Negotiation and Conflict Management
Alpha Ltd, a French company deals with the network safety. This company enters into agreement with Company X to organize files and protect sensitive data from hacking. The French company appoints two experienced software engineers to work in the premises of the Company X. Going through the files of Company X, both engineers (Ben and Tom), looked at some information that was harmful to French Government. The information was about a special rocket to be dropped over Paris. If this would have happened the estimated number of people killed would reach 300,000 in the first two hours. According to both rules of Company X and contract, engineers were bound to not disclose any information to public or third parties.
Engineer Ben was thinking to immediately inform French government about this information although this could cost him and his company a lot. Saving the lives of hundreds of thousands of people is more important than saving the interest of one company. Therefore, Ben decided to report this information to French government. Engineer Tom had a very good offer by Company X to continue to work for them even after the contract with Alpha Ltd will finish. After hearing the concern of Ben, Tom thought that the information they saw was just an information and was unclear whether it was serious. According to his moral beliefs someone should be very cautious to jump into conclusion. On top of that, Tom has a contract with Alpha Ltd which requires him to maintain confidentially and not reveal any sensitive information of the company to third parties during his job with Company X. Tom argued further that their job is only to keep safe the network of Company X and nothing more than that. So, Tom disagrees with Ben.
Referring to pp.163-180:
A) Ben and Tom had a dispute about the information about launching of the rocket over Paris. In a hot discussion Ben challenged Tom and asked him whether he looked at the plan and whether understood the risk it entails to French people and humanity generally. Tom’s reaction was that Ben always like conspiracy theories and this is because he reads a lot of espionage books. Which deceptive tactic Tom used to trick Ben and reason why? (5 points)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
B) Tom told to his wife what happened between him and Ben. He explained to her the way he replied to Ben. She disagreed with the Tom’s reply and asked him why he behaved in this way. Tom’s answer was that the offer he received by Company X was five times higher than his current salary he gets from Alpha Ltd. At the end of the day what he cares most is his career. In addition, Tom told his wife that Ben deserved that answer. Tom continued saying that Ben always wants to make things look dramatic. And, with Ben it is is very difficult to speak differently. It is the only way to stop Ben from continuing his conspiracy theory-like behaviour with his workmates. What justifications/rationalizations did Tom use to convince his wife? And what is the factor that shaped Tom’s predisposition to use an unethical technique? Discuss your answer.
