Apex Art Case Study

A company known as Apex Art was recently asked to prepare a bid on 500 pieces of framed artwork for a new hotel. If Apex Art wins the bid, then the benefits would lead directly to sales representative Jason Grant, whose income relies on commission. In other words, he would receive a large sum of money as a result of the winning bid. The cost accountant for Apex, Sonja Gomes, prepared the bid and calculated the total product costs of the framed artwork to be $121,000. Since the company policy states that the pricing must be at 125% of full cost, Gomes provides Grant a total amount of $151,200 to submit for the job. Grant notifies Gomes that at the price of $151,200, the company is incapable of winning the job. He confesses to Gomes that he had spent $500 of company funds to treat the hotel’s purchasing agent to a basketball playoff game where the purchasing agent revealed to him that a bid of $145,000 would win the job. At first, Grant had no intention of letting Gomes know of this information because he was sure that she would have developed a bid that would be below the amount that the purchasing agent told him about, $145,000. Therefore, he thoroughly explains to Gomes that if the company does not take advantage of the important information that the purchasing agent had revealed to him, then the $500 of company funds that he had spent would go to waste. Nevertheless, Apex Art would still generate some profit if it wins the bid at $145,000 because it is higher than the full cost of $121,000. In order to come to fair grounds, Gomes advises Grant to use cheaper materials for the frame, which will assist him in attaining a bid of $145,000. Since the artwork was pre- selected and thus cannot be altered, the total amount of cost redu...

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.... Her relationship to Apex Art is more important than maintaining the working relationship between Grant and her. The negative impacts that will result from her using the information outweigh the positives of using the information in order to win the bid and make money. Therefore, she should do the right thing and notify the next figure of authority above her and expose all the information that she was told by Grant.

Gomes and Grant are not the only two employees that have faced an ethical issue in the workplace, employees in numerous different organizations encounter similar dilemmas. However, they should all consider the consequences that will follow if they choose to act unethically. Rather, employees should possess and abide by a code of ethics so as not to potentially put their reputation and future in danger along with that of the organizations they work for.