Write a brief report to senior managers at the company of your choice from the perspective of an employee who has been asked to write a report for senior managers outlining the ethical issue involved in having loot boxes as part of your business model .

Business Ethics and Responsible Management Report

The Task

Your assessment will take the form of a 3,000-word (you are allowed to go over by 10% making it a maximum of 3,300 words) submission consisting of three parts in total.

You will be expected to show that you understand the importance of individual and organisational ethical thinking and practice and that you can apply ethical decision making. You will also need to show that you can think critically about the role of business in society.

Further, you will need to show that you have understood the way in which theory can underpin how ethical issues are viewed. It is also expected that you have gained and can show an understanding that theory offers a guide, but not necessarily the answer, to practice. The assessment also requires you to show that you have reflected on what makes an ethical leader and manager and what that means in the context of organisational culture.

An extensive rubric is provided which will show you how the work is marked and what is required to achieve high marks.
Your assessment into 2 parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the requirements below and attempt all three parts. You will submit all three parts together in the same submission.

Literature required to be used:

Crane, A. & Matten, D. (2016) Business Ethics (4th Ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Robinson, S. & Dowson, P. (2012) Business Ethics in Practice. London: CIPD

Supplementary literature:

Fisher, C; Lovell, A, and Néstor, V. (2013) Business ethics and values: individual, corporate and international perspectives 4th ed.
Harlow: Prentice Hall

Fryer, Mick (2015) Ethics Theory and Business Practice. London: Sage
Sandel, M.J., (2009) Justice. London: Penguin Books

Assessment Brief

Your assessment into two parts with part 1 being further split into two. Read the requirements below and attempt all three parts:

Part 1

You are now required to write a brief report to senior managers at the company of your choice (For example EA or another games /app developer/company) from the perspective of an employee who has been asked to write a report for senior managers outlining the ethical issue involved in having loot boxes as part of your business model . You will need to explore and write about a number of factors including – Why should the company be looking at this issue from an ethical perspective of ethics?

How might this issue influence the public image of the company? What alternatives ways are there to think about a business’ role in society? Who/what are the stakeholders impacted in the scenario you are reporting on and how are they impacted on?

Are there examples of business that act responsibly and ones that do not? You should illustrate this by including research you can find e.g., where is there research that shows good choices benefit companies and bad choices have a negative impact?

Finally you should conclude with some recommendations for what the company should do (here you may want to look at the reports noted above on ‘understanding your organisation’s gender pay gap’ and ‘Actions to close the gap’.

This part of your assessment should be written as a report, but should be referenced in the normal academic way using Harvard citations and referencing.

For this part you should again use the case study – but this time choose TWO ethical theories and demonstrate that you can apply these to the case to show how your chosen theories lead you to a view on the ethics of the case.

For example, if you applied utilitarian thinking to the idea of selling loot boxes to children, what would you need to consider and how might the issue look from that perspective? Or, what if you apply Kant’s thinking here?

NOTE – you do NOT have to use ‘opposing’ ideas, we are interested most in how you use theory, if, when you apply two theories they seem to give the same answer that is fine, if they seem to give different outcomes that is fine too. This section is written in a more academic style than the report.

Part 2

Part 2 is NOT related to the case study. This section requires you to discuss what makes an ethical leader and how you would, as an ethical manager, manage your business and/or others to a high ethical standard.

You will need to think about personal ethics, about the conditions that bring about unethical organisations and practices, about organisational values and methods of compliance. This part can be written in a more reflective style, where the first person can be used.

CASE STUDY FOR PART 1

EA Games: Fifa, Loot boxes and whales

Background

The business of gaming is complex; ‘freemium’ on-line games are built on a model of allowing access to games for free, but then directing players towards in game purchases as well as accruing revenue from advertising. These, in themselves are controversial, especially where games are directed towards children. Recently the spotlight has shifted more specifically to ‘loot boxes’. These are in game purchasers where a buyer does not know the content of the box; will it be Lionel Messi to improve a football team, or a particular weapon or skill to help on a quest?

Recently the UK Parliament has been examining whether loot boxes should be regulated (they increasing elsewhere – see the articles below).

Giving evidence before MPs Kerry Hopkins, A Vice President of EA games said that the boxes are ‘quite ethical and fun’ and ‘just like a Kinder egg’. And yet some are arguing they are gambling, encourage gambling, and succeed only because the games are designed to be addictive.

Then there are the stories of gamers spending large amounts of money in the hope of getting something worthwhile in the loot box with the media very quick to report parents who have had their ‘bank accounts emptied’ by game-playing children. Perhaps the industry doesn’t help itself by characterising some gamers as ‘whales’

– the loyal gamers who account for a large amount of in game revenue.

So – is Kerry Hopkins right? Are loot boxes ‘quite ethical’?

Your task is to write a report to the senior management of a games company and set out the ethical argument and what a responsible approach to selling games could be. You are playing the role of an employee within the company who has been tasked to write the report for senior managers. It could be EA you are writing to, or it could be another company, the choice is yours

Here is the link to the article in which Kerry Hopkins is quoted:

BBC Newsbeat 20th June 2019 “EA games: Loot boxes aren’t gambling, they’re just like a Kinder Egg”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-48701962

And here are some other articles and resources you may find useful, but be sure to do your own research too:

The Guardian 17th January 2014 “Who is responsible for kids and in-app purchases: Apple, developers or parents?” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/17/kids-in-app-purchases-apps-parents

BBC News 9 July 2019 ‘The kids emptied our bank account playing Fifa’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48908766

BBC News 15 July 2019 “My son spent £3,160 in one game” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-48925623

The Guardian 12 September 2019 “Video game loot boxes should be classed as gambling, says Commons” https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/sep/12/video-game-loot-boxes-should-be-classed-as-gambling-says-commons

Here are two reports you might also find interesting – but, again, do your own research

Office of Fair trading (2014) “The OFT’s Principles for online and app-based games”
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288360/oft1519.pdf
Parentzone (2019) The Rip-Off Games

https://parentzone.org.uk/system/files/attachments/The%20Ripoff%20Games%20-%20Parent%20Zone%20report.pdf
Note – Parentzone is an organisation working in digital matters with a mission to keep children safe online, they state on their website that all of their research is independent.

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