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This case illustrates the dilemma of an employee who, having received an offer to go elsewhere (although to a noncompeting business), must decide where his loyalties lie.

This case details the rise of hard-disk storage manufacturer MiniScribe in the mid-1980s and the company's demise after executives manipulated the financial information.

Although more consumers are answering questions about where they purchased merchandise in the United States with "I got it at Wal-Mart," the retail behemoth has questions it needs answered about the current, international issues it faces. Where, when, and how can it use its capabilities in other countries? And how can capabilities and knowledge developed in one part of the globe be used in North America, South America, Asia, and Europe to repeat its success? The case provides a strategic analysis of the problems of international expansion as Wal-Mart dreams of hearing the I-got-it-at-Wal-Mart answer spoken in many languages.

This case provides an ethical dilemma for a sales force. Do they look at competitive information provided by a customer under strange circumstances or not?

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were best friends and socially conscious entrepreneurs when they founded Ben & Jerry's Homemade in the 1970s in Burlington, Vermont. The company was well-known for being offbeat, quirky, and committed to socially responsible ventures and using organic ingredients in its products. When the company went public in 1984, most people bought the stock because they believed in the company's values and mission. In late 1999, the financial and economic world was quite different, and two suitors-Unilever and Dreyer's Ice Cream-appeared, both very interested in acquiring Ben & Jerry's. This case describes not only the background and history of Ben & Jerry's, but the factors involved in the founders' having to decide what course of action to take.

This series of diversity caselets is designed to present short, quick vignettes of different workplace situations involving issues of gender, sexual orientation, race, disability, age, religion, culture, and ethnicity.

Case B describes the aftermath of Ben & Jerry's being acquired by Unilever. While there was public sadness and dismay over the socially responsible company appearing to "sell out," Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield tried to put it in the best possible light: "Under this new arrangement, Ben and Jerry's will be independently operated, our values will continue and we hope our efforts to make positive change will even expand. Unilever has contractually agreed to increasing socially beneficial activities as a percentage of sales every year. Ben and Jerry's will be doing more good than it does today."

This case, which can be used in conjunction with the other Monsanto cases, details Monsanto's efforts to introduce genetically modified organisms (GMOs) into Europe in the mid-1990s. Monsanto did not anticipate the European resistance and public outcry based on a number of factors, and company officials ultimately admitted their mistakes in the introduction process. Additionally, the case poses the basic question: How could Monsanto, in its role as a seed producer, have interacted with the international food-supply chain so that its primary consumers had a market outside the United States for their genetically modified crops?

This case illustrates a situation where one male co-worker hears two male colleagues discussing his female coworker in terms that make him uncomfortable. He deliberates on whether to speak up to them or not.

Fingerhut, based in Minnetonka, Minnesota, is a direct-marketing company that sells a smorgasbord of consumer goods through an array of specially targeted catalogs. In November 1996, an article in the Star Tribune, a major Minneapolis newspaper, drew attention to a class-action lawsuit pending against Fingerhut that suggests the firm made its profits by exploiting the poor. Several civil rights groups rallied around the suit and submitted amicus curiae in favor of the litigation. The case illustrates issues in ethics and management communication. Discussions focus on the constituencies. Is Fingerhut exploiting its customers or providing them with an affordable method of obtaining valued consumer goods on credit? Do retailers have a duty to offer products at reasonable prices? Are the high interest rates reasonable given the risk? What are the options: pawn shops, rent-to-own? What is the profile of the typical Fingerhut customer? Discussions also focus on the issues communicating to the constituencies. How much damage will the lawsuit do to Fingerhut's image as an ethical, socially conscious company? What communication strategies can the firm employ? Should it react to the lawsuit? What should it tell its employees?

The owner/editor of the small Davis Press encounters a dilemma when she is given the opportunity to publish a novel set in the Islamic holy city of Mecca. Given the events of the last 16 years--the angry fallout after Salman Rushdie's novel "The Satanic Verses," the continuing Iraq War, and the recent controversy of Koran desecration at the U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Prison--publishing the novel presents a host of various ethical dilemmas, including whether she should put her staff at risk. Discusses the ethics of a free press and challenges the profit motive in the face of jeopardizing political and religious world affairs.