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Blake Romney Ethics Case, Unit 5 Ac330

Decent Essays

This week’s Discussion topic is BYP7-7, Ethics Case, on page 330 of your textbook which reads as follows: “Blake Romney became Chief Executive Officer of Peters Inc. two years ago. At the time, the company was reporting lagging profits, and Blake was brought in to "stir things up." The company has three divisions, electronics, fiber optics, and plumbing supplies. Blake has no interest in plumbing supplies, and one of the first things he did was to put pressure on his accountants to reallocate some of the company’s fixed costs away from the other two divisions to the plumbing division. This had the effect of causing the plumbing division to report losses during the last two years; in the past it had always reported low, but acceptable, …show more content…

The loss of jobs can have a devastating impact on a community and on the morale of remaining employees. From a financial perspective, closing a division that is reporting losses will not necessarily increase the reported net income of the company. The reason: if fixed costs that have been allocated to a division that is closed are reallocated to the remaining divisions, the company’s net income might actually decrease. This sounds like it would most likely be the case at Phelps. (b) It is not unusual to reevaluate fixed cost allocations periodically. However, the allocation should be based on the underlying economics of the situation rather than the motives of individuals. (c) Robert should explain to the board of directors that the change in income is due to a reallocation and that closing the plumbing division is not advisable. In this case, being honest is not only the ethical thing to do, but it will also maximize the company’s net

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