Individual essay topic:
Managers are often faced with the need to make ethical decisions. Assume you are a manager working in a large Australian pharmaceutical corporation. Your team has just developed a completely new experimental vaccine that you believe can treat a virus rapidly spreading in West Africa. So far tests using your experimental vaccine on chimpanzees infected with this virus have yielded positive results. Your experimental vaccine has not been tested on humans and the Australian health authorities say it will take 10 years of human trials before your new vaccine can be approved for human use as the side-effects of this new vaccine on humans are currently unknown. You have just received a request from a health worker in Africa who wants to use your experimental vaccine to treat tens of thousands of West Africans infected with the virus.
In this unit we have discussed the role of managers as decision makers. Please use the 8 steps decision- making process to discuss and explain your decision on whether or not to share the experimental vaccine with the health worker in West Africa. In your discussion you must elaborate on each of the steps and the relevant factors (including ethics) that you should consider as a manager in arriving at your decision.
Your essay should be about 2000 words (plus minus 5 % - must include total word count in your footnote), in paragraphs and consist of the following:
Introduction (100 words)
1. Make a general statement about the topic
2. Provide background information
3. State the position you will argue for-your thesis statement
4. Mention the points you will cover in your essay (scope of your essay)
Body - developing your argument (1800 words)
1. Begin each paragraph with a topic sentence
2. Develop each main idea by making e.g. comparisons and contrasts, using referenced explanations, examples, definitions etc.
3. Apply relevant theories/frameworks from the course
4. Discuss the roles and functions of management
5. Conclude by summarizing or linking to ideas being discussed in the next paragraph
Conclusion (100 words)
1. Restate your position/thesis statement
2. Sum up the main points made in each paragraph
3. Finish with a strong statement about the wider context
You are required to consult and fully reference at least 2 different articles from Peer- Reviewed Scholarly Journals.