Business Ethics

Please follow the detailed instructions in the attached document.

Assignment

This assignment involves imagining yourself in a specific scenario. For this assignment, you will make a decision and present it to the

Board of Directors

for approval.

THE SCENARIO

You are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facey, Inc., a (fictional) cosmetics company that creates accessible cosmetics with a youthful, spirited style. Facey offers products for two targeted customer groups:

young adults (ages 14 to 24)

“tweenagers” (preteen or young teenagers, typically between the ages of 8 and 13 years old)

Under your leadership, Facey’s profit has risen steadily for five years. You are under intense pressure to keep your company’s sales growing. In fact, your annual bonus, and the bonuses of all Facey employees are based on the rate of growth in sales each year.

Advertising with Facebook and Instagram is the anchor of your company’s marketing efforts. Sales generated from this marketing have been excellent. That became even more obvious when Facebook and Instagram were offline for more than six hours on Monday, October 4, 2021. During that time, Facey’s sales were 51% lower than expected.

One of your company’s core values is to honor its customers. The company considers customers the most important stakeholders it has. Customers have a high degree of trust in your brand and are a powerful source of word-of-mouth marketing2 that introduces the brand to new prospective customers.

Social media, including Facebook and Instagram, is under increasing scrutiny. The film “

The Social Dilemma”

raised awareness of issues. More recently, the Wall Street Journal’s publication of “

Facebook Files”

raised concerns about the negative impact of Instagram on teen girls. This publication and other issues prompted a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing where former Facebook employee Frances Haugen said she believes that “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.”

Should Facey continue to advertise on Facebook and Instagram? The Board of Directors is looking to you for your answer. You must answer this question in your paper. Your paper is your presentation to the Board of Directors. You want Facey’s Board of Directors to support for your decision. The stakes are high. If the Board does not support your decision, you may lose your job

