the Public Disclosure Test. The Public Disclosure Test is a company's release of information to the general public. The advantages of using the Public Disclosure Test are to help protect or repair company's image or reputation. There are times that public disclosure can actually help rebuild the public's faith in the company or willingness to forgive for an indiscretion or ethically abhorrent choice. The disadvantages of Public Disclosure Test are also on how the public might view the information that has been released. There may be times that the release of information may be to damaging to the company's image and the public's trust in the company. The reason I selected Public Disclosure Test for the Mountain Top View company is because their statement "We are committed to keeping customer information secure and protected". The company's statement claims could give the public the notion of honesty, and the transparency of the Public Disclosure Test would help solidify that although the company had a
data breach, they are still truthful and can be trusted to admit their mistakes and address how they will prevent data leaks in the future. Also, using the Public Disclosure Test will enable customers to attempt to protect and watch fraudulent transactions happening from stolen personal information. Overall, I believe since the damage was already done, and it was completely against their company's statement, that full disclosure is their best route in order to salvage the company's image and customer loyalty. Although this may backfire and the customers may never trust the company again, ethically they would have done the right thing, and the company would not be viewed as shady or fraudulent. Applying the Public Disclosure Test When it comes to the scenario with Mountain Top View and Steve finding a data leak of customer's information and applying the Public Disclosure Test, he could have first alerted Clare and Carlos of the data leak, then quickly fix the code, then ensure protocols were implemented to prevent future leaks, and gathered up the pertinent information for