(TIỂU LUẬN) ASSIGNMENT 2 BOARD REPORT GREG MORTIMER CRUISE SHIP CASE STUDY date december 20th 2020

ASSIGNMENT 2: BOARD REPORT GREG MORTIMER CRUISE SHIP CASE STUDY [Date: December 20th 2020] Subject Code: BUSM4403B Subject Name: Ethics and Governance Location & Campus: RMIT Vietnam, HCMC Student’s Name: Teacher’s Name: Hung Nguyen Word count 2299 words (excluding titles): EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (112 words) INTRODUCTION (203 words) ANALYZING (1627 words) The case The issues The first one The second one Leadership Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Freeman's Stakeholder Theory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Freeman's Stakeholder Theory Stakeholder Salience Aurora Expeditions' and Haifer Employees (e.g Dr Mauricio Usme, safety officer Zuterek) Affected Passengers 10 CONCLUSION (152 words) 10 RECOMMENDATIONS (205 words) 10 Ethical Leadership 10 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) 11 RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (112 words) Despite the rise of a pandemic, making the decision to take out a cruise of more than 200 passengers and attempting to minimise the severity of the ship's health condition during the cruise are two significant concerns found in the case of Greg Mortimer Cruise Ship Such questions have given rise to the philosophical ideas of utilitarianism, Kantianism and moral intensity To analyse the people impacted by the horrible situation, Ethical Leadership and Stakeholder Theory were also discussed Recommendations have been made to ensure more ethical decision-making in the future, and increases transparency for main stakeholders and follow the recommendations of others who are personally affected by tragic situations such as this INTRODUCTION (203 words) The report analyses the Greg Mortimer Cruise Ship incident that sailed on March 15, while COVID-19 was more complicated and extended after the situation The ship's company's decision was taken, Aurora Expeditions, which induced coronavirus infection in 128 out of 216 individuals The cruise ship management's moral standards will be addressed as the pandemic spreads by analysing traveller cases and the effect on passengers and crewmates Because of the incidents that have occurred, we will also focus on the organisation’s ethical leadership and stakeholder interest The board report will begin with a description of crucial information concerning the case, followed by a review and clarification of critical aspects of the case that affected the management and ship staff's ethical decision-making The central concepts that affect Aurora Expeditions’ ethical decision-making, such as leadership, stakeholder theory and stakeholder salience, supplemented by suggestion will be examined RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen 2 ANALYZING (1627 words) 2.1 The case The Cruise Ship of Greg Mortimer was run by an Australian travel agent, Aurora Expeditions The ship was at the centre of the news when, prompting repeated reports from health authorities, it started sailing on March 15, for a journey to Antarctica and South Georgia from Argentina These cruise tours are hazardous in the context of COVID-19 Because of the two destinations closing their borders, the trip was eventually called off on March 20, causing the consequence that the ship was stuck in Montevideo and was only able to dock on April 10 After noticing a traveller with high body temperature on March 22, Argentina did not permit the ship to come back, ship physician Dr Usme began drafting a health declaration form for Uruguay While asked if sanitary measures were implemented, Usme marked 'yes,' confirming that infected travellers have been separated and quarantined for 14 days Nevertheless, the doctor was advised by managers and senior staff on the ship to reduce the seriousness of the crisis by adjusting the announcement The doctor refused, saying that health declaration must be clarified for ethics, morality, responsibility, and the health of the unaffected people Until April 8, half of the travellers on the ship were having COVID-19 symptoms (Dolven 2020) Following the disembarkation on April 25th, the ship called for a disciplinary hearing on Safety Officer Zuterek and eventually fired him after voicing questions about the travel corporation's decision to start a trip to Europe for three weeks without resettling the staff 2.2 The issues 2.2.1 The first one There were several legal problems at hand in the Greg Mortimer Cruise Ship event Aurora Expeditions' decision to pursue the cruise RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen after the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the coronavirus epidemic would be the first influential element of the situation for several days (Jacks 2020) It can be seen from the major problem at hand that the Aurora Expedition has chosen to carry on the theory of Utilitarianism, which is a choice that values the company's satisfaction and profits over the health situations of the travellers and staff on board Following a related event in February, the Diamond Princess cruise ship that carries over 3500 travellers and staff on board was quarantined in Japan after the epidemic spread out (The Age's View 2020); the rash and profit-driven decision were also illustrated Furthermore, Aurora Expeditions did not authorise any cancellation or refund of the cruise and took strict actions to ensure the passengers' health (Houston 2020) It is shown that Aurora Expeditions resumed the cruise despite alerts from health authorities, an announcement of the disease by the WHO and a related occurrence of the cruise ship getting a coronavirus epidemic just before one month, indicating that utilitarian and profitdriven view was