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Team of Three Wins Business Ethics Case Competition

The topic for this year’s competition was: Managing Ethically in an Economic Crisis, with Unemployment at a 25-year High.

“The topic “was awesome … top of the mind,” said Lisa Hall, director of information technology with Cisco Systems and one of the competition judges. “Every company is having these discussions,” she said. “The four student teams in the competition nailed it … and they all had a different slant” on their responses.

Selecting the top team was tough, but in the end, first place went to a team of three business administration majors: Catrina Brehm, who has a concentration in entrepreneurship; Blair Dickerson, concentration in marketing, and Lindsey Medlin, concentration in human resources. All are slated to graduate in May 2010.

Members of the team receiving second place are Dana Paratore, and Lyndsey Warhurst. Both are seniors in business administration with concentrations in marketing.

Members of the third place team are Jeremy Pardue and Matt Thompson, both seniors in business administration with concentrations in finance. Receiving recognition were Amanda Beaman, a junior majoring in accounting with a financial analysis concentration and Lindsay Hughes, a junior in business administration, with a concentration in operations.

It was evident that the members of each team did their research, understood their subject and conveyed a level of confidence that impressed the judges, she said. But in the end, the first place team had the necessary edge to come out ahead of the others. “And their handouts were awesome,” she said.

Speaking of all the teams, Hall said, “I was very impressed with how well they were able to pull it together succinctly. A lot of people think you need an hour to put your point across, so by design the teams had only a few minutes.”

“I also was impressed with how confident they all were,” she said. “As a leader, you have to be able to stand up – like it or not – and convey your thoughts. I looked at all four of the groups as consultants, and they really did a good job.”

Hall and fellow judges Monique Hayes, financial center leader with BB&T – Regency, and Ronald G. Wainwright, member, Dixon Hughes, are members of the college’s Board of Advisors. Hall also attended last year’s competition when her daughter, Somer Hall, a member of the Business Ethics Society, competed.

This year’s first place team recommended that companies establish a code of conduct that included transparency in decision making, with a system of checks and balances that would involve everyone in the chain of command, including owners. In their research, the team explored the topics of employee layoffs and furloughs, executive compensation and bonuses, and Hosmer’s Ten Ethical Principles, especially the principle of personal virtue, and Hosmer’s Principle of Universal Rules.

The other teams also invoked Hosmer’s rules as well as the Utilitarian Principle and a corporate code of ethics, among other measures to increase the likelihood of ethical corporate behavior.