Analyst Case Study 1

QUESTION

Please submit your responses to the Analyst Case Study here. I strongly suggest that you understand the grading guidelines for this assignment. Do not fall into the trap of offering only your opinion as a response to the questions. Maximum of 3 double-spaced pages. Please use 12 point, Times New Roman font and 1 inch margins on each page. You may submit either a Word document or a pdf file.

Answer the following questions in response to the case:

1. What going on in the case?

2. Have you ever been in a situation like the one faced by the protagonist in the case? Is this really a difficult moral problem?

3. In what ways does she have an ethical dilemma?

4. If Steven has looked out for Amy’s best interest, is she obligated to look out for his?

5. What are her options? What should she do?

ANSWER

Analyst Case Study 1

The provided case study provides insights into the various dilemmas that employees go through in their day to day lives. The case relates to Amy, the protagonist, an investment banker at B&B, and her friend and roommate, Lori, an analyst at Universal Bank (Badaracco Jr and Useem 1993). The protagonist finds herself at crossroads, a situation where her character is tested. Amy takes an honest approach when attempting to resolve any problem that she encounters while fulfilling her duties and relating with her friends. She has always acted in the right way, as per the law, when solving problems. In the dilemma that she currently faces, however, she cannot take the honest approach. The stakes are very high and she is not able to share the whole story with her friend Lori and her adviser, Steven. She has to make a decision promptly since there is no enough time to think about the best decision.

AMY’S ETHICAL DILEMMA

Both Amy and Lori, even though they are just analysts, hold important information about the high-profile transaction that is about to occur, the leveraged buyout of Suntech. The physical and financial implications of releasing this information are huge. Amy is a loyal, ambitious, and committed employee of B&B. She loves her job as an investment banker and is used to meeting short deadlines and working with a huge workload. Steven has been a good guide to her and she respects him for that. They are also friends. On a normal day, Amy and Lori share their work pressures and activities with each other, respecting the confidentiality of each other’s information. Currently, Amy knows a lot about the Suntech transaction, which is a huge deal for her company (Badaracco Jr and Useem 1993). Her roommate and friend, Lori, shares with her information that her firm had decided to roll back all previous activities and transactions and dissolve her team, leading to her job loss.

Amy is aware of the effects that her friend’s company’s decision would have on B&B. B&B needs to find another financial institution to finance the upcoming transaction. In addition, the interest rates would rise and the chances of making money from the high-yield bond market would be minimal since the investor sentiment would drop. Amy knows that her friend’s company, Universal Bank, had been unethical and that if she spilled the beans on the issue, the future of her firm, Steven, its stakeholders, and hers would be better. By spilling the beans, B&B would have enough time to act and ensure that the upcoming deal would proceed without any hurdles. However, she would be acting wrongly as Lori expects her to uphold the confidentiality of the information that she gave her. Even though Lori has already lost her job, Amy has an obligation to her for being her good friend who always went all the way to help her. Amy even got her job at B&B through one of the contacts that Lori had given her.

It is because of their close friendship that Lori shared her story with Amy. As such, Lori expects Amy not to spill the beans. Amy finds herself in an ethical dilemma. She may choose to remain silent and keep her word to Lori, or she may spill the beans and save her company and Steven. She may feel obligated to look out for Steven’s interests, as Steven had been of immense help to her. If I was in her position, I would have chosen to keep my mouth shut and uphold the confidentiality of my discussion with my friend. Even though I would know the issues that my employer would face, I would have chosen to value my core values rather than be loyal to my company. Eventually, the company would find ways to handle its problems. Spilling the beans would enable me to achieve praise and short-term career growth at my firm. In the long-run, however, I would become an individual that cannot be trusted with privy information, after losing a good friend.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, Amy should make a decision that she can live with when deciding on the right way out of the ethical dilemma that she currently faces. She may decide to uphold her core values or spill the beans and lose the friendship of her roommate. Whatever decisions she makes depends on her loyalties and her ability to think critically on her toes.

Works Cited

Badaracco Jr, Joseph L., and Jerry Useem. “Analyst’s Dilemma (A), The.” (1993).