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Scaffold Plank Essay

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Dianne Estrada
Management Strategy
Kucinski
September 9, 2010
THE SCAFFOLD PLANK INCIDENT
OVERVIEW
Bob Hopkins, a previous banker, accepted a “trader” position with White Lumber, who was one of the bank’s best accounts. John White, the owner of White Lumber, was a director at the bank Bob previously worked for and a leading citizen in the community. The “trader” position Bob accepted involved buying and selling lumber. Bob’s compensation was incentive-based without a salary cap. The ethical dilemma Bob faces in this case is a transaction that makes Bob question his and the company’s ethics and legal obligations. It’s February, business was slow, the company was $5,000 below their breakeven point, and it appeared as if a…show more content…
They are often used by jobs that require people to be very high off the ground. It is difficult to distinguish regular lumber from scaffold plank. White Lumber did not carry scaffold plank.
ANALYSIS
Although Bob exhibits a higher degree of ethics and legal responsibility than Stan, Mike, and John, ethics and legal responsibility are not always in alignment. In this case, John completes the order for Quality Lumber with Bob’s name on the sales order. Quality Lumber has an established client relationship with White Lumber. The current state of the economy makes the existing client relationship even more valuable. Bob suspects that the lumber that is being purchased will be used illegally as scaffold plank. Scaffold plank has to meet strict requirements and grading for safety and usage. Failure to abide by the requirements could result in accident, death, legal liability, and fraud. If the lumber being used as scaffold plank fails resulting in injury or death, then White Lumber may be held legally liable since they had firsthand knowledge about how the lumber was going to be used. It may also constitute as fraud because White Lumber is knowingly selling lumber that will be used as scaffold plank. Bob’s own ethics are tested with the transaction. Bob knows he has a responsibility to keep a good relationship with his clients (Quality Lumber), but also feels that he has a responsibility to the end user of the product since he knows the lumber
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