Ethics in an organization

Introduction

An ethical tone within an organization should be set by the management by acting as role models in upholding the established ethical codes. The ethical standards will be highly observed by subordinates if they perceive that top management’s decisions and behaviors are unquestionable. Employees are required to uphold their moral standards even when managers are engaged in unethical practices and decline requests by their bosses to be involved in malpractices. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) legislated after the WorldCom scandal has improved ethical practices by ensuring that disclosure of ethical standing of top officers is done by firms.

Role of management in establishing ethical tone

An organizational culture whose focus is ethical behavior minimizes cases of misbehavior and ensures that the set code of conduct is observed. The tone that top management including Board of Directors sets acts as guiding values that create an ethical climate, and when such a foundation is rightly nurtured the culture of the organization is built (Woodbine, Fan & See, 2014). The management has to set the ethical tone by deliberately creating a culture that is more ethical through various practices.  The management has to set an example since the employees look up to the leadership as a model of the expected behavior.  When the top management is seen by employees as taking the high road in regard to ethics, a positive message is sent across the organization (Woodbine, Fan & See, 2014). The management role also involves communicating the ethical expectation so as to eliminate or minimize ethical ambiguities. This can be achieved through the establishment and dissemination of the code of ethical conduct that outlines the basic values and rules that should be followed. The code, however, will be ineffective unless the management model its ethical behavior.  The creation and maintenance of the ethical tone through the code of ethics will serves as the basis of strong ethics and even compliance. The code should also clarify and harmonize the roles of various levels of management so that the established tone can truly bind all people in the organization (Woodbine, Fan & See, 2014).

After communication the ethical expectations, the management has to ensure that ethical training is offered in the organization. In the process, ethical training through programs such as workshops and seminars can be used to reinforce the standards of conduct in an organization and clarify the practices considered ethical or unethical while addressing possible ethical dilemmas (Downe, Cowell & Morgan, 2016). It is also the role of management to carry out performance appraisals upon which the rewards for ethical actions and punishment for unethical ones will be based. The evaluation should start by determining how the management’s decisions and actions measure up against the set ethical standards.  Individuals whose actions and behavior are ethical must be visibly rewarded while unethical ones punished (Downe, Cowell & Morgan, 2016).  Ethical tone also includes protective mechanisms that will enable employees to explore ethical dilemmas and report cases of unethical acts. The employees should do so freely and without fear of reprisal. 

Tone from the management is important in setting and embedding the desired ethical culture and its impact will not only be felt internally but in the external marketplace. The consistent behavior of managers especially when a crisis arises and how they are perceived to react will critically affect the perception of external stakeholders of the organization (Nguyen, 2011).  This is especially true at a time when organizations and their management or leaders are having a clearer obligation to the society in which they operate. Failure to set such a tone in a business often openly reveals itself in governance and management failures which can have detrimental effect on investor confidence and overall market value.  When ethical tone is set at the top management level, people across the organization will be influenced in a positive way. The decision making process will be enhanced, and this will go a long way in enhancing the overall brand value to the benefit of organizational performance (Nguyen, 2011).  Moreover, the investors’ perceived value of a business will also be enhanced.

Unethical managers

 When employees find out that their bosses are engaging in unethical actions or behavior, they are faced with a challenging ethical dilemma at the workplace.  The manager actions or doings may be unethical and even outright illegal but since he or she is the boss, the employees often choose to remain silent.  The employees should first find out how many others in the work place are informed on what is happening, given that “there is safety in numbers” (Taylor, 2009).After gathering enough information and having their facts in order such through documentation that can serve as a back up to the complaints, the employees should together approach one of the senior managers for a discussion on the issue (Taylor, 2009).  Just because a manager is doing totally unethical things does not mean that subordinates should compromise their morals and thus, they should be honest and open to the top managers. Even where the employees jobs’ are threatened, they have to be ready for any eventuality. The subordinates should also be aware of managers who can set them up so that they bear the blame for their actions and ethical errors (Taylor, 2009). This may even call for employees to seek protection for their attorney if they feel targeted for reporting the unethical decisions or actions of their bosses.

Moreover, where the subordinates have been requested to engage in unethical practices, they should not comply with such requests. In such a scenario, the employees should first understand the issue and related facts, know the options available to them, and consider the possible outcomes before responding (Smith, 2015). Self- protection is important in this case since some misdeeds can plague an individual for a lifetime if they decided to morally engage.  They should also try to reason with the manager so as to raise their concerns, and the manager may finally see the light and desist from such engagements (Smith, 2015).  They may also have ideas on alternative ethical path through which better results can be achieved and which the manager has not considered.

