1-51 Professional Ethics and Toxic Waste
1. Discuss why Rachel has an ethical responsibility to take some action about her suspicion of the illegal dumping of toxic wastes.
Rachel has an ethical responsibility to take some action about her suspicion of the illegal dumping of toxic wastes because it is illegal to begin with and even though it might only be a suspicion, if it turns out to be true, under the eyes of the law if she knew about it and did nothing, she is just as guilty as the responsible parties. She might be working for a very prominent firm but if her suspicions turn out to be true, the minute those news go public the firm’s reputation will definitely suffer as will the firms employees. No employee wants to have to
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She has no proof that her suspicions are in fact taking place and it would be very irresponsible on her part to say her company is doing something as illegal as improperly dumping toxic waste on purpose just to save some money.
• Give the information to an outside member of Alberta’s board of directors, whom she knew because he lived in her neighborhood:
Again, releasing such information to an outsider without knowing if it’s true or not, might be irresponsible on her part because from that point on it would only be one step for a company outsider to make the information public without knowing the facts. Since in this case the outsider is a member of the board of directors, she could contact that person if she feels comfortable with him in order to discuss her findings privately. That way she is also showing her commitment to doing the right thing for her company and shows her concern to do right by her as an employee.
3. Assume that Rachel sought the advice of the vice president of finance and discovered that he both knew about and approved of the dumping of toxic wastes. What steps should she take to resolve the conflict in this situation?
If Rachel sought the advice of the vice president of finance and discovered that he both knew about and approved of the dumping of toxic
However, there is no illegality here since this action ties in with the regulations of the company. Although we are unable to conclude on any evidence, the professional skepticism level should rise.
Dean Buntrock established Waste Management, Inc. in 1968. Its main purpose is to pick recycling and garbage up from residential housing and businesses. WM also disposes of the garbage in landfills. It has grown to be the largest garbage disposal company in the U.S. today. This company has managed to survive “one of the most egregious accounting frauds we have seen” said Thomas C. Newkirk of the SEC.
The boss tried to justify why keeping silent was the best solution, and there was going to be a new liner out in one to two years to replace the bad products. At this time, Jacob was involved in a conspiracy to continue in the status quo so the company revenue with the faulty products would not decline, and not worry about the issues the problems would be solved in a few years. The ethical issue involved is client deception; to knowingly sell a product, and failure to respond to complaints about the quality of the defective products (Boatright, 2009). The fraud and lack of social responsibility to the environment, is very disappointing by Richardson Drilling. Hillary, Jacob’s boss, does not want outside sources to know about the problems with the parts. Discounting the inventory, where regulations are less restrictive, opens the door to corporate scandals, and environmental disasters. If I were Jacob, I would immediately inform management there is a potential issue which should be looked into regarding substandard parts being sold, and distributed. I believe if you are an ethical person, you should not have to warn people to beware; there ought to be trust with the company. A person selling something is morally obligated to inform the purchaser of several things: the value of the product, faithfulness to the client,
Rachel is first introduced into the play at the very beginning where we see she has gone to the jail to visit her boyfriend Bert Cates. Rachel is very desperate to try and get Bert to just throw himself at the mercy of the court and admit that what he did was wrong. She just wants to be with him. As she enters the jail she speaks to Meeker saying “Mr Meeker, don’t let my father know I came here”, This quote portrays Rachel’s character very well. She is shy and lacks confidence, obviously worried of what would happen if her father found out she was visiting Cates, the enemy to her father at this point. She has lived her life in fear of her father and because of she followed everything
Based on the case, Who You Gonna Call by Kevin D. Zeiler, Nicki is working in the billing department for a large, for profit health care organization. She has been working for the company for two and a half years and was just recently promoted to senior Medicare Billing Specialist. Due to her recent promotion she has been granted the ability to information she was not able to before, she then found discrepancies surrounding the way many of the Medicare invoices were coded. She informed her supervisor. The response of the supervisor was this is how we will continue to code these documents and Nicki should focus on training and monitoring her team/staff. She found the response very strange and after six months has passed, she does not feel comfortable and does not know what to do. While Nicki was reading the paper, she read about another facility who is being investigated for Medicare fraud.
