Operations Management

This paper intends to define operations management and analyze an ethics decision made by operations managers in the workplace or in a known organization. This paper is being submitted as part of the requirements of the University of Phoenix's Operations Management Course.

Production and Operations Management (POM) is about the transformation of production and operational inputs into outputs that, when distributed, meet the needs of customers. The process is often referred to as the Conversion Process. There are several different methods of handling the conversion or production process: Job, Batch, Flow and Group. POM incorporates many tasks that are interdependent, but which can be grouped under five main headings: Product, Plant, Processes, Programmes, and People.

The field obtains its definition and scope from its vision of an organization as a system. The effectiveness of the system is determined by the success with which various subsystems and components interact with each other and with the environment in which the organization operates. At the heart of successful management is the ability to draw upon the resources of many disciplines and integrate relevant principles and background information in order to define and analyze a problem. Once defined, the manager must identify alternative possible solutions, evaluate these in terms of the broader goals and values of the organization, implement the apparently dominant solution, and, finally, assess the actual consequences of the solution for the effectiveness of the organization. Operations management deals with topics such as supply chain management, project management, technology management, modeling dynamic systems, and quality management.

Several months ago an ethical issue arose regarding a fellow employee involved in activities considered to be in violation to the federal laws and regulations, as well as to the code of conduct at my workplace, a federal agency dedicated to conduct a variety of criminal investigations. All the names of the people involved were changed for privacy rights reasons.

The issue in particular involved a female employee, Beth, allegedly linked to a criminal organization dedicated to bring and distribute counterfeit products from the Continental United States into and along the western United States. One of the employees within our office, Anthony, was already investigating this organization and I was the senior advisor providing guidance and support to him. Beth was the office clerk. Anthony and I had already identified, through conducting surveillance and by visiting the businesses afterwards for visual confirmation and purchase of evidence, the type of products and brand that the organization