Case Study : An Executive Lance Mannion

During my courses, I frequently remind students that most corporate executives, accountants, and auditors are honest and ethical. This case provides a stark and powerful example of one such individual. When I discuss a case such as this in my courses, I try to provide other examples of positive role models among corporate executives. Granted, most of these examples do not involve accounting or auditing matters, but, nevertheless, they help to blunt the impression that students may receive from studying my cases that most corporate executives are “crooks.”

The second ethical problem in this case relates to the Rigas family’s use of publicly-held corporate funds as a personal “piggy bank.” The Rigases used the company jet for personal reasons “without approval of the Board of Directors”, on one occasion flying to Africa for a safari (Markon & Frank, 2002). On another, one of John Rigas’ sons used a corporate jet to pick up an actress friend of his (Grant, Young, & Nuzum, 2004). The former CFO claimed that Adelphia’s funds were used by one of Rigas’ sons to buy a condominium, and to build a $13M golf course (Grant, Young, & Nuzum,

The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.

Unfortunately, a quick scan of the business news will normally result in reports of unethical business behavior. To prove this point, let’s start with a review of the news for stories about fraud and other unethical behavior in business. You can use the University Library to start your search. Once you have located an article share it with the class by developing a summary of the important information. Make sure that you give credit to your source.

“Unethical thinking is not just “bad business”; it is an invitation to disaster in business, however rarely (it may sometimes seem) unethical behavior is actually found out and punished” (Solomon, 1997:17) An ethical dilemma happens when an intricate circumstance which often originates from a struggle amongst the moral requirements of two persons.

The ethical issue to be discussed within this text will address the abuse of power or position. This abuse of authority can lead to a multitude of issues further disrupting good order and discipline in an organization. Identifying the Root Causes Identifying the root casue can be a rather difficult feat. Often, with the abuse of aurthority it causes a casacade effect.

The problem to be investigated is the application of business ethics. In the business world, ethics are extremely important. Ethics are prime elements that help a business to grow and to become more productive. It is by applying proper business ethics that a business can operate in a moral or ethical business environment and managed to conduct all activities in a manner that maximizes profits while not compromising all other non-economic concerns(Schwab, 1996). Businesses have over the years failed to nurture business ethics in order to fulfill shareholders' interests and to have a culture that is oriented towards profit maximization and high performance(Jennings, 2012; Sims & Felton, 2006). This has led business to have gray areas in their activities. Gray areas are those situations or problems that do not fit exactly into any ethical analysis. These are the activities which may be represented to be immoral as a result of lying and false representations on the part of the business.

This study aims to understand what effect has an ethical framework in accounting. In particular, we examine the influence of ethics on earnings management, financial reporting, and external accounting. Today, the commercial environment reveals the unethical behavior of management and accountants through the manipulation of accounting records to boost the company’s stock price, falsified financial statements to mislead investors, failure of auditors to correct errors and omissions due to client’s pressure and personal material interests.

From an ethical perspective identify which of the virtues using “The Elements of Ethics for Processionals” handout you would recommend that Stephen Cox does as a means to help his organization through this crisis. When you identify the virtue, describe what the behavior should be? What are the virtues and practices that will support ethical leadership from this time forward, by Stephen A. Cox, President, and CEO from the Better Business Bureau?

Collins illustrates a persuasive profile of what it takes to be the leader of not a good but a great organization in the modern day. He also demonstrates the development of successful organizations as a consequence of ethical behavior rather than despite

Prepared for HU 432 007 Ethics for Managers & Engineers Professor Paul Hudec and submitted 5/4/2016

Moreover, this kind of conflict between Philip Anderson and Stuart & Co. is a proof that it is difficult to establish a cost control respecting ethical concerns. Indeed, to realize a cost control management, a firm has to fixed budget targets but these objectives have to be possible and controllable. Perhaps in this case, the objectives fixed for Philip are too difficult if the manager want to respect some virtues during the selling. For its success, an enterprise has to realize a good turnover but this turnover is good only if there are some customers that is why cost control is as important as ethical issues. With its thinking way, the branch of this firm does not keep the focus on its manager (Philip Anderson) and on its customers.

Today, employees can be considered as the greatest strength of the company. They are the ones who help build the reputation of the company, it is their job to ensure the success of the business, which is why it is very important to keep them satisfied. A recent statistic shows that an American worker has an average of eight jobs in his career (Rudman, 2003). This stat shows how difficult it is to retain a core strength of a company. In this essay, an analysis of a case study is made. The case includes at first, a discussion between Chip Brownlee and Arch carter, the CEO and lead director of Galvatrens respectively. During this conversation, they discussed a lawsuit that a former employee sent to the company for being wrongfully relieved of his duty. Also in the case study after investigation the board of Galvatrens and their CEO made a meeting in order to tackle the problems and know what really happened. In this essay, it will explain the main ethical dilemmas in the case study, and according to these dilemmas a comparison will be made between utilitarian, libertarian, deontological and virtue ethics perspectives. Finally, as a form of an ethical point of view will be used to be the best solution to solve the dilemma of the recommendation.

Organizational misconduct, deception, cheating, and any other forms of unethical behaviors are some of the challenges that the society is grappling with today. Repeatedly, the media has been highlighting extreme cases and often costly scams that the public is exposed to. However, the most perverse of these cases are the ‘ordinary’ unethical behaviors that are committed by the people who value ethical conducts but behave unethically whenever they are presented with an opportunity to cheat. However, it is very common for people to be critical of the ethical actions of others than that their own. People are always cautions and suspicious of the intentions of others whenever they to do well (Fluker, 2009). They tend to think that people doing well are more self-interested and motivated by the financial prospect. This paper will explore the reason people act unethically considering their situation of power.

Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the