used by Aurora Expeditions regarding the benefit and welfare of impacted travellers 2.2.2 The second one The following aspect illustrated from this situation is that the doctor refuses to alter the health declaration form, which was demanded by the manager and senior staff A moral agent is a logical person responsible for their behaviours (De George, 1992) since Doctor Usme realised that he had the moral responsibility for the passengers and crew on board, as a moral agent While being ordered to adjust the declaration, his unwillingness to obey the managers and the senior staff order demonstrates that he is functioning on Kantian ethics RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen Kantianism insists on performing actions that are correct rather than actions that maximise social welfare It puts a primary focus on autonomy and rationality, the former being that people should prescribe to themselves their moral law or behavioural guidelines, and other people should not impact or enforce it on them (L'etang 1992) Rationality is connected to autonomy because only the person may decide what is right or wrong and behave according to their rationality (Britannica 2020) In this situation, despite pressure from the higher management demanding him to change his response, Dr Usme resolved to stand firm in his opinion, arguing that it was not potential to alter since the declaration form represented the precise details (Dolven 2020) Vice versa, according to Bragg, managers and senior staff's concern focusing on modifying the declaration form affects the theory of moral intensity, which is the state of emotion that an individual is aware of the result of an ethical decision Jaffe and Pasternak pointed out that moral intensity consists of materials: the magnitude of consequences, immediate effects of consequences, the proximity of the moral agent to victims, concentration of impact, the likelihood of affection and social agreement It is also a low degree of moral intensity experienced by managers and senior staff when these were primarily focused on how officials would view the condition of the ship rather than their ship's workers and passengers' health Dolven stated that it was evident because they did not care to consider the others' specific situations in the ship and made comments such as the carried risk being public outrage or taking into account that how written the declaration form will change the way it was seen It prompted them to carry out the unethical behaviour of forcing the doctor to modify the declaration form RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen 2.3 Leadership Leadership is a central aspect that a company can build or ruin Ethical leadership is characterised as exhibiting acceptable behaviour in acts and personal connections and strengthening this behaviour through contact and decision-making with supporters (Bello 2012) Freeman & Stewart identifies an ethical leader with the right principles, pleasing personality, and models for others in a particular essay The following figure shows the Executive Ethics Leadership Reputation Matrix compares a moral individual to a moral leader in deciding kinds of leaders Figure 2: Executive Leadership Reputation Matrix As seen in figure 2, the ethical leader is a robust moral individual with excellent manners and a strong ethical leader who guides others with acceptable moral standards Nevertheless, regarding the problems mentioned previously, the executive and senior leadership did not exhibit a good personality of being both a moral individual and moral leader, which make them unethical leaders This is partly due to their utilitarian and revenue choices, resulting in a COVID-19 epidemic in the ship, leading to a crewmate's tragedy (ShipTechnology 2020) 2.4 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Freeman's Stakeholder Theory 2.4.1 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) According to Thacker (2019) Corporate Social Responsibility is indeed an organisational framework and policy that discusses societal RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen challenges and is hugely influential in maintaining the firms' sustainability and achieving meaningful ecological effects An experience like Greg Mortimer Cruise Ship's has caused the demand to discuss the company's stakeholders 2.4.2 Freeman's Stakeholder Theory The Stakeholder Theory encompasses entities that may influence or are individually impacted by the organisation The stakeholder can be inside or outside a company; they are classified as primary and secondary stakeholder (Chen 2020) As an entity, the Aurora Expedition includes various stakeholders vital to their success and could be categorised into two groups - primary and secondary Primary stakeholders are critical participants in Aurora Expedition and may play a financial role Secondary stakeholders have a less critical part in the firm's affairs and cause a small effect on its revenue (Donohoe 2017) In table below demonstrates, stakeholders of Aurora Expedition grouped into primary and secondary stakeholders Primary Stakeholder Secondary Stakeholder Employees Government Passengers Competitors Communities Media Outlets Suppliers General Public Table 1: Primary and Secondary Stakeholders of Aurora Ex In the event of Greg Mortimer Cruise Ship, the company did not reconsider its choice to carry on with the ship would impact its stakeholders, especially its crewmate and passengers Their primary objective was to ensure their revenue on the ship Therefore, they preferred to remain on the cruise and did not give their customers any reimbursement or cancellations From a normative stakeholder theory viewpoint, it is apparent that Aurora Expeditions only RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen