Business Ethics Now 4th Edition by Andrew Ghillyer

تمرين 2

Problems at ComputerWorld
S teve has just been hired as a computer repair technician (CRT) for ComputerWorld, a large retail computer store. As a recent graduate from the local technical college, Steve is eager to put his new diploma to good use and make a name for himself at ComputerWorld. "Who knows," he thinks to himself, "in a couple of years I could be running the whole department!" Steve is working with Larry, who's been a CRT at this location for five years. Larry seems nice enough and has promised to "show him the ropes."
Their first customer of the day is Mr. Johnson, who admits to not being "very PC savvy." Larry hooks up the laptop and announces that the hard drive has crashed and needs to be replaced. "The good news," he tells Mr. Johnson, "is that your repair is under warranty so we can switch that hard drive out for you-no problem-leave it with us, and it'll be ready tomorrow morning." Steve is suitably impressed with Larry's quick diagnosis and his firm commitment to Mr. Johnson that his laptop will be ready in the morning. Mr. Johnson, however, doesn't seem so pleased. "What about the old hard drive?" he asks. "There's a lot of personal information on there-can I have it back when you put in the new one?"
"Sorry, no can do," says Larry. "We have to return warranty-replaced parts to the manufacturer-company policy-but don't worry, its technicians will erase all the data on it before it's recycled-we're very careful about that." Mr. Johnson thinks for a few moments and then decides that he can live with that and leaves the store. Larry quickly replaces the hard drive and throws the old one into a box that Steve notices is labeled "Flea Market" under Larry's workstation.
"What are you doing?" asks Steve. "I thought we had to send that back to the manufacturer for a warranty repair?" "Are you crazy?" laughs Larry. "We just tell the customers that-all the manufacturer needs is a serial number and the paperwork. That's a perfectly good hard drive-all he had was a file conflict. I've already fixed it-but since it's under warranty, he gets a nice new hard drive for free, we get a nice warranty contract, and I get a slightly used hard drive that I can sell at the flea market this weekend."
"But what about all his personal information on the hard drive?" asks Steve. "Aren't you going to erase it?"
"If I have time," laughs Larry.
Larry seems pretty happy with the prospect of selling those slightly used hard drives at the flea market, but what happens if the information on them doesn't get erased? Would ComputerWorld be liable here? Read the section "Vicarious Liability" on page 164 to find out more.