Sample essay Ethical Issues In Chosen Profession

Ethical Issues In Chosen Profession

In this paper I will be presenting ethical case studies found in management and leadership fields within private companies and non-profit organizations. I am currently working in a leadership position at a Catholic Church as the Director of Faith Formation and Confirmation with teens and young adults. My goal is to move into a Pastoral Associate role after graduating which would allow me to work with all families of the parish as well as staff and volunteers in an administrative capacity. In this paper I present 7 case studies that represent ethical challenges that may come up in a management or leadership role within an organization along with my commentary on each one. In addition to that I also include a methodology section outlining the process and questions used for personal interviews conducted. In the results section I will share the responses from the personal interviews. Lastly I present a discussion section where I share my thoughts about what I learned from the case studies and personal interviews and how it applies to leadership and management as well as to some of the ethical theories I have learned about this semester.

WRITE THIS ESSAY FOR ME

Tell us about your assignment and we will find the best writer for your paper.

Get Help Now!

REVIEW OF CASE STUDIES

Case Study 1: A CFO’S DILEMA

Business Ethics by Stephen Henn (p 3-7) http://lib.myilibrary.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/Open.aspx?id=212200

Years ago, there was a chief financial officer (CFO) of a manufacturing company about to be taken public. Times were good: The company had successfully come out of the development stage and stared to ship product, had negotiated relationships with the fop resellers in our industry and, in so doing, secured upward of 85 percent of the distribution chain, and the initial reception from the investment banking community was very good. The company was buzzing with excitement – especially as employees and management started to believe their stock options would be worth a fair amount of money.

The accounting group and outside auditors had recently completed the audit of the second-quarter numbers that would be used as the basis for the offering. Summer was upon them and there was a lull in the activity as the company was in the final stages of deciding on an investment banker. Returning from lunch one day, the CFO saw a tractor-trailer at the loading dock. This was good news because it meant the company was shipping product. Taking a quick detour, the CFO asked the

manufacturing manager where the product, a specialized machine, was headed. “Here,” he said. “It is coming back for a software upgrade. It will be going back out in the next day or so.” Oh, well, the CFO thought, and headed to his office.

But something nagged at him. The company’s processes included a fairly detailed forecast of revenue, and the CFO did not recall anyone forecasting upgrade revenue for the foreseeable future. Later in the day, curiosity getting the better of him, the CFO went back down to the manufacturing manager and asked if he knew if the software upgrade had been forecasted and for when – the CFO’s assumption being that this machine was being upgraded early. “No, we are not charging for this. It’s included in the sales price. But it is no big deal; maybe 20 minutes of work,” he said.

The CFO had negotiated the contracts when he was an outside advisor to the company, and he was damn certain that there were no “free” software upgrades. The CFO stated, “I am fairly certain upgrades were not included in the price.” “Beats me, but I know this machine is getting an upgrade.”

This could be a very big problem. The company recognized the revenue based on acceptance of the device. If there was an expectation of an upgrade, there could not be acceptance. No acceptance, no revenue. Having just completed the audit, the CFO knew the company had booked the revenue for all machines shipped to date.

The CFO pored over his files, but there was nothing in the files to indicate the upgrade was due. The CFO then tried to contact the head of engineering, but he was away on vacation. The nagging feeling would not go away, so the CFO went down to the head of engineering’s office and grabbed the chief engineer’s customer file. In it was a letter – a one-paragraph letter – agreeing to the upgrades. The CFO made a copy and went back to his office. Sitting there, the CFO must have read the letter dozens of times looking for a way out. More correctly, he was looking for an easy way out. There was no way around it: The letter meant that the company needed to restate its revenue. Thankfully, the company had not disclosed anything publicly, but that was a silver lining to a very dark cloud. The CFO thought about the financial impact on the company and the delay in the IPO; he thought about the impact on the employees and their stock options; and the CFO thought about his stock options.

The CFO also thought about how he was the only one who knew there was a problem.

On the one hand, it was pretty clear to him there was no intentional mischief. The engineers who started the company did not appreciate the implications of the letter (there was no CFO, controller, or accountant when the letter was signed) and the company had grown from a dozen engineers to a staff of over 100 in two years, so a software upgrade must have seemed trivial in the grand scheme of things. The accounting rule was pretty straightforward; but until the CFO’s coincidental run-in on the

 
dock, neither side thought to communicate with the other. There were a thousand reasons why this was an innocent mistake.

But none of that alleviated the impact.

Leadership Point of View

The CFO is faced with a difficult blend of circumstances, yet one that is highly illustrative for our purposes. It is easy to say what should have been done, but the right decision is not an easy one to make. First, there are three things going through the CFO’s mind as he sat in his office – three things that were making him choose to shut his mouth. The firs was money: The decision to come clean would cost a lot to the company, his fellow employees, and to him. While the first two were very important, lets’ be honest, the thought of the pot of IPO gold being pushed away weighed heavily on his mind. The

IPO payoff was important to him for a variety of reasons: Long hours would be rewarded, a second child was on the way, and the new-care smell is very enticing.

The second thought going through his mind was the he could get away with not speaking up. As successful executive, the CFO would never be accused of having a small ego and the voice in his head was a full chest-puffing mode: He could deflect questions, nuance answers if necessary, and, if worse came to worse, tear up the copy and enjoy plausible deniability. Ego is a critical factor because it told him he would not get caught.

Finally, he was afraid of the consequences of speaking up. What would this do to his standing in the company? Would he get fired? The CFO kept thinking, “This is not my fault,” but his conscience would answer, “But it is your responsibility.” He did not have to be an ethics expert to realize that he was not going to be viewed as a conquering………………….

Not ready? We are here to write this paper from scratch.

Place an order for this assignment or any other paper with us. We guarantee that the paper will be delivered within the specified deadline. We also have a personalized customer support and you will be able to communicate with your writer throughout the order preparation process. Thank you for choosing us