Real-Life Decision Making
You are a cereal chemist employed by a company that produces baked goods. It is a large company with dozens of employees and millions of dollars worth of equipment. You work in quality control. That means it's your responsibility to ensure that standards of quality -- including nutrition, taste, texture, cleanliness and health considerations -- are being met.
Today, you are doing some tests on the rye flour that is being used in the baked products. You notice that this batch of baked goods contains a contaminant called ergot. Ergot is a fungus that can cause health concerns in consumers. One of its most dangerous effects is that it can cause pregnant women to lose their babies.
However, ergot is safe if it occurs in small quantities. The government has established a safe level. If the ergot in a sample exceeds the number set by government, then the product is not safe, and you are legally obligated to reject the sample and stop production.
Nervously, you inspect the sample, hoping that it will fall within the safe level. It exceeds the safe level by a small amount.
The ergot is only a tiny amount over the safe level. There is not a big possibility that the ergot will cause any health problems. Probably no one's health will be endangered. If you reject the sample, it will cause your employer to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars.
What's more, the company that supplied the rye is the only supplier you have. It will be very difficult to find another one quickly enough and this will create a major problem for your employer. Still, it is the law that you are supposed to reject any sample that exceeds a specified level.
What do you do?