WorldCom Scandal

WorldCom scandal can be considered as the biggest in United States history that came with the largest bankruptcies.  The company reported that, after an internal audit, it was discovered that a whole $3.3 B in terms of profits had wrongly been recorded in the accounting books (Train, 2002). The fraud had taken place since 1999, to first quarter of 2002 financial year. This is in addition to $3.8bn in form of expenses that the firm reported that had incorrectly been recorded as capital investments. The firm was forced to issue financial statements that had been revised (for 2000 and 1999) (Train, 2002).  The company became an epitome of financial fraud, and served as a clear warning to the market investors that when performance of firms appears too good to be true, they are likely to be.  Once tech boom for the firms in the market turned to dust and firms reduced spending significantly on telecom equipment and/or services, WorldCom reverted to some accounting tricks that were aimed at maintaining the picture of the firm’s increasing profitability (Scharff, 2005).   Most investors by the time had become suspicious of the management’s success story more so give the previous Enron Scandal (Scharff, 2005). After Ebbers, the CEO, was forced to resign the revelation of the massive accounting, including a loan of $400 M for covering margin calls, and the CEO had used his shares in the firm as collateral (Train, 2002). The capitalization of expenses led to exaggeration of profits and thus, profits were reported rather than net loss. The firm eventually filed for bankruptcy.

 The unethical issues in the case of WorldCom are mainly dishonesty and fraudulent activities that were carried out by the top management of the organization.  The management of the organization, led by Ebbers as the CEO failed to set an ethical tone for the firm by being the culprits of the fraudulent accounting practices.  The management involvement in the manipulation of the reserves indicate a grave unethical practice that was sanctioned from the top management and executed by the lower management level that involved the accountant of the firm (Scharff, 2005). While it’s a legitimate practice to use reserves , the abuse of such funds with the sole purpose of meeting the expected financial performance tantamount to failure by the management to establish an ethical culture especially by being role models. There seems to lack a code of ethics established in the organization and even if it was available, there were deliberate effort to ignore the standard sets for the sake of pleasing the investors. The management failed to consider the long-run impacts the actions would have on WorldCom reputation in the market especially among the investors and regulators. The failure by management to have moral standing for the purpose of ethical practices indicates that the company’s culture did not promote an ethical climate.  Another cause for the unethical behavior is lack of moral standing among the accountants in the firm who failed to report the fraudulent activities being conducted by management. The employees who might have noted the frauds failed to report the incident probably because the culture did not offer protection so that the whistle blowers could be safeguarded against reprisals. The accountants of the firm during this period were Arthur Andersen, who had been involved in other scandals such as Enron.  This shows that the company had poor ethical standards which allowed contracts to be issued to firms had previously been implicated in unethical practices.

To prevent the occurrence of such scandals, the company should have had an ethical Code of Conduct that holds the management and employees accountable for malpractices and related decisions. The bases of such an ethical code are principles of accountability and responsibility that ensures that organizational members bear the responsibility of upholding integrity and safeguarding the resources of the firm. This would have ensured that the appropriate financial information is recorded, all resources are accounted for and that the decisions of top management do to comprise the performance of the firm.  Of more importance is holding carrying out performance appraisals where the decisions of top management are evaluated by shareholders to ensure that they are in line with the established ethical standards. The management can also employ independent evaluation of the top management practices so that they do not overstep their mandate in making financial decisions. Thus, any cases of malpractices perpetrated by the management are detected early.

Effects of SOX on corporate ethical practices

 The Sarbanes-Oxley Act aimed at reestablishing public trust in share markets through various ways and one of which is through enhancing ethics in an organization .The ethical code’s definition in the Act includes the advancement of “honest and ethical conduct”, where codes that touch on senior financial officers have to be disclosed (Hess, 2006). The SOX had a great impact on the culture change especially regarding top management’s observance of ethical standards.  The role of Board of Director’s in upholding ethical practices of a company’s management was re-empowered through the Act by highlighting the independence of directors as important for checking the decision’s made (Hess, 2006). This means that failure of management to shun misconduct will not go undetected given the leverage that is derived from the Act. The management will have to make decisions that do not include fraudulent activities which involve the violation of accounting ethical standards. Companies are also required to disclose whether senior management including executives and top financial officers have adhered to the set ethical code and this goes  a long ways in minimizing cases of ethical behavior in the organization.

Conclusion

The management should ensure that ethical standards are established in a firm, communicate and train employees on what is required. Where top management failures to set an ethical tone, employees may never understand the significance of upholding the established Codes of Conduct. Subordinates should stand their ground and demand ethical behavior from the managers while considering their self-protection. The SOX has had positive impacts on ethical practices by ensuring that top management is held accountable for their decisions and actions.

References 

Downe, J., Cowell, R., & Morgan, K. (2016). What determines ethical behavior in public organizations: Is it rules or leadership?. Public Administration Review, 76(6), 898-909.

Woodbine, G., Fan, Y. H., & See, H. (2014). The Moral Business Tone of Organizations and Its Impact on The Ethical Decision Making of Employees. Academy of Taiwan Business Management Review, 10(3), 7-19.

