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Workplace Based Ethical Situation

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Week 2, Assignment 1: Workplace-based ethical situation Early in my career, I was hired by ABC Corporation as a pipe sales representative for the north Texas area; my responsibilities were to increase the number of city specifications and improve area sales by 20% each year. My boss also pointed out that John, the company’s veteran south Texas sales representative and I would be working closely with each other and our largest distributor, XYZ. After my two week orientation training, my boss set up a dinner meeting to introduce me to John. John and I hit it off right away; we had similar personalities and competitive drive, which lead to a start of a strong team and friendship. Over the next two years, John took me under his wing and introduced me to the key players in both the south and the north branches of distributor XYZ, all along advising me on strategies to implement in my north Texas territory that would increase city product specification and contractor acceptance. My first two years turned out to be exceptional; I increased sales by 25% each year and our product was being specified by name on city engineering plans. In addition, our largest distributor, XYZ, was happy with their north branch increase in business, due to the improved specifications our territory. My boss was impressed and asked me to sign up for the management fast-track program and had been talking to several upper level managers about a promotion. The next day, I received a phone call from John congratulating me on my success and because of our strong relationship and trust, I immediately told him about my promotion. John was extremely excited to hear this news and wanted to meet for dinner and drinks to celebrate. The next day we met for dinner and this is when he told me about his business plan. John and Jack, an ex-assistant manager with our distributor XYZ, had opened a

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