Question

The Fitzgerald Machine Company is a $25MM per year custom metal fabrication shop. It has a work 

force of 30 machinists and 15 office personnel Don Bradish was hired from Peptine Corporation three 

months ago as Fitzgerald’s production scheduler. His background includes an undergraduate industrial 

engineering degree and three years of purchasing experience with Peptine immediately after college. 

This made him a good fit for Fitzgerald’s needs. He was hired by Jane Fitzgerald, Vice President of 

Operations and daughter of the company president. 

 Recently the company has been having difficulty meeting delivery schedule deadlines. Don was hired to 

improve the company’s performance in on-time deliveries. So far, he has been learning the systems of 

the operations and studying possible solutions, but he has not yet determined the best course of action 

to recommend. 

 On Friday, June 21, a $300,000 order, which had been in the shop for nearly two months, was 

scheduled for shipment. On the Wednesday before scheduled delivery, the customer called and asked 

that delivery be delayed due to a labor dispute and work stoppage at his location. Although he expected 

the strike to be settled within one week or less, he was concerned that delivery of the order from 

Fitzgerald during the strike might cause unnecessary misunderstandings in the labor dispute. Don 

discussed this request with Jane, and they agreed to accommodate the customer’s request on the 

condition that the customer agree to being billed on the originally scheduled delivery date and to pay on

the originally contracted payment terms. The customer accepted those terms. 

 On Friday morning, June 21, the production manager reported to Don that the order would not be 

completed as scheduled and would probably require at least one more week to finish. Concerned about 

the impact of this delay on his job status, Don decided to investigate the cause of the delay before 

informing Jane of the problem. Before he could complete his inquiry, Jane called to inform him that she 

had just mailed the invoice for the order as agreed She also suggested that Don negotiate with the 

customer a storage fee for the order, which would be paid in addition to the billing arrangement. Don 

wondered what he should say to Jane next. 

Questions:

1.

What are the company’s responsibilities to a customer regarding payments for an order not yet 

completed?

2.

Does the company have the right to negotiate extra charges on an agreement already in place?

3.

On an individual level, should Don tell Jane that the order is at least one week late?

4.

How necessary is it to notify the customer of the company's missed deadline if it is likely the 

customer would never know about it otherwise?

5.

How would you measure costs in this case? Do the benefits which accrue to Don and the 

Fitzgerald Company offset the potential costs to the custom

Answer 1

1 Question Answer:
Sometimes benefits create burdens and burdens create benefits. Without a burden, there is no benefit. In the case of business management, there is a game between benefit and burden. These two are tied up with business ethics. Every business management decision should be rational, moral and should be followed by equity, transparency.Such type of ethical decisions would effect the reputation of an organization. Ethics are to be follwed inaccordance with rules and procedures. Here in this case, stake holders are : Don, Jane, Customer and Production manager. Here one benefit that is Customer problem about labor dispute and work stoppage arid buden of production manager problem(unable to finish the order) . That too customer is agreed to pay bill as per the originally contracted payment terms. Management prepared bill for that . But the team was unable to process the order. It is a burden to the team. That burden was smoothly handled by managemnt ethically as there is a problem on both sides. In this case, customer is requesting the delay. As customer agrees the bill as per contract, jane prepared bill and apply the rule of paying storage cost. Thus here benefits are arid burdens.
Example :We can see the more about benefit and burden principle application by this case law Halsall v Brizell [1957] Ch 169 .
5 Question Answer:
If Don with holds information from Jane, the burden is to be beared by customer, production manager. Ultimately that impacts organization’s reputation. Don has to improve his management skills, diplomatic skills to handle situations ethically. As per justice approach,

• people are treated as per their levels, benefits, status, burdens differently.

• Rules and conditions are clearly stated and took the willingness of particular parties to enforce.

• Compensations are even set and levied as per the rules and consent of parties. Stake holder welfare is also an important point here.

• It is the art of management to turn a problem in to profit ethically.

Thus as per justice approach, company has benn following rules ethically.