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Presents two brief vignettes about female employees who object to gender discrimination in their work environment. In one case, the manager of a convenience store removes "adult" magazines from the store's shelves because she sees them as damaging to women. In the other, a group of female employees of the Stroh Brewery Co. charge that the company's advertising creates an overall atmosphere of hostility to women. Designed to help students understand the scope of management's responsibility for dealing with sexual harassment in the workplace and the challenge of exercising that responsibility in the face of moral and legal rights of free expression. May be used with Note on the Law of Sexual Harassment.

Beech-Nut's CEO must decide what to do. Asks students to consider how much evidence of impurity should be enough to trigger management's acknowledgment of a problem. What are the cognitive and attitudinal factors and pressures that lead people to persist in beliefs long after they appear untenable to more objective observers?

Top officials at Pfizer are assessing their strategy for improving protection of Pfizer's patents around the world. The outcome of the Uruguay Round of the GATT negotiations is uncertain, and it is not clear whether an acceptable intellectual property protection agreement will emerge. The case describes how Pfizer helped transform intellectual property from a lawyer's specialty to an international trade issue of concern around the world through close cooperation with the U.S. government, leadership in forming a tripartite coalition among U.S., Japanese, and European industry, and mobilization of the Pfizer organization. Shows how far a company may go to protect its intellectual property in a world where the concept of intellectual property is not universally recognized or accepted. May also be used to discuss the effectiveness and legitimacy of Pfizer's strategy, the conflicts between industrialized country and developing country perspectives on international trade and national sovereignty, and the question of appropriate norms of intellectual property protection.

The CEO of Beech-Nut Nutrition Corp. must decide what to do when he receives information that the company's supply of apple juice concentrate may be adulterated. The concentrate is used in many of the company's juice products. It appears that others in the company may have had reason to doubt the authenticity of the concentrate for several years. The case illustrates the importance of accurate information and open channels of communication to ensure sound decision making by top management. Also illustrates how emphasis on financial objectives and designated goals may obscure important ethical and legal considerations. May be used to discuss organizational barriers to information flow, approaches to decision making, and the role of the FDA and other U.S. regulatory officials in ensuring food purity.

A general manager at Lexon Computer Corp. must decide whether interception and surveillance of employees' e-mail is acceptable company practice, and whether to follow the advice of his computer operations manager who wants to fire the person who complained that the practice violates employees' privacy. The case introduces the topic of employee privacy in the electronic communications environment and potential conflicts between employees' privacy interest and employers' property interests. This case series permits students to compare and contrast the perspectives and modes of reasoning of managers, judges, and policy-makers as they approach the question of employee privacy in the electronic work environment.

Lexon Corp. lawyers must decide how to respond to two lawsuits challenging the company's interception of electronic mail on privacy grounds. They must also formulate a company policy on e-mail. One suit was filed by an employee dismissed from her job after asking that her boss stop intercepting and reading electronic mail messages. The second is a class action suit for invasion of privacy by all those sending or receiving electronic mail messages from the California location. Introduces students to the emerging law of employee privacy in the electronic communications area and to the characteristic ways the law develops. Can be used to contrast a management perspective on employee privacy.