ITS67204
Professional Practices & Information Security
Scenario Based Assessment
HAND OUT DATE: 13/3/24 6pm
HAND IN DATE: 20/3/24 by 6pm
Article:
Answer the question below:
Inhumane working conditions at Gucci
We all know Gucci as a high-end luxury fashion brand that is gaining popularity all around the world because of its fashion collections. However, employees working with one of the biggest fashion firms experienced some unethical practices like exploitation and harassment. They even brought the issues to the forefront by revealing them in the public domain. On 8th October 2011, an open letter by five former employees of Gucci working in Gucci Shenzhen Flagship Store, China went viral over the internet. In the letter, the employees claimed that they were forced to work under unhygienic and deplorable conditions due to which one of the female employees experienced miscarriage. This happened because of working for excessive hours, the micromanagement approach of the senior manager, and multiple restrictions on food and toilet breaks. The employees accused Gucci of lacking systematic management in their organizational structure and complained
that their human rights were violated.
When the case came to Gucci’s notice, they immediately fired the senior manager of the store who was responsible for the incident, and issued a statement asserting they will never tolerate such
unethical behaviour in any of their stores. By the time they took the decision, the incident had
already gotten the media’s attention and citizens became aggressively angry at the brand for
exposing employees to inhumane conditions putting their safety and health at risk.
Although the company’s immediate action towards the alleged malpractice manifested that the company strongly values ethical behaviour, the incident did have several implications. To explain, it reflected that the company lacked the practice of supervision which damaged its reputation of the company across the nation. In addition to the same, the company’s perception as an employer brand also deteriorated as this case created a negative perception among job seekers. A large number of job seekers refused to work with a brand for the neglect of its duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace to employees.
Read the article to answer these questions
a) Analyse the ethical issues in the case above through the perspective of ethics and professionalism in an organization (10 marks)
b) Analyse the actions of the senior manager and the management of Gucci in relation to professionalism behaviour. (10 marks)
c) Identify and analyse the implications of the senior manager’s behaviour to the organization. (10 marks)
d) Based on the situation above, propose a framework to resolve or avoid an ethical problem in the organization. (10 marks)
Criteria
|
Outstanding
(910)
|
Mastering (6- 8)
|
Developing (3- 5)
|
Beginning
(2-0)
|
Total
|
Question A
(10 marks)
Analyze the ethical issues through the perspective of
ethics and
professionalism
|
Excellent and
comprehensive examination of ethics and
professionalism
|
Satisfactory
examination of ethics and
professionalism
|
Barely sufficient examination of ethics and professionalism
|
Insufficient
examination or
no information of ethics and
professionalism
|
|
Question B
(10 marks)
Analysis of senior manager and
management
actions relation to professionalism
behavior
|
Excellent and comprehensive analysis of
actions
|
Satisfactory
analysis of
actions
|
Average / fair analysis of
actions
|
Poor or no
analysis of
actions
|
|
Question C
(10 marks)
Analysis and
implication of
Senior manager’s behaviour
|
Excellent and comprehensive analysis and
implication of
behavior
|
Satisfactory
analysis and
implication of behavior
|
Average / fair
analysis and
implication of
behavior
|
Poor or no
analysis and
implication of
behavior
|
|
Question D
(10 marks)
Propose
framework to
resolve ethical
problems
|
Excellent and comprehensive proposal of
ethical
professionalism
|
Satisfactory
proposal of
ethical
professionalism
|
Average / fair
proposal of
ethical
professionalism
|
Poor or no
proposal of
ethical
professionalism
|
|