Is pleasing the customers, and telling them what they might want to hear, more important than being honest with them? When clients ask the company for reports, their main interest should be to get a thorough and comprehensive analysis. If they were only looking for a confirmation of what they wanted to hear, they should not need the research.
Rachel is a survivor of the Holocaust. She has lost all her family except for grandfather and her younger brother, Yacov. In the concentration camps, the Nazi took advantage of her in the most horrifying way. They beat and branded her. After the war, she was released and smuggled into Palestine. She had hoped to reunited with her grandfather but instead she was put in a home with many other families. The Jews, her own people, shunned her and would go near her. They called her horrible things like tradior and Nazi. They bullied her until she thought she was worthless, unloved, and ugly inside and out. Rachel closed herself off from others. It was through her friends, family, and faith that she finally started to heal. This process was not easy.
What would I do if I was in George Nash’s position as Vice President of Real Estate at Desperate Air Corporation (a company in dire financial straits), and my pending sale of Florida property potentially had toxic waste buried beneath the surface. I found this to be the least challenging question posed thus far in terms of my own ethical beliefs. In this instance I would proceed with the sale without disclosing the information regarding what I had heard about the toxic waste. Clearly Florida law states that you do not have to disclose that there is a hazardous substance on commercial property as long as there is not a fraudulent statement about the property. Nash did his due diligence by hiring someone to do an environmental study. The
In the workplace as well as one’s personal life is essential for ethics to be maintained; often taking the right action is not always the most popular choice. It is important for maintaining an upstanding ethical code of conduct to be a productive individual as well as function as an employee in the workplace.
This is the first issue that proves to be unethical. The company lies to the residents in the area about contamination by hexavalent chromium. This is unethical because the company had the specific intention of lying to the residents in order to keep their company running. The company knew that it would suffer if the truth came out about the contamination. Since they lied about the hexavalent chromium, most of the residents suffered from illness due to contaminated water. The company then was involved in another unethical act as they offered to provide initial medical exams, so that they could easily hide the truth that the illnesses came from the contamination. As a result from the many health issues residents received, a great deal of money was spent on doctors visits and care. As the company tried to hide the contamination issues, they ultimately caused the sickness of the surrounding individuals. Pacific Gas &Electric Company is responsible for lying and deceiving, as well as knowingly letting residents suffer from illness. They intentionally risked the well being of the community that surrounds the corporation, so that their business could still
When looking at the IMA Statement of Ethical Professional Practice, there were some steps that Betty Vinson could have taken to avoid any of the punishments that were given to her. Before following any of the IMA’s recommended actions of recourse, Vinson should have referred to WorldCom’s recognized policies on ethical behavior and follow the actions that they have written and approved to take. If WorldCom’s executives still were demanding her to falsify the journal entries after following her company’s policy, then the IMA would state that she should have discussed the issue with your immediate supervisor or the next level of management if her supervisor was involved in the unethical activity. One important thing to note with this, however, is that “Contact with levels above the immediate superior should be initiated only with your superior’s knowledge, assuming he or she is not involved (Institute of Management Accountants, 2005).
Issue 3: Has Patricia improperly used company information to gain advantage for herself and/or her sister?
3. In your opinion, which of Brent’s alternative courses of action would provide the best outcome and why? What should Brent do? How would you handle the ethical issues involved in this situation?
The autonomy of a competent patient is an issue not often debated in medical ethics. Refusal of unwanted treatment is a basic right, likened to the common law of battery, available to all people capable of a competent choice. These fundamental rules of medical ethics entered a completely new forum as medical technology developed highly effective life-sustaining care during the 20th century. Several watershed cases elucidated these emerging issues in the 1960’s and 70’s, none more effectively than that of Karen Ann Quinlan. Fundamentally, this case established that a once-competent patient without the possibility of recovery could have their autonomy exercised by a surrogate in regard to the
Facts: Employee was stealing time and money from the company by submitting bogus technically difficulty offline requests to cover up that he was late work due to taking his son to school.