concentrated on optimising its income but did not take into account the value of ethical responsibilities to its stakeholders (Berman et al 1999) 2.5 Stakeholder Salience Stakeholder salience is characterized as the level at which executives give preference for those statements of competing stakeholders during the decisionmaking procedure, three characteristics will assess the value of a stakeholder: Power, Legitimacy, Urgency Power relates to the ability to control the company to achieve the stakeholder's desired results or the ability to enforce one's will on a person or organization Legitimacy defines the basic definition or assumption that an individual's actions are valuable, appropriate, or reasonable under some generally defined collection of laws, standards, ideas, and meaning Moreover, Urgency related to time sensitivity or importance on the company of the stakeholder's expectations and the urgent necessity actions (Michell et al., 1997) The following diagram illustrates the various stakeholder groups depending on the characteristics they hold Figure 1: Stakeholder Salience Model Upon the framework of the Stakeholder Salience Mode and the Greg Cruise Ship case, the principal stakeholders included Aurora Expeditions, staff, and the travellers RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen 2.5.1 Aurora Expeditions Aurora Expeditions are dominant stakeholders as they have legal claims against the corporation and are operable on those claims Aurora Expeditions had to keep up the company and not risk any money to keep the owners satisfied since one passenger could pay up to $50,000 on one cruise ticket Therefore, all these profits would not be wasted 2.5.2 Staff In the alternative, Dr Usme and Safety Officer Zuterek are dependent stakeholders since they not have the authority to take action despite having immediate reasonable arguments regarding the ship's incident Nevertheless, Dr Usme was a definitive stakeholder instead, although, after repeated demands, he chose not to change the health declaration form to pursue ethics and morals He also did this to uphold the firm's credibility to indicate that Aurora Expeditions is legitimate and trustworthy 2.5.3 Travellers The passenger involved has a vital position in this situation However, they have no authority to control the judgment of the business as an outsider They had two options that would endanger their lives by completing their trip, or they would not be reimbursed for their journey if they were to quit CONCLUSION (152 words) If Aurora Expeditions took an ethical decision to postpone the cruise and give refunds to the infected passengers, the event of a coronavirus epidemic might be avoided entirely Despite a worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, going along with the cruise describes the company's utilitarianism and insufficient moral intensity, leading to several detrimental effects for everyone on board The topic regarding Dr Usme, on the other hand, reflects an example of Kantianism where he remained in the same place while identifying what had to be completed RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen The study of stakeholder and leadership also illustrates how the company's executives struggled to behave as an ethical leader while being in a dominant stakeholder role by focusing on passing on its stakeholders' moral obligations, especially to the travellers and staff onboard the ship Subsequently, the unethical choices given during the accident ended in numerous adverse effects, including being stuck on a ship, many reported cases of coronavirus, and a crew member's death RECOMMENDATIONS (205 words) 4.1 Ethical Leadership The managers and senior staff led by Aurora Expeditions should develop their ethical leadership using the Five-Factor Model, particularly agreeableness and conscientiousness, concerning ethical leadership Agreeableness is viewed as the propensity of others to be trustworthy and attentive; and it is one of the most ethical leadership forces Those responsible and trustworthy are individuals of conscientiousness (Brown and Treviño 2006) The superior management with control over the cruise ship should have kept frequent relations with those on the ship and should have taken any health concerns strictly In the future, the Aurora Expedition should take precautionary steps for their cruises and consider the essential recommendations from the ship crew if possible 4.2 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Aurora Expeditions should not have made an attempt to decrease the importance of the ship's state of health They alternatively should have advocated for more transparency in the documentation of any possible coronavirus cases, mainly because of the spread of the epidemic In CSR, transparency is a crucial concern as it affects its reputation (Dubbink, Graafland & Van Liedekerke 2008) It builds integrity and legitimacy when an organisation is consistent in its practices, allowing its customers to create interest in the organisation (Hayward 2015) By first revising its internal procedures and appreciating the views and perspectives of staff, management should focus on its transparency RMIT 3678473_Do Tuong Van Dan Hung Nguyen 10 REFERENCES ● Brown, ME & Treviño, LK 2006, ‘Ethical leadership: A review and future directions’, The Leadership Quarterly, vol 17, no 6, pp 595–616, viewed 19 December 2020, ● Dubbink, W, Graafland, J & van Liedekerke, L 2008, ‘CSR, Transparency and the Role of Intermediate Organisations’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol 82, no 2, pp 391–406, viewed 19 December 2020, ● Hayward, S 2015, What are the business benefits of being more transparent?, The 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