Ethics Assignment
The aforementioned case study for ethical analysis focuses on the dilemma of employees confronted in a situation to meet bonus-compensated monthly quotas by forwarding customer leads, which have not been thoroughly reviewed as benefiting the company, and falsely reporting the number of customer leads, to account executives. To test for the presence of an ethical issue, an employee, deciding to intentionally forward unproductive customer leads and report an exaggerated total of customer leads, can hypothesize if their superiors will approve of their actions or terminate their employment, if brought to their attention. Since there is doubt and uncertainty, the employee has been faced with an ethics issue that requires scrutiny.
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However, one could argue that the company has the right to veritable information. Information is an important right because it serves as the foundation for decision-making. When an employee provides misleading information, the company 's decisions are not warranted and unexpected consequences may arise; account executives contribute to a company 's sunk costs expending time on unproductive work. However, there is no flagrant disregard for human rights observed; therefore, no significant insight is gained by using the rights approach for this …show more content…
Using five approaches (Utilitarian, Rights Justice, Common Good, and Virtue), the ethical outcome of employees gaining bonuses and the misrepresentation of customer leads to account executives were studied to aid in decision making. The primary goal of any company is to maximize profits by optimizing revenue in any given time; similarly, the primary goal of any employee is to maximize earned income in any given time. When both the employee and company mutually benefit, an optimal efficiency will be reached and, in turn, lead to integrity, growth, and motivation in a business. Short-term bonuses should not influence employees to risk their long-term relationship with a company. As a result, the utilitarian approach conveys the most convincing argument for the employee to not deceive his monthly quota and to diligently investigate customers leads prior to referring them to account executives. Additionally, the current incentive policy needs to be changed to hinder the opportunity for employees to deceive customer leads. For example, the company should reward bonuses to employees for successful customer leads, but not for any general customer leads encountered in daily business activities. Alternatively, the company can eliminate bonuses and instead allocate company shares to outperforming employees to instill both a sense of responsibility and shared ownership in the
...t be in business very long. But, for instance, what if RGIS was offered the chance to perform one “test” inventory for a company that had many stores and the inventory went extremely well because of the customer service levels provided? RGIS would have the opportunity to service this customer’s other stores not because of the data, but because of the service they received. This human factor played huge role in garnering business for the RGIS and yet their employees have no chance in earning any more compensation than they would have for simply putting data into a machine. Let’s look at other ethics principles and see where an example like the one above would fit in.
The movie “Glengarry Glen Ross” presented a series of ethical dilemmas that surround a group of salesmen working for a real estate company. The value of business ethics was clearly undermined and ignored in the movie as the salesmen find alternatives to keep their jobs. The movie is very effective in illustrating how unethical business practices can easily exist in the business world. Most of the time, unethical business practices remain strong in the business world because of the culture that exists within companies. In this film, the sudden demands from management forced employees to become irrational and commit unethical business practices. In fear of losing their jobs, employees were pressured to increase sales despite possible ethical ramifications. From the film, it is right to conclude that a business transaction should only be executed after all legal and ethical ramifications have been considered; and also if it will be determined legal and ethical to society.
It is true that this patient lost her life due to religious reasons. Doing what is ethically right is the right thing to do in this type a challenge. I know it is frustrating for the healthcare team present at that time for not saving the life of this individual. But patient has the right to for his medical condition. (Right to refuse or accept care).
Issue(s): A bonus system based on profit, could incentivize Lakeside Company’s employees to manipulate financial information for their own potential personal gain. Each location under Lakeside will be working towards increasing their profits so they receive the biggest bonus possible. Since their internal controls are weak, this increases the possibility of this fraud. However, it is important to mention that the predecessor auditor believed that the people at Lakeside, that they worked with, are people of integrity. This type of positive organizational culture tends to decrease potential fraud risk.
In a workplace there are many decision to be made, however, an ethical decision is the most challenging. An ethical decision involves knowing what is right or wrong and then doing the right thing (McNamara, n.d). However, the right thing not always can be the correct decision; it will depend on the perspective of each stakeholder. An employee can make an ethical decision in regards to product or service. In order to further reflect whether a decision is ethical, I will consider an example extracted from the “Real-to-Life Examples of Complex Ethical Dilemmas” and the results from the answers to “Method One – Ethical Checklist.” The example that I’ve chosen is "A customer (or client) asked for a product (or service)
Workplace ethics engages in judgements and collective agreements regarding a suitable guide of behaviour. The ethical decision making framework (EDM) presents, business decision is ethical or unethical.EDM provides an indication of traditional decision making process and issues that manipulate ethical decisions. Employees tend to fraud because they can experience the unfair treatments or situation that they face. Manages may ask employee to work long hours, and then they can take additional time off. Good performance leads to remunerations and appreciation managers than workers.
Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many situations that can arise in which a person is experiencing an ethical dilemma. They have to choose between standing by their own personal ethical standards or to comply with their companies ethical standards. In some instances some have to choose whether to serve their own personal interests, or the interest of the company. In this essay I will be examining the financial events surrounding Bernie Madoff, and the events surrounding Enron.
When working within any professional body, an individual will be subjected to circumstances in which personal ethics will come into play. The Accounting profession is no different as ethical questions arise as part of any working day and can effect how an individual or the company conducts business. These questions can vary greatly in practice from selection of new customers to the rates at which those clients are going to be charged. These ethical questions are raised regularly within the workplace and each employee will react to them differently. The varying reactions will depend on the morality of each individual, or each employees own ‘ethics’. As each employee has their own set of values companies must be alert to the fact that some of their employees may have more ‘flexible’ morals than others. This ‘flexible’ morality can lead to corruption and manipulation within the workplace and can give companies serious problems. As a result of this, all of the main professional accounting bodies have begun to re-introduce mandatory courses teaching ethics to their employees. As well as this, ‘A Guide to professional ethics’ was published which contains a number of different principles in order to govern the behaviour of accountants and also to identify and reduce the greatest areas of risk with respect to unethical behaviour.
Ethics in business is a highly important concept, as it can affect a company’s profits, salaries paid to employees and CEOs, and public opinion, among many other aspects of a business. Ethics can be enforced by company policies and guidelines, set a precedent when a company is faced with an important decision, and are also evolving thanks to new technology and situations that arise due to technology usage. Businesses have a duty to maintain their ethical responsibilities and also to help their employees enforce these responsibilities in and out of the workplace. However, ethics and the foundation for them are not always black and white. There are many different ethical theories, however Utilitarianism, Kant’s Deontological ethics, and Virtue ethics are three of the most well known theories in existence. Each theory is distinct in that it has a different quality used to determine ethicality and allows for a person to choose which system of ethics works best with both the situation and his or her personal ethical preferences.
With Jacob’s financial pressure, his integrity is shaken because he wants to use the money to pay off the bills and Jacob did not mention it to Krystal. Jacob needs to put his personal matter aside and communicate his medical situation and the bonus money to Krystal. By doing so, Jacob will maintain his honesty and not let his personal interest be in the way resulting trust within the workplace will be maintained. Additionally, the bonus money can be fairly divided between the two. Employees have the responsibility to follow and maintain business ethics and the code of ethics in the workplace. Employees have to be honest, communicate at all levels of the organization, deal issues at the lowest possible level, and avoid conflict of interest that would lead to unethical decisions. Also, employees should be educated with the policy and regulations set by the company in order to maintain ethical practices in the workplace. Jacob and employees in general are bombarded by ethical issues and by abiding by their roles and responsibilities will guide them in making an ethical decision. The following five-step model can help employees make appropriate decisions when faced with an ethical dilemma. First step is to recognize the issue. Knowing what is the root cause and the main
The American Association of Public Accountants first implemented ethical rules in 1905. Since then, accounting ethics has been heavily scrutinized. It has been said "that the relationship between personal values, codes of conduct and decisions to engage in financial misrepresentation are 'weak at best'" (Douglas, Davidson, & Schwartz, 2001), p. 101). It is essential for Accountants to make ethical decisions. In order to promote ethical decision making, it is vital that profession develop a strong ethical environment. The purpose of this paper is to look at two of the main ethical theories as they relate to the accounting profession. Specifically this paper will give a detailed description of utilitarianism and deontology. The organizational culture and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants code of professional conduct will then be looked at from the context of the two ethical theories. Finally, I will present the ethics system I believe is most appropriate for the accounting profession.
Focusing on what is best for the organization as a whole and not self greed, not focusing on short-term profits but the long-term profit goals for the shareholders, investors, and employees would help keep employees ethical (Ferrell, et al, 2009).When an employee is fearful of losing his or her job, unethical conduct can be the result of trying to keep that job (Ferrell, et al, 2009).When pressures are placed on employees to make money quick, fast, and in a hurry, the results could be unethical behavior (Ferrell, et al,
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
Whistleblowing should be part of an ethics training which should include a message from the CEO or the owner of the business, that emphasize an ethical business practise, the code of ethics and decision making by including ethical consideration into strategic planning. By inducting an ethical business practise, the need for whistleblowers will not be needed, but there are always someone that cross the line. Therefore, by encouraging whistleblowing and supervise departmental and corporate performance concerning ethical questions.
Business nowadays encounter with a lot of moral challenges in today’s global economy. Everyone is thriving to be more successful than their competitors, to make their next profits, to keep their job, to earn a big bonus, or to compete effectively. There exists temptation to bend lines, omit information, and do whatever it takes to get ahead of their competition. Many business employees and executives succumb. Sadly, the theme becomes...