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TABLE OF CONTENTS
I-Introduction #
Context Background #
Company and key stakeholders’ background #
II-Case Analysis #
The facts #
The ethical issues involved #
The Stakeholders
The available alternatives
Weighting the Alternatives
The decision #
III-Assigned Questions #
Section 3.1 #
Section 3.2 #
Section 3.3 #
IV-Critical reflections #
Muriel’s reflection #
Melissa’s reflection
Cherine’s Reflection
Sami’s Reflection #
i-Introduction
Context Background
In order to analyze a case with an ethical dilemma, we must be able to frame the whole situation into defined boundaries which can only be complete if the physical location and context is known. The setting of this case is in India, more specifically, in New Delhi. The city of New Delhi is said to be one of the oldest existing cities of the world alongside Jerusalem and others and was established in around 3000 BC. It is noteworthy that during the last century, the social structure and lifestyles of ancient and modern times were in close proximity. Out of an Indian population of over one billion, New Delhi is populated by over 10 million people. Naturally, with such a large population within its borders, India has a lot of cultural diversity and over 300 languages. Also, Delhi being the heart of politics in India and among the top five business cities in the country, it is not unexpected that it is the city with the largest of road networks among all the major Indian cities.
The construction industry in New Delhi consists of many separate departments such as the DDA, CPWD, PWD, and the MCD. Each of these departments are assigned to work in specific geographical areas and undertake different types of projects and works. These government institutions hire contractors for their construction projects and contractors usually work for only one department because of the high barriers to entry. Some barriers that contractors are faced with include the long and hard process of obtaining a license to work for a department, the hostile and competitive nature of the existing contractors, and the difficulty of maintaining business relationships with more than one of the departments. Finally, it is almost widespread that the construction industry in Delhi is known to be marred by corruption.
Company and key stakeholders’ background
N.K builders and contractors was established by Aditya Dahiya and Vikrant Sangwan in January 2002. Dahiya and Sangwan knew each others from previous contracts. Sangwan had been involved in the construction industry for a long time and he knows pretty much how things work in it. Dahiya benefited a lot from Sangwan’s experience in the field and at the same time Sangwan appreciated Dahiya’s courage.
Dahiya was the one who proposed to Sangwan to start the business together. Dahiya provided the capital and Sangwan shared his experience. This is where their equal partnership began in January 2002 and they named the company N.K.B.C.
NKBC was specialized in road construction with thd Municipal Corporation of Delhi, MCD. They chose to work with the MCD since Sangwan was familiar with road constructions and because this sector demanded less costs than other sectors for example the labor was outsourced so they only hired labor when needed. The company directly employed 20 people and sometimes the number of employees increased to 200 depending on the workloads.
The government divided the construction firms into four categories depending on the firm’s experience. New company in other words beginners could tender for small contracts under the amount of 10,000,000 Rs and with time of about 5 years companies could move to another category and apply for larger projects. N.K.B.C was a new established company but due to the political connections that Sangwan and Dahiya’s father had they were able to register in the second category.
