Company A's Executives Are Members of the Board of a Charity

question 12

Essay

Company A's executives are members of the board of a charity.  Company A may even itself be a major donor to the charity.  The charity may even benefit many of the company's customers.  The charity holds a golf tournament to raise money.  The executives participate in the tournament.  In some cases, Company A even pays the executives' participation fees (good for company image).  Company B is a supplier to Company A or a vendor that would like to be a supplier.  Enter the desire for face time.  In some tournaments, Company A executives turns to every Company B executive in the supply chain and asks for participation.  And participate they do.  They pay their entry fees because Company A executives ask.  But sometimes Company B folks want and get more.  Company B antes up the dough for primo participation in the tournament.  If a VP of Company A is playing a round with a celebrity, Company B pays enough to get its VP in the same foursome.  Discuss the ethical issues.

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Definitions:

Ego Integrity

A sense of wholeness and fulfilled life achievements, typically sought in later adulthood, representing the final stage of Erik Erikson's psychosocial development theory.

Despair

A state of utter hopelessness, where an individual feels a profound sense of loss or defeat.

Generativity

Erikson's stage of psychosocial development in which adults seek to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by parenting or contributing to society.

Middle Adulthood

A stage of life typically between the ages of 40 and 65, characterized by increased self-awareness, stability, and concern for future generations.