Case for Critical Analysis

1. What approach to ethical decision making (utilitarian, individualism, moral rights, or justice) seems to best describe Marv Heimler’s turnaround strategy at Massengill’s?

Looking at the case study, I see a variant of justice approach during the ethical decision making approach of Marv Heinler. The reason I think different variants of the justice approach are used because the decisions he made were based on fairness and impartiality. He has not been partial about anything or anyone and made the decisions that he had to make. He used distributive justice as he did base the treatment of different people based on their characteristics and not o any biasness. He fired the people whose services were no more required in my opinion. He had to make tough decisions and this is what he did.

2. At what level of moral development would you place Heimler? Why?

Heimler had been working in the best interest of the company and also brought himself a good deal of nearly 1 million. The main point that we need to focus here is the need for the company to hire him. The company knew that they were near to collapse and therefore they needed someone who can turnaround things and get the company going again. Heimler did what he had to do. He fired nearly 20% of the employees and brought abrupt changes. He did not take much time in making decisions that were needed quickly. I would therefore place his moral development at level 1.

3. How could Heimler have handled the layoffs to avoid the problems he is now facing? If you were in his position, what would you do now?

Though the layoff was necessary, the way Heimler handled might seem a bit cruel. My opinion here is that the situation could have been handled a bit differently. The employees did feel let down due to the decisions of Heimler. He sent out letters out of nowhere and the employees experienced the unexpected. I think that he could have first circulated a list of what kind of skills and people can be utilized by the company in the turnaround. The people who did not suit that criteria could have realized that their jobs may be in jeopardy. This would have made them go through the process of being laid off a bit smoothly. This is the process I would have utilized.