Concept explainers
Ethics Case
American Products Corporation participates in a highly competitive industry. In order to meet this competition and achieve profit goats, the company has chosen the decentralized form of organization. Each manager of a decentralized investment center is measured on the basis of profit contribution, market penetration, and
An anonymous survey of managers in the company revealed that the managers feel the pressure to compromise their personal ethical standards to achieve the corporate objectives. For example, at certain plant locations there was pressure to reduce quality control to a level which could not assure that all unsafe products would be rejected. Also, sales personnel were encouraged to use questionable sales tactics to obtain orders, including gifts and other incentives to purchasing agents.
The chief executive officer is disturbed by the survey findings. In his opinion, such behavior cannot be condoned by the company. He concludes that the company should do something about this problem.
Instructions
(a) Who arc the stakeholders (the affected parties) in this situation?
(b) Identify the ethical implications, conflicts, or dilemmas in the above described situation.
(c) What might the company do to reduce the pressures on managers and decrease the ethical conflicts?
(CMA adapted)
Want to see the full answer?
Check out a sample textbook solutionChapter 10 Solutions
Managerial Accounting: Tools for Business Decision Making 7e Binder Ready Version + WileyPLUS Registration Card
- Which of the following situations is most likely to pose a problem for companies that use return on investment as a measure of a manager’s performance? a. Managers may be encouraged to purchase more operating assets than they otherwise should. b. Managers may be discouraged from purchasing operating assets that could improve overall profitability. c. Managers may be discouraged from reducing their division’s costs. d. Managers may be discouraged from paying off debt in order to reduce costsarrow_forwardUnder what type of financial risks you would put these risk factors? Economic Distress Mismanagement Technological Causes Working Capital Problems Fraudulent Management Lack of board effectiveness Boards' risk blindness Poor leadership on ethos and culture Defective communication Excessive complexity Inappropriate incentives Information "glass ceiling" Managerial inefficiency and ineffectiveness Over expansion Ineffective sales force High production costs Poor financial management Risk assessment strategy Inappropriate commercial policy Absence of manpower training and development policy Capital inadequacy Socio cultural factors Income instability Public policyarrow_forward2.Which of the following statements regarding multiple measures or a single measure of performance is not correct?A)The advantage of using branch profits to evaluate branch mangers is that profit is relatively simple to compute and reflects the organization's ultimate goal.B)The use of multiple measures can influence branch managers' decisions by changing the components of the performance measurement system to reflect changes in the firm's strategy.C)If the branch managers are more knowledgeable than the corporate staff about local conditions and what local clients value, a single measure could be preferable.D)If the corporate office has better knowledge of what it requires to operate a profitable branch, using multiple measures provides a way to communicate this knowledge and achieve common branch operationsE)All of the above are correct statements.5arrow_forward
- Which of the following best describes the potential impact of business risk on Earnings Quality? Select one: a. Business risk is mostly composed of financial risk factors and it has minimal effect on earnings quality. b. Higher earnings quality is linked with companies more insulated from business risk. While business risk is not primarily a result of management’s discretionary actions, this risk can be lowered by skillful management strategies.' c. A higher level of earnings quality can be observed in the industries with high business risk, because higher risk means higher returns d. For managing business risk, the managers almost have no discretion, therefore business risk is not directly or indirectly related to earnings quality.arrow_forwardIs it an entity inherent risk for a president of a company to review product costs and adjusts the authorized selling prices of products, as necessary? He makes the selling price adjustments based on his assessment of what his competitors will do with pricing and what is required to provide competitive profits to the owners of Marco. If it is an inherent risk, describe the feature of the firm that will possibly affect inherent risk and explain how and why; that is whether it increases or decreases inherent risk. Please address a specific risk to the accuracy of the financial statements with the "how" and whether audit effort should be increased or decreased for specific accounts or related groups of accounts if possible.arrow_forwardWhich of the following are examples of financial objectives that a company might choose to pursue? A Provision of good wages and salaries B Restricting the level of gearing to below a specified target C Dealing honestly and fairly with customers on all occasions D Producing environmentally friendly products Which of the following is true? A Management accounting is highly regulated B Financial accounting is highly regulated C Management accounting is externally focused D Financial accounting is only internally communicated Which of the following is NOT a connected stakeholder? A Shareholders B Customers C Competitors D Local community…arrow_forward