Nguyen, S. (2011). Creating an ethical organizational culture. Workplace Psychology, available at: http://workplacepsychology. Net/2011/02/14/creating-an-ethical-organizational-culture

Taylor, L. (2009). Tame Your Terrible Office Tyrant: How to Manage Childish Boss Behavior and Thrive in Your Job. John Wiley & Sons.

Smith, J., (2015).What to do when your boss asks you to do something unethical or illegal. Retrieved from:https://www.businessinsider.com/what-to-do-when-your-boss-asks-you-to-do-something-illegal-2015-12?IR=T#ask-questions--and-more-questions-5

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/what-went-wrong-at-worldcom/

Train, M., (2002).WorldCom accounting scandal. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2002/aug/09/corporatefraud.worldcom2

Scharff, M. M. (2005). WorldCom: A failure of moral and ethical values. Journal of Applied Management and Entrepreneurship, 10(3), 35.

Hess, D. (2006). A business ethics perspective on Sarbanes-Oxley and the organizational sentencing guidelines. Mich. L. Rev., 105, 1781.

Ethical and legal issues in the field of healthcare

 Introduction

 Healthcare workers should understand the legal and ethical implications for health care and should also adhere to the ethical standards and code of conduct.  Besides, healthcare workers should be sensitive to the issue that arises in the field healthcare and should understand that the primary duty is to provide quality healthcare and protect the patients from harm.  In the legal system, laws should be enacted to regulate the human behavior, prevent harm and protect the individuals' rights. Professionals should also adhere to the healthcare ethics that comprise moral principles and the need to examine human character, distinguish between the right and wrong and adhere to moral duty and obligation.  However, healthcare professionals face ethical and legal issues as they try to offer quality care to the patients.  Despite the legal and ethical policies, they often meet ethical dilemmas especially when they are required to make two right choices.  Legal and ethical issues are pervasive in the healthcare settings and to address these issues, healthcare managers should help the clinicians deal with the moral distress by practicing professional code of ethics and, solve legal and ethical issues by developing and implementing effective and innovative interventions.

 Healthcare professionals face ethical dilemmas due to various factors such as individual values and beliefs, religion, culture and other factors that affect the ethical views and the ethical decision of patients and healthcare providers.  For the healthcare providers to recognize and solve the ethical issues that may arise from family involvement and policies and laws, they should understand and adhere to the code of ethics (Hurst et al, 2005). Ethics encompass human behavior, values or moral principles and distinguishing between right and wrong. In ethics, people should have a common belief which entails the concepts of doing good and avoiding harm. However, the concepts of common beliefs become complicated in the healthcare field, and they tend to negotiate on principles and personal standards.  In the field of healthcare, both patients and healthcare providers hold different beliefs which lead to disagreement.   The disagreement does not arise due to lack of ethical standards, but it arises due to ethical dilemma that occurs due to cultural diversity, religion, and other factors (Hurst et al, 2005. To avoid these complexities and conflict, healthcare providers are expected to understand the ethical and legal requirements in providing patients care,  in the advance directives,  in dealing with the patient mental status,  when working with families and when billing. The following are legal and ethical issues that healthcare professional encounters in the field of healthcare;

 Informed consent to treatment

             Informed consent is the permission given to the healthcare professionals by patients to initiate treatment.  The Code of Ethics states that patients have the right to receive sufficient and understandable information about their medical condition so that they can make informed decisions regarding their treatment (Nijhawan, 2013).  Informed consent applies in both ethical and legal system, and it is perceived as a vital step in the process of providing quality care.  However, there are various ethical issues that arise in the field of healthcare due to the ethics of informed concept. In other words, even though the purpose of the informed consent is to allow the patients understand the medical condition and agree on the treatment, the agreement is hindered by communication barriers, cultural, language and religious barriers. Ethical and legal issues in the informed consent arise due to

• Language barrier

 At times, patients do not fully understand the treatment agreed to receive.  Some of them sign a consent without having a complete understanding of the risks and benefits associated with the type of treatment or surgical procedures (Nijhawan, 2013).  Healthcare providers are required to meet the legal and ethical responsibility by obtaining an evidence for the informed consents. However, lack of communication and the shared decision between the patients and the healthcare provider, failure to consider the health literacy of the patient and failure to consider cultural issues may result to misunderstanding.  Due to the misunderstanding, healthcare provider experience ethical and legal dilemma in trying the make choices between doing good and respecting the patient's wishes.

• Religious Influence

Patients should have the right to accept or to contest the medical treatment being offered.  However, some patients are influenced by religious beliefs in making a decision based on treatment.  The beliefs interfere with the rule of behaviors that are set by the health care system, and they may end up fulfilling the patient's wishes (Nijhawan, 2013).  The health care providers should ensure that the patients fully understand the treatment and their religious rules to make an adequate decision.

