Business Ethics Case Study

Business Ethics Case Study

Peter Paulson's offer to provide the previous case documents to Steven Craig is professionally unethical but morally permissible. In addition, I believe that the offer was not theft but possession by entitlement and permission. His actions are a great example of how professional ethics and morals don't always align in the analysis of a case.

Part (1)

Peter Paulson's offer although helpful commits the Texas Board of Professional Engineers code. As an expert witness for a previous case against PPC, Peter Paulson was exposed to certain documents which would help with the current case against the same company. The code states in 137.63.c.4 that "The engineer shall not give, offer or promise to pay or deliver, directly or indirectly, any commission, gift, favor, gratuity, benefit, or reward as an inducement to secure any specific engineering work or assignment." In Peter's case he was asked to "secure specific engineering work" for a fee. The practice of sharing the public documents is legal and professionally ethical but when a fee is procured for the transaction the act becomes unethical. The documents in both cases were public because they were documents of court which could be obtained by any lawyer. When Peter placed a fee on documents that were public his actions were in violation of the code and made his offer professionally unethical.

Part (II)

Table 1. Line drawling of "The Offer" showing non-theft (Peter's perspective)

Feature Theft The Offer Not Theft

Entitlement No ---------------------------X--------- Yes

Permission Not Allowed --------------------------------X---- Allowed

(1) Peter's possession of the documents was not theft based on his entitlement and permission to have them. Peter was entitled to have possession of the documents by the court due to his role in a previous case.