WebTeb (A): A Very Palestinian Dilemma

Recent MBA graduate Majed finds his dream job: high-tech, entrepreneurial, senior, social – contributing to the economy of Palestine, a cause close to his heart. But the new CEO of WebTeb, an online medical information service in Arabic, finds it more challenging than expected. Recruiting IT talent in Palestine is particularly tough. Eventually, his team finds an android developer to help them launch, but then comes a fateful phone call. Majed has infringed an unwritten policy of Palestinian tech companies – never to poach each other’s employees. The rationale behind this is to keep wages low and thus boost an industry with potential to transform the local economy. The injured party, an IT outsourcing company, asks Majed to rescind the offer. If he refuses, they threaten to put WebTeb out of business by offering better salaries to his entire web-development team. Case B shows how Majed resolves the dilemma.

1. To show how MBA graduates may be exposed to real-life ethical dilemmas right after business school, even in a social entrepreneurship context. 2. To demonstrate that an apparently simple ethical challenge is not as black and white as it might at first seem. 3. To explore whether “stability and order” or “economic growth” can ever justify controlling a market (especially a job market) and wage cartels, and by extension, whether “the end justifies the means”? 4. To explore the interplay between ethical principles and cultural/social/political context. 5. To discuss doing business in Palestine and developing economies in general – particularly the idea that wealth generation through business could hold the long-term solution to apparently intractable social and political problems. 6. To demonstrate the convergence between good ethical behaviour and good management.