• False expectations

 Based on the treatment, there is always a patient-physician discrepancy where patients rely on higher expectations from the treatment.  This occurs since patients do not understand the risk as well as the benefit of the treatment.  Other patients fear the treatment as they believe they are treated as ‘experimental model' (Nijhawan, 2013). Patients use negative perception on the treatment and it becomes difficult to explain to the patients about the treatment.

Patient privacy and confidentiality

 Healthcare professionals face an ethical dilemma in deciding whether to break confidentiality or not.  In the field of healthcare, patients give the healthcare provider his or her private information either through written or verbal means. The healthcare provider should keep the information confidential as a way of promoting trust, respect, privacy, and autonomy (Olsen, Cutcliffe & O'Brien, 2008).  However, the healthcare provider may decide to disclose the information but the problem arises when deciding the situation in which the information should be disclosed.  According to HIPPA privacy rule, healthcare providers should protect the patient's past, present and future health information and health status and provide quality care.  The circumstance under which the information should be disclosed is limited since they can only disclose to personal representatives when they request access to and when the information is needed for investigation or enforcement action (Olsen, Cutcliffe & O'Brien, 2008).  Accidental disclosure to the privacy may lead to huge fines and other consequences.

End-of-life Decisions

 Healthcare professionals face ethical dilemma in deciding the right treatment for a life-threatening illness.  Healthcare providers are expected to practice end-of-life practices to sustain life.  Patients also have the right to exercise control on the medical intervention (Rosenfeld, Wenger & Kagawa‐Singer, 2000).  At this situation, healthcare providers face ethical dilemma due to the lack of decision-making capacity, agreement with the patients' treatment choices and providing full care support to the end-of-life. For example, a nurse may face an ethical dilemma in trying to sustain the life of a patient who has dementia.  Since end-to-life decision requires effective communication with the patient,   factors such as cognitive impairment and responsive behaviors may hinder the process of improving end-of-life (Rosenfeld, Wenger & Kagawa‐Singer, 2000).  Healthcare provider may face an ethical dilemma in deciding between the risk and benefits associated with the treatment.

 Conflict of interest

 According to the ethical codes, healthcare professionals are expected to minimize the conflicts of interest to avoid causing harm to the patients.  Instead of focusing on common goals and meeting the patients' interest, the healthcare providers hold both primary and secondary goals which bring conflict (Nijhawan, 2013). Some workers focus on personal gain such as developing a medical device to receive a reward from the company that has invented the device.  Failure to handle the conflict of interest may result in fines, loss of investment and negative reputation.

 Conflicting professional obligations

At times, healthcare professionals go beyond the area of competence and overrule the treatment professional. Even though they are allowed to treat other problems in which they have no training, they may face ethical and legal issues when they violate the code of ethics and taking the inappropriate action (Nijhawan, 2013).  Professional has a legal and ethical obligation but they develop duty conflict when they ignore law and duty and focus on personal beliefs.

 How to address ethical and legal issues as a healthcare manager.

As a healthcare manager, I will address these issue by creating an ‘ethical mechanism'. The latter comprises ethics committee who understands the policies and have ethics training in assisting the healthcare workers, patients and families.  As a manager, I will promote ethical practices by creating education and open discussion where health care works would discuss important issues regarding the clinical ethics and understand the ethics policy.  Ethics must be learned and for that reason, I will create the educational program to train workers on how to apply theoretical principles in executing tasks (Childress et al, 2002). By engaging in the educational program and understanding the ethical policy, workers in the healthcare field will distinguish between right and wrong and adhere to ethical obligation.  Through education program and discussion, workers will speak up and raise ethical questions where they will solve complicated issues by applying different experiences and values. As a healthcare manager, I will also support the code of ethics by setting behavior consistent with the job description and providing performance reviews. Since the issue of informed consent  is a major cause of  moral  distress among the healthcare professional, I will encourage  the improvement of  informed consent process by  hiring professionals who would  explain to the patients  about the treatment,  the role of informed consent form  and  test the misunderstand to  see whether the patients understand the risks and benefits of the  treatment (Childress et al, 2002). Since most frequent issues encountered in the field of healthcare care are related with informed consent, confidentiality, end-of-life decisions, unethical practices and the conflict of interest, I will encourage the workers to focus on the core ethical principles while performing the professional task. These principles include valuing the relational autonomy, do good and avoid harm, value the patient's life, exercise justice and solidarity (Childress et al, 2002).  As a manager in the field of healthcare, I will also ensure that the healthcare providers have the necessary knowledge and skills to address ethical issues. They should be competent and familiar with the code of ethics for them to practice ethics.  Finally, I will create a culture of ethical practice and create a system change.

