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ETHICS AND MANAGEMENT CASE STUDY. D.5. (a)
You are the management committee of the radio station. As station management committee you are caught between the conflicting demands of your popular consumer programme and your sales representative. Your consumer programme has been following a series of critical reports on defects on a popular brand of car and on court cases against this car. Your sales rep is concerned, as the local garage, a major sponsor of the station, is the agent for this car. "Stop this continuous exposure or lose our advertising", the garage insists. If you keep running the programmes you risk losing substantial sums in badly needed income to sustain the broad range of other station activities. You call a meeting where the programme team say that the feature is important consumer information, that you should not be promoting a dangerous car and anyway, no commercial operator should be able to dictate policy. The sales team insist that if the station is to achieve income targets then this advertiser is crucial, the programme must drop this particular item, not shut down altogether, just switch to other issues. Whose voice do you heed? Would you ask the sales team to find alternative advertisers? Ask the programme team to switch to other equally important topics. Or is there a 'golden mean'? NB. While finding an acceptable balance is important, it is more important for the participants in this case study to reflect on the 'values' they have brought to bear on solving this dilemma. To observe how they arrived at their decision and to consider from where they got these values.
CASE STUDY.D.5. (b)
You are the management committee of the radio station. Your outside broadcast unit has without too many noticing it, built up a series of regular broadcasts from local public houses where live entertainment is catered for. Your sales team have spotted an opportunity and have signed up the pubs as advertisers. Suddenly at a station meeting, one of the people broadcasting a religious programme raises the ethics of promoting alcohol consumption. As the management committee you are suddenly confronted with an internal disagreement. Many volunteers side with the protestor, saying that with many local young people listening, the station should adopt a more responsible approach. The O.B. team say that the programmes only interview local people out for a nights entertainment and are proving very popular. The sales people say it is a source of regular income. Would you try one of the following? Cancel these broadcasts. Seek more as they are popular and lucrative. Or can you find the 'golden mean'? NB. While finding an acceptable balance is important, it is more important for the participants in this case study to reflect on the 'values' they have brought to bear on solving this dilemma. To observe how they arrived at their decision and to consider from where they got these values.
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