Instructions
Objectives
• Develop and support critical thinking.
• Drive exploration and analysis of ideas and course themes.
• Organize your thoughts and structure your paper to communicate effectively.
• Develop communication skills for business.
Course Learning Objectives Addressed
• Demonstrate ethical awareness (the ability to identify moral or ethical issues and the
inclination to apply moral reasoning and do something about them).
• Explain the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, their
relevance in business and society today, and make the business case for both.
• Identify and assess the potential impact of social, economic, and environmental issues
and opportunities on a geographic region, an industry, or a business over time.
Background1
Facebook conducted research in the U.S. to better understand teen girls’ experience
with appearance comparison on social media and how this impacted their body image
and overall health. It found that frequent social comparison is a key driver of subjective
well-being, and teens say Instagram makes this problem worse.
• 66% of teen girls on Instagram experience negative social comparison (compared to
40% of teen boys).
• 52% of teen girls who experienced negative social comparison on Instagram said it
was caused by images related to beauty.
• 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made
them feel Worse.
1
1 “Teen Girls Body Image and Social Comparison on Instagram – An Exploratory Study in the U.S.” Wall
Street Journal. September 29, 2021.
https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/teen-girls-body-image-and-social-Comparison-on-instagram.
pdf . Accessed May 16, 2024
Assignment
This assignment involves imagining yourself in a specific scenario. For this assignment, you will
make a decision and present it to the Board of Directors for approval.
THE SCENARIO
You are the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Facey, Inc., a (fictional) cosmetics company that
creates accessible cosmetics with a youthful, spirited style. Facey offers products for two
targeted customer groups:
• young adults (ages 14 to 24)
• “tweenagers” (preteen or young teenagers, typically between the ages of 8 and 13 years old)
Under your leadership, Facey’s profit has risen steadily for five years. You are under intense
pressure to keep your company’s sales growing. In fact, your annual bonus, and the bonuses of
all Facey employees are based on the rate of growth in sales each year.
Advertising with Facebook and Instagram is the anchor of your company’s marketing efforts.
Sales generated from this marketing have been excellent. That became even more obvious
when Facebook and Instagram were offline for more than six hours on Monday, October 4,
2021. During that time, Facey’s sales were 51% lower than expected.
One of your company’s core values is to honor its customers. The company considers
customers the most important stakeholders it has. Customers have a high degree of trust in
your brand and are a powerful source of word-of-mouth marketing2 that introduces the brand to
new prospective customers.
Social media, including Facebook and Instagram, is under increasing scrutiny. The film “The
Social Dilemma” raised awareness of issues. More recently, the Wall Street Journal’s publication
of “Facebook Files” raised concerns about the negative impact of Instagram on teen girls. This
publication and other issues prompted a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing where former
Facebook employee Frances Haugen said she believes that “Facebook’s products harm
children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.”
Should Facey continue to advertise on Facebook and Instagram? The Board of Directors is
looking to you for your answer. You must answer this question in your paper. Your paper is your
presentation to the Board of Directors. You want Facey’s Board of Directors to support for your
decision. The stakes are high. If the Board does not support your decision, you may lose your
job
2
2
2 Word-of-mouth marketing (WOM marketing) happens when consumers talk about a company’s
product or service to their friends, family, and to others with whom they have close relationships. WOM
marketing includes some forms of social media marketing.
IMPORTANT!
1. Stick to the question: Should Facey continue to advertise on Facebook and Instagram? Do
not discuss alternatives to advertising on Facebook and Instagram. You are not to argue for
anything in place of social media advertising. That is beyond the scope of this Paper.
2. Discuss the impact of your decision on the company’s projected revenue over the next few
years.
3. Facey’s Board of Directors knows the company as well as you do. Don’t tell them things they
already know.
4. Do not plagiarize text from these instructions. (Besides, the Board knows everything printed
here.) Use your own original thoughts throughout the paper
You are to think critically about whether Facey should continue advertising with Facebook and
Instagram and then make your decision. There is no right or wrong answer in this situation. This
assignment is about how you make your decision – your process – and how you make the
business case for your decision to your Board of Directors.
In your Paper, you are to state your decision and explain your rationale for it. You should
anticipate resistance you may get from the Board of Directors and address that proactively.
Required In This Paper
• You must state your decision. It must be clear that you have decided that Facey will continue
to advertise with Facebook and Instagram or it will not.
• You must make the business case for your decision by explaining your rationale for it. This
must demonstrate critical thinking. Your process and considerations used in reaching the
decision must be clear and your rationale must be sound.
• Anticipate at least one serious counter argument from the Board of Directors and address it
proactively. Anticipating and addressing more than one is preferable but full credit is possible if
just one counter argument is addressed thoroughly and effectively.
Formatting Requirements
• The Paper must be 350 – 450 words. (Really! Not 347 words or 451 words. Edit your work to
meet this requirement.)
EXAMPLE:
• 1” margins on all sides of the page
• 1.5 line spacing in the body of the paper
• Indent paragraphs
Before Submitting
Consider using this checklist to be sure your Paper is high-quality work that you will be proud to
submit.
Content
● Reread the prompt for the Paper and verified that the Paper meets all the requirements.
● Paper is thorough, demonstrating introspective thought, and exploration of themes and /
or connections with previous knowledge and experiences.
● My opinions and definitive assertions are well supported.
Critical Thinking
● Demonstrates rigorous questioning of ideas, assumptions, and claims in the preparation
material through sound analysis, problem solving and conclusions.
● Includes at least one insightful claim based on my reasoning and evidence.
● I have identified, analyzed, and solved problems systematically, not by intuition or
instinct.
Quality of Communication
● The Paper is well structured.
● My observations are descriptive and to the point. There are no extraneous words or
phrases.
● I have proofread the Paper out loud. The Paper is free of grammar, spelling and other
errors.
Careful! Do Not Plagiarize
Plagiarism involves using the writings of another person. There are two types of plagiarism:
• Intentional – when a student knowingly copies work from someone else
• Technical – usually involves a student failing to correctly paraphrase, quote or cite another’s
work
Do not cut and paste content from elsewhere into your paper! That may result in plagiarism.
You have a very limited number of words for each Paper. Quoting someone else takes away
valuable space in your Paper to express your own thoughts. You should use the work of others
(with citations) very little or not at all in your Papers.
Someone else’s writing must be cited unless the information contained in their work can be
considered common knowledge easily obtained from several sources. Beware of the following:
• Paraphrasing – even if words are changed and reorganized, a citation is required.
• Summarizing – even if there is a concise or “boiled down” rewrite, a citation of the original
source is required.
If you use sources for this assignment, cite them in a footnote or bibliography. (Footnotes and
the bibliography will not be counted as part of the 350 – 450-word limit.) Use the Modern
Language Association (MLA) citation method
Scoring Rubric
Papers are scored on the following criteria:
Content (3 pts possible)
● 3 pts Excellent, thoughtful work; includes introspective thought, exploration of themes
and /or connections with previous knowledge and experiences; definitive assertions are
well supported; demonstrates comprehension of course content; clear evidence that all
materials were completed and considered thoroughly; meets all the requirements of the
Paper
● 2 pts Good but falls short of one to several criteria for full credit or has at least one
significant problem; may have less evidence that readings were completed and
considered
● 1 pt Satisfactory; falls short of several criteria and/or has some significant problems; may
have less evidence that readings were completed and considered
● 0 pts Poor effort or incomplete
Critical Thinking (2 pts possible)
● 2 pts Excellent. Demonstrates critical thinking with rigorous questioning, sound analysis,
problem solving and conclusions. It includes at least one insightful claim based on
reason and evidence.
● 1 pt Satisfactory. Good effort but falls short of one to several criteria for full credit
● 0 pts Poor. Little or no evidence of critical thinking
Quality of Communication (2 pts possible)
● 2 pts Good. Material is well structured and demonstrates quality college-level writing;
observations are descriptive and to the point; grammar is good; the work has been
carefully edited and proofread and contains no or very few errors
● 1 pt Satisfactory. Material is poorly structured; demonstrates less than quality
college-level writing; shows inattention to detail, and/or weak effort; contains significant
grammar and/or proof-reading mistakes
● 0 pts Poor. Writing is not at college-level, with little or no evidence of editing and
proofreading
Format (1 pt possible)
● 1 pt Meets formatting requirements
● 0 pts Does not meet formatting requirements.