Conclusion

 The development of the medical field has modernized the area of medical practice where healthcare professionals are using technology to diagnose illnesses and offer quality treatment.  The rapid developments have also improved the medical management where professionals provide effective medication with minimal side effects. These development have insisted the need to adhere to duties and obligations and focus on patients' interest.  Healthcare professionals are encouraged to value the issue of autonomy, beneficence, confidentiality, and justice in offering quality care. Healthcare providers are expected to adhere to the principles of ethics in all situations and focus on common goals.  Ethical dilemmas are inevitable since some situations are complex and need one to make a decision from two choices. In some cases, professional are unable to, make decisions based on disclosing privacy, maintaining confidently and adhering fully to the ethical codes. To address these issues, the healthcare managers should understand the legal and ethical principles and help the healthcare providers enhance their professional skills, build their competence and understand ethical and legal issues and how to address them.

References

Nijhawan, L. P., Janodia, M. D., Muddukrishna, B. S., Bhat, K. M., Bairy, K. L., Udupa, N., & Musmade, P.

1. (2013). Informed consent: Issues and challenges. Journal of advanced pharmaceutical

technology & research, 4(3), 134.

Hurst, S. A., Hull, S. C., DuVal, G., & Danis, M. (2005). How physicians face ethical difficulties: a

qualitative analysis. Journal of Medical Ethics, 31(1), 7-14.

Childress, J. F., Faden, R. R., Gaare, R. D., Gostin, L. O., Kahn, J., Bonnie, R. J., ... & Nieburg, P. (2002).

Public health ethics: mapping the terrain. The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 30(2), 170-178.

Roberts, M. J., & Reich, M. R. (2002). Ethical analysis in public health. The Lancet, 359(9311), 1055-1059.

Olsen, J. C., Cutcliffe, B., & O'Brien, B. C. (2008). Emergency department design and patient perceptions

of privacy and confidentiality. Journal of Emergency Medicine, 35(3), 317-320.

Rosenfeld, K. E., Wenger, N. S., & Kagawa‐Singer, M. (2000). End‐Of‐Life Decision Making. Journal of

General Internal Medicine, 15(9), 620-625.

Corporate Fraud

Introduction

            Corporate fraud is referred to activities done by people or individuals that are not honest and not accepted by the law and carried out to benefit the person or the company involved. Corporate is done in a secretive way and if discovered they result in economic scandals and financial involvement. It is difficult to suspect any fraud activities in the beginning since they are started as small activities and not intended to continue (Wells, 2011).  Government prevents corporate fraud by putting in place laws, policies and methods to detect such activities before they generate. The papers will analysis the corporate fraud in GlaxoSmithKline, the effects and the outcome. GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is among the top vaccine manufacturers in the United States.  It was accused of undertaking illegal activities such as bribing doctors who in return faked the whole process of research. It was forced to pay $3 billion; the money was to be used to pay civil and criminal liability and illegal prescription of drugs.

            According to the laws and policies during the application to the FDA, a company must clearly indicate the use of each drug. After the products have been certified by the FDA that there are good and effective then the company must ensure it promotes its activities according to the law.  In the year 2002, the government launched a probe and it discovered that Paxil and other antidepressants treatment were not effective in treating depression in children and young adults. Between years 1994-2001 GSK has conducted clinical trials to check the effectiveness of Paxil whether it is able to cure depression in children and adolescents, all these clinical trials did not succeed.  According to the statistics released by the clinical trials, it shows that young adult who used Paxil to treat the illness they have high chances attempting to or committing suicide compared to those that used Placebo to treat depression (Griffin, Posner, & Barker, 2013). A certain company was hired by the GSK to promote Paxil treatment and a medical journal was prepared, published and distributed misleading the public that the drug was indeed the best in the market to treat the illness. The government alleged that the company was sponsoring activities such holding launch programs, dinner programs and spa programs and paying the speaker who was speaking to the audience. The GSK sales representatives were accused by the prosecutors for using the medical journal to support the Paxil. In the year 2003, there were so many reports of suicide cases among teen taking the Paxil treatment, FDA discovered that most of Paxil patients have attempted to commit suicide or have that though compared with placebo patients. The Food and Drug Administration warned the public on the increasing attempts of suicidal attempts by labelling the Paxil drug. 

            GSK was accused of using PR firms and holding lavish dinners to convince the doctors to promote and prescribe Wellbutrin.  They claimed the drug can be used by individuals who want to lose weight, to do away with drug addiction and it can be used to treat arousal disorders. According to FDA Wellbutrin can only be used to treat depression but not any other illness. Those who were marketing the drug were asked to tell the public the positive outcome that comes with taking the drug such as being happy, strong and healthy.  Doctors were involved in this scandal by taking a bribe from GSK to promote Wellbutrin treatment, for example, Doctor Drew Pinsky was mentioned in the hearing of the case for accepting to take money to promote the treatment.  According to prosecutor’s company employees who succeeded in promoting the Wellbutrin drug were rewarded by bonuses and those who failed to cooperate who forced to take annual leaves (Dukes, Braithwaite & Maloney, 2014).

