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
The lumber was ordered, purchased and received on December 31. It is being held for a future sale as of the year end date. The terms of purchase are FOB destination.
In the above case study the ethical dilemma is whether to give the contract to company A which is a fair option among the two or give the contract to company B because it is run by Nirmal’s friend Devraj.
Management is often faced with ethical dilemmas that have no clear cut correct answer. In our case study, (1)Desperate Air, George Nash, Vice President of Real Estate faces a conflict of values similar to the CEO in Seglin’s article, “How to Make Tough Ethical Calls”. They both want to tell the truth and they want to protect their companies, their investors, their employees, and their own livelihood. Neither Mr. Nash nor the CEO conducted a through examination of the problem they faced. I believe the decision to remain silent made by both Nash and the CEO to be short sighted, based solely on short term profit, and would not have been the route I would have taken.
Luke, an employee of ABC Company has an ethical issue that makes him go and look for advise at the Ethics Department of ABC Company. The department of Ethics Department is dedicated to advise employee and prevent any risks of losing their jobs because of unaware immoral decisions. Now that the company has decided to build an adult entertainment retail store, Luke has come across a big decision. The Department of Ethics needs to help Luke decide to whether, obey his commencement with ABC Company and keep confidentiality until they make it public, or to warn his brother, Owen (who lives in the neighborhood that would be affected) that his house would substantially depreciate and he may lose money if he does not sell the house now
Everyday at noon the mechanics sat down for lunch and I joined them. Around that lunch table they imparted to me several stories over the course of several weeks about some of the things they had experienced and ways in which they had actually taken advantage of paying customers. One mechanic told me how he watched his boss sell several very expensive engine parts to a little old lady. He told me that he had to leave the area because he started laughing so hard because of all the unnecessary parts his boss was selling the woman. However he did nothing to step in and stop the woman from being taken advantage of, or to stop his boss or even recommend something less expensive. He told this story as if he was proud at the way his boss had swindled the woman. There was not even a though of remorse, or a consideration to weather this type of business was ethical or not, it was simply the way business was, and is, done.
From Stan’s perspective, he is focused on securing financial stability for his self and his company. He believes everyone is completely protected in this situation and does not see anything wrong with selling the wood as construction lumber. During the conversation, Stan mentioned the foreman on the job site has expectations of cutting cost and wants to avoid paying for scaffold plank as well. Upon concluding their conversation, Bob was not sold on the idea of being part of the possible injury of innocent people.
The supplier in this scenario could additionally sue the agent as well for damages on the basis of misrepresentation of authority.
The ethical issue in this case is that Jon suggests to default the debt with Johnson Printing, a small business that has been loyal to Pacific Life Books (PLB). This is an ethical issue because Raider Inc. has the resources to pay off PLB’s debt, but would rather default on $250,000 and let a small business end up closing. Jon’s action would benefit his team and Raider Inc., but would harm Johnson Printing’s business and employees. The result would be another loyal business closed and employees out of job.
The ethical consideration in the case larger company the breach of contract and the violation of the End-of-the month accounting
The actions of Cliff Hall in the loan application of Meridian were grossly unethical and unprofessional. His actions include misrepresentation of the fact that he was previously denied credit and misrepresentation of his financial condition and performance. His actions were leaning toward a more favorable application result without considering the potential ramifications of his unethical behavior. If an audit were mandated, his unethical actions would be uncovered to the detriment of his current and future creditworthiness. He may not be
How would you describe the ethical dilemma confronted by the managers at the law firm?
Although this practice was not fraudulent, the plaintiffs insisted that Campbell had a responsibility to record a reserve or allowance in anticipation of substantial customer returns likely to result from theses “sales.” Despite the fact that a large percentage of product sold under guaranteed sales contracts was returned, the company’s accounting staff apparently never recorded appropriate reserves for those sales returns. The plaintiffs charged that PwC must have known about Campbell’s bogus sales, but
Creating and defining my own ethical framework is essential in future success as a businessman, a leader, and a team player. As a business student, I have learned that it can be a very cut throat industry and in order to get ahead, at some point and ethical dilemma will undoubtedly be an obstacle I have to overcome. The way I handle these dilemmas can make or break my career; business ethics are a key part of earning and sustaining respect, trust, and a good rapport with both clients and competitors in your industry. Therefore a solid ethical framework is an important tool for me to have as a standard for handling these types of dilemmas so that I can grow successfully while staying true to myself and to
In today's business and personal world, ethical decisions are made on a daily basis. Most of these decisions are based on company ground rules. The others are based on personal ground rules. All decisions can have a number of ground rules that help us determine whether our decision is ethical or unethical. Each decision whether it is based on company or personal ground rules will have its own set of implications. In the following paragraphs I will discuss the impacts of ethics on decision-making, discuss the elements of an ethically defensible decision, define what the ground rules are; what they could be and what they should be, discuss
An ethical dilemma happens in the workplace more often then we expect. World Class Bull, written by John Humphreys, Zafar U. Ahmed and Mildred Pryor, is a prime example of how sales personnel can manipulate a potential client into a contract. Christopher Knox, a stellar sales employee at Specialty Fleet Services (SFS), just landed the Armadillo Gas & Power account. Samantha Williams, Human Resources Vice President of SFS, was now filing a breach of the company code of ethics against Christopher and the Vice President of Sales, Jeremy Silva for “deceptive business practices” used to make the sale (Humphreys, Ahmed & Pryor, 2009). Disrupting personal space of the client, starting a dishonorable relationship, and