- Decision Making with Managerial Accounting Due to varying business characteristics, the managerial accounting techniques applied in each business may differ. For example, a business in the start-up phase may rely heavily upon budgeting and capital investment techniques; whereas, a business in the mature/maintaining phase may rely heavily upon cost management and quality control. Ultimately, the techniques used by management should assist the business in achieving its short-term and long-term goals through effective decision-making. For your Final Paper, you will analyze the role of managerial accounting in two parts. Part I will provide a general overview of managerial accounting. Part II will provide examples of how managerial accounting theories and principles are applied in the business world. You may find it helpful to reflect upon your own professional experiences for examples. Part I (three to four double-spaced pages, excluding the title…arrow_forwardD. The Hilal Company uses a responsibility reporting system to measure the performance of its three investment centers: A, B, and C. Segment performance is measured using a system of responsibility reports and return on investment calculations. The allocation of resources within the company and the segment managers' bonuses are based in part on the results shown in these reports. Recently, the company was the victim of a computer virus that deleted portions of the company's accounting records. This was discovered when the current period's responsibility reports were being prepared. The printout of the actual operating results appeared as follows. A Service revenue 24 $450,000 $ ? Variable costs 5,000,000 320,000 Contribution margin 180,000 380,000 Controllable fixed costs 1,500,000 Controllable margin 70,000 176,000 Average operating assets 25,000,000 1,600,000 Return on investment 12% 10% Instructions Determine the missing pieces of information above.arrow_forwardWhich of the following statements about the balanced scorecard approach is false? It requires managers to focus on financial measures more than nonfinancial measures. It looks at performance from the following perspectives: financial, customer, internal business, and learning and growth. It helps balance short-term operating performance with long-term strategies. It recognizes that traditional measures of performance are often not adequate to fully assess a company’s performance.arrow_forward
- What are the ethical issues that Dunlap's management team mat have created by adopting a short run focus on financial performance for Sunbeam? What lessons could be learned from the outcome?arrow_forwardfintech corporation, a large multinational firm, has various business units operating in diverse industries. it has been observed that managerial employment risk is at its lowest when the firm maintains relatively high levels of diversification. investors in the company face lower risk when the firm adopts a strategy of... related linked diversification. related constrained diversification. single business strategies. higher levels of firm diversification.arrow_forwardHuman Resource Accounting (HRA) plays an important role in picking up theoverall value of an organization, unfortunately, a majority of the Indian organizations are neglecting this issue. If HRA is also considered as one of the individual valuationelements which deserve more importance and consideration, the value of the organizationwill be more than what is depicted by the traditional financial statement. Whatneeded ismeasurement ofabilities of all employees ina company, at every level, to producevalue from their knowledge and capability. “Human Resource Accounting (HRA) isbasically an information system that tells management what changes are occurring overtime to the human resources of the business. Keeping the discussion in mind explain different ways of computing HRA and benefits of HRA.arrow_forward
- Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337912020Author:Carl Warren, Ph.d. Cma William B. TaylerPublisher:South-Western College PubFinancial And Managerial AccountingAccountingISBN:9781337902663Author:WARREN, Carl S.Publisher:Cengage Learning,Principles of Accounting Volume 2AccountingISBN:9781947172609Author:OpenStaxPublisher:OpenStax College
- Accounting Information SystemsAccountingISBN:9781337619202Author:Hall, James A.Publisher:Cengage Learning,Managerial Accounting: The Cornerstone of Busines...AccountingISBN:9781337115773Author:Maryanne M. Mowen, Don R. Hansen, Dan L. HeitgerPublisher:Cengage Learning