            The GSK was accused of failing to report data to FDA that Avandia which was used to treat diabetes diseases is increasing heart problems in patients. In 2007, a medical journal was published by Dr. Steven Nissen who is a cardiologist was showing that the Avandia drug is increasing the risk of heart attack in patients with type 2diabetes. By the time the Avandia fraud was uncovered by Nissen many patients have already taken it and it had earned the company a lot of money. In a matter of time, the heart attack risk has increased and the GSK reviewed its data in 2005 and 2006 and the statistics showed that there was indeed increase in the heart attack in patients with type 2diabetes.  In the year 2006, the GSK reported the matter to the FDA through the agency did not alert the public in time and the company continues to market the product whereas the staff of GSK continued to market the product. The United States alleged that the company is promoting Avandia to treat asthma which was not approved or to be used in such circumstance (Peng & Meyer, 2016).   The company promoted this drug by giving false information that it can also be used to treat chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.  It was discovered that also the GSK prescribed Lamictal drugs against what the FDA has approved. Other allegations showed that GSK negotiated bribery with the doctors and health professional to convince them to support its products to the patient.

            The GSK was found guilty by the Chinese authority for paying money to the hospital and medical professionals to promote its drugs in China using a traveling agency to pay doctors, government officials, and hospitals. The GSK used almost $ 450 million to carry out this fraud. There was a forgery of receipts for purchases though no transaction took place and they also faked conference attendance. When confronted the GSK denied that it was involved in the bribes. An internal investigation was done and GSK admitted that certain employees in the company were involved which broke the Chinese policies and laws. The Chinese highlighted how the Chinese consumers were affected by this bribe. According to Chinese officials, GSK bribed the officials who were in charge of the investigation. As a result, five senior managers of the GSK were arrested and accused of committing a crime. Mark Reilly who was the chief executive of GSK in China also was found guilty and was to serve a suspended prison sentence. Other seniors’ managers were found guilty and received suspended sentence also the GSKs local subsidiary was found guilty and were fined US$ 490milion.The company was also being investigated by other countries, for example, Poland and Jordan for allegations of bribing doctors and other medical staffs. After the accusations, the GSK sales dropped thirty percent in China (Selman & Leighton, 2010).

            In the year 2007, the Avandia drug was officially prohibited in Europe and doctors were to prescribe other medicine to the patients instead of Avandia. In the year 2010, FDA had a discussion on whether to ban the drug or not from the United States market (Australia, 2016). They concluded that Avandia should be allowed to sell but to limit its use. Doctors should only give the drug to patients who only showed positive outcomes after using it and the patients should always be informed of the risk associated with the drug. GSK was allegedly accused of failing to report prices between the year 1994 and 2003, the company reported fake drug price that resulted in the company to underpay rebates which belonged to Medical Drug debate. According to the law, the company is required to report the lower prices and the highest prices that it charged its clients, based on the prices it should pay a quarter of the income to the rebates. It is evident that the company was underpaying the Medicaid and it was overcharging certain hospitals and to resolve these allegations the company agreed to pay $30 million, the federal government was paid $118,792,931 and $20,235,000 to public health services (Garrett, 2014).

            Criminal and civil resolutions required the GSK to have five years contract integrity with bodies of health services these bodies will ensure that the GSK implement and make changes on how it does its business (Gabriel, 2014). These changes include changing its sales force which will ensure that it remove compensation based on sales objectives and territories. GSK is also required by the corporate integrity agreement to have transparency research methods and publication policies and to ensure that it follows are the policies in its business with various health care services. The agreement also requires that GSK staffs be individually held accountable for any misconduct and sales reps not to pay for achieving the sales target rather be paid on the quality delivered. The criminal investigation assured the public that it will continue to track down all pharmacies that chose to benefit themselves from the public’s health.

References

Australia, C. L. (2016). Global Business. Cincinnati OH: Cengage Learning US.

Dukes, M. N. G., Braithwaite, J., & Maloney, J. P. (2014). Pharmaceuticals, corporate crime and public health. Cheltenham, UK; Northampton, MA : Edward Elgar Publishing.

Gabriel, J. M. (2014). Medical monopoly: Intellectual property rights and the origins of the modern pharmaceutical industry. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.

Garrett, B. (2014). Too big to jail: How prosecutors compromise with corporations. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Griffin, J. P., Posner, J., & Barker, G. R. (2013). The Textbook of Pharmaceutical Medicine. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.

Peng, M. W., & Meyer, K. E. (2016). International business. Australia: Cengage Learning.

Selman, D., & Leighton, P. (2010). Punishment for sale: Private prisons, big business, and the incarceration binge. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.

