7 Answers & Rubric Dilemma A Fitting Approach to Shoe Selling PDF

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Summary

Case study about ethical dilemma from a sales person...

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Suggestions and Rubric Ethical Dilemma: A fitting approach to shoe selling? This dilemma focuses on a sales situation where one of your staff is discovered to be using questionable tactics to sell shoes. Suggestions This is a simple example to use to examine questionable sales techniques and can also be used to discuss the influences on ethical decision-making. Questions 1. What are the arguments for and against Lola’s actions? The main arguments for, include: !

Her actions do not appear to be doing any harm – the customers are leaving happy and content with their purchases;

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The consequences of her actions appear to be very positive – for the customers, for the store, and for Lola;

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It’s a competitive market, and so it is necessary to be aggressive in making sales.

The main arguments against are: !

Whichever way you look at it, Lola is not being very truthful with the customers – she is lying to and misleading customers in the course of making the sale;

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Longer term, there could e severe reputation consequences - the customers might become dissatisfied with the shoes or realise that they were misled and subsequently form a negative impression of Lola or the store;

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Lola’s techniques mi ght become common practice in the store, and such a generalised lack of truthfulness can erode long term trust among customers. This is particularly important in the case of a small independent retailer, which relies on word-of-mouth (as opposed to, say, an airport shop with high customers turn-over);

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If the customers are leaving happy, maybe t hey would have done so event without Lola’s intervention.

2. Do you think such practices are common in sales situations? What would you think if you were a co-worker or a customer of Lola’s? Such practices do seem to be pretty common in a lot of sales situations. They are ‘only’ small deceptions so for many people are not ‘really’ unethical, and since they benefit the firm, the expectation (and often the reality) is that they will be condoned by management. Co-workers may find Lola’s effective approach appealing, or they may feel uncomfortable. Whether or not they take any action is open to question.

3. To what extent do you think your incentive scheme has contributed to Lola’s actions? Certainly, it has contributed in some way, and there is less likelihood that Lola would have acted in such a way in the absence of such an explicit incentive. The extent of the effect though will depend on how it has been implemented. Incentive schemes for salespeople encourage them to be aggressi ve in making sales, but this is not necessarily an excuse for unethical behaviour. After all, the case states that the staff are all fairly well paid. Usually, it is the way in which the scheme is presented or framed that shapes such behaviours.

4. How would you approach this situation as Lola’s manager? From the perspective of any ethical theory, it is clear that a do-nothing approach is inappropriate. An effective approach to instilling ethical behaviour would require a manager to deal with the problem before it substantially affects the business or other employees. Responses may vary from a quiet word with Lola, to a team meeting to discuss appropriate customer service practices, or even a more hard-line approach that confronts Lola directl y, and perhaps even involves a formal disciplin ary. Longer term, a manager would need to consider the values that the store wants to uphold, and the specific guidelines for behaviour that would support them....