 Wells, J. T. (2011). Corporate fraud handbook: Prevention and detection. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.

 Ethical Obligations of Multinational Corporations to Developing Countries

Ethics refers to the study of concept and principles of decent people in the society. It is focused on evaluating the difference between good and evil, right and wrong and different characteristics of people. Understanding ethics in any business is important as it promotes a good relationship between employees and employers which is based on trust and respect. Ethical issues are a set of challenges that requires a person or a company to choose between solutions which are evaluated to be wrong or right. Many businesses face ethical issues which if not well evaluated, may cause a lot of damage to the organization. This paper will analyze how giving out to the poverty-stricken countries bring more benefits than losses to Multinational corporations despite the fact that a lot of non-refundable money is spent helping those countries.

An important ethical issue is social responsibility. This is where a company balances profitable activities with society’s problem-solving activities. It is more of giving back to the society. Corporate social responsibility helps to create a good relationship between investors and the society they invest in. This relationship is necessary for successful operation of a business and measures its performance. Social responsibility is more effective when the company does it voluntarily rather than being forced by the government. 

Some skeptics may argue that helping the needy would bring financial instability in an organization. Companies view giving out as draining their profits which could be used to expand the companies. A company’s money belongs to shareholders and any attempts by the manager to give out through corporate social responsibility is considered as theft. They believe that these losses are passed on to the consumer through the final price of the product because if managers maintain the same cost of selling products, it may lead to reduction of the employees’ wages. If wages are stabilized, profits would be lowered and this will reduce the manager’s desire to further engage in corporate social responsibility. These companies believe that the government and other non-governmental organizations are responsible for solving the society’s problems. A company’s responsibility is to make more profit and grow in itself. However, these claims are not true as being socially responsible would save the corporations from government wrath and environmental regulations on pollution caused by those companies (Soule, 2009). 

Secondly, some people argue that a business is an economic activity and is meant to create products and provide services and not handle peoples’ welfare. Companies do not have the knowledge to handle social issues and problems. Also, professionally trained managers lack social skills and competence on social problems. If they focus on social responsibilities, they lack the full potential to perform their duties. However, these claims are invalid as a company can still prosper and build shareholder’s value when helping the society. According to Moran (1974), organizations have a social responsibility to give back to the communities they operate in because many of their problems are caused by these organizations, for example, pollution.

Thirdly, some corporates argue that it is difficult to measure the quantity of social benefits. This is in terms of what measures the social responsibilities and how the company should be involved. Companies invest a lot of money on non-profitable projects, their time and resources which, if not well analyzed may lead to a company’s failure. The owners of a company want returns on their businesses and if this is not met, they may fire the manager. However, if companies put aside some money from the profits made, even a little, it may help the society in one way or another. This charitable act would attract more consumer in the company (Alvesson & Berg, 1992).

Despite the skeptical views about corporate social responsibility, social responsibility is important to the society and the organizations in general. First, Multinational Corporation should create employment opportunities to people in developing countries for their long-run survival. The company’s ignorance of the peoples’ unemployment problems would lead to society’s denial. The local people should be given a priority when new job positions are created. Working conditions should be good and they should avoid paying low wages to their employees. In addition, these corporations should provide the poor countries with ideas on how to run similar businesses and the technology used. In as much they create employment, they should consider doing more. Teaching poor countries on how to start businesses would promote economic growth and create more employment thus leading to less dependency on the Corporations and the third world countries for financial aids and donations. An ancient Chinese proverb once said, that giving a man fish is good but showing him how to fish is better because he will never go hungry (Alvesson & Berg, 1992). Also, these corporations should focus on promoting gender equality and women empowerment in the society. The job opportunities given should be for both men and women and their wages should be equal as some women in those countries are single mothers. In addition, these corporations should fulfill their social responsibilities in order to gain fame and attract more customers. Workers also feel proud to work for such organizations. According to Donaldson, et al (1983), consumers are willing to pay more for a product based on its sustainability factors including environmental conservation, organic products and social values. Businesses should be committed to their sustainability factors and advertise those factors on social media in order to attract more consumers.  Businesses should be committed to their sustainability factors and advertise those factors on social media in order to attract more consumers. Posts related to corporate social responsibility will attract more attention as people will be interested in the story thus advertising your product in the post. Also, corporate social responsibility makes a company unique and different. People get to see it as real and human. This reduces competition in the industry because it displays your sense of responsibility as compared to other companies. For example, Coca-Cola Company gives out caps which are used for something else apart from refreshments.

Secondly, Multinational Corporations have an obligation to promote community development. This is because the companies have the resources needed to solve the problems in the society. In order to show their social commitments in the areas they operate in, it is fair for the companies to engage in community development projects. These projects may be reformatory institutions, churches, provision of medical services to communities and building of educational institutions. They may also run awareness campaigns on education and health issues. Engaging in such activities helps investors to understand the economic inequality in different parts of the world and promote social justice (May, et al, 2007). These inequalities can be reduced through sponsorship of events that promote public needs. These developments are really important to the community. First, provision of medical services to the disadvantaged prolong their lives as many of those people are in the verge of death due to lack of proper medication. Helping them also gives them hope to live longer because they know that somebody cares. Second, the world today sees education as the only way to eradicate poverty. Building schools helps children from poor backgrounds to attain education which gives them jobs in the future and they eradicate poverty in their homes. In addition, giving out to the society helps to balance power and responsibility. According to Soule (1990), Multinational businesses possess a lot of power in the society and an equally large amount of responsibilities helps to balance it. If a company possesses more power than responsibilities, things might run out of hand and irresponsible behaviors unacceptable to the public might be experienced. Company leaders abuse power because they feel superior to others in the society. The government feels threatened by these organizations and they end up burning companies from the country. Helping the community also creates a good relationship between the company and the people thus creating a conducive environment for the company.

Thirdly, Multinational corporations should help the poor communities by ensuring adequate supply of water, good sewerage drainage, provision of electricity and construction of roads and bridges for compensation. Some companies bring a lot of damages to the community. For example, mining companies use heavy tractors to transport their goods which end up damaging the local roads. If they do not take responsibility, the government might create regulations and heavy fines against the corporations. Construction of infrastructures shows that they appreciate the local community. This helps to improve the living conditions of communities in those areas. Infrastructures also makes it easy for investors to transport their goods from the company to the market (Soule, 1990). It also helps to demonstrate that they are good investment institutions. In addition, they are responsible for environmental pollution in the society. Environmental pollution lead to depletion of ozone layer, acid rain and global warming. Multinational Corporation should give environmental advocacy to the people. For many years, companies used to dispose their waste products on the air, water bodies and land which led to pollution. According to international law, businesses should make it their obligation to preserve the environment. According to Moran (1974), environmental activists have made the organization to realize that making huge profit is not important than the environment. This corporation can advocate for the environment by providing advocacy services to educational institutions and awareness workshops. They can also fund projects that work towards environmental conservation. Stakeholders should have a continuous dialogue on environmental issues. Thus, these organizations should take responsibility of their actions instead of waiting on others to fix them.

Prevention is better than cure. Many Multinational corporations are set up in foreign country where there are rules and regulations that govern the state. Most of these corporations produce harmful products which if pre-disposed to the environment can cause dangerous diseases. It is important for the companies to ensure proper disposal of these waste products. According to Alvesson & Berg (1992), failure to do this may lead to intervention by the government leading to imposition of heavy fines and strict environmental rules. Also, this can lead to a bad relationship between the company and the society because many people fear living in a harmful environment. If a company is rejected by the people, it does not last longer. Therefore, it is important for a company to maintain a good reputation from the beginning if it has to succeed.

Even though some people view corporate social responsibility as a loss to an organization, it is important to a society as it helps to eradicate poverty in poverty-stricken regions and bridge the gap between the developed and developing countries. Corporate social responsibility also help to solve the society’s social problems through building of learning institutions, infrastructure and churches thus improving the living conditions of the needy in developing countries. However, the government should consider putting in place strict regulations on environmental conservation in order to prevent harmful consequences in the future as a result of environmental pollution. For example, global warming, depletion of ozone layer, acid rains among others.

References

Alvesson, M., & Berg, P.-O. (1992). Corporate culture and organizational symbolism: An

            Overview. Berlin: W. de Gruyter.

Donaldson, T., Werhane, P. H., & Cording, M. (1983). Ethical issues in business (pp. 153-165).

            New Jersey.

May, S., Cheney, G., & Roper, J. (2007). The debate over corporate social responsibility.

            Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Moran, T. H. (1974). Multinational corporations and the politics of dependence: Copper in

            Chile.

Soule, S. A. (2009). Contention and corporate social responsibility. New York: Cambridge

            University Press.

Memorandum

General business “The Social Media Case”

TO: supervisor

FROM: consultant

DATE:

SUBJECT: MKE Eats business issues

Purpose

The purpose of this memorandum is to present the ethical issues of employee’s dismissal and to offer a course of action.

Business issues

MKE Eats is faced with an ethical dilemma since the CEO fired an employee because of expressing her payment issues on the media. After employee dismissal, the CEO increased the wages and developed other systemic improvements. MKE Eat sent messages to employees via email informing them about the wages increase as well as other employees’ benefits.   

 Course of action and polices

This is not a good business decision because under the ‘The National Labor Relations Board’, employees have ‘protected concerted activity’ and this means that they have the right to express their concern on matters relating to employment conditions. Employee has a right to expression her concern on issues facing employees within the organization (Miller, 225). In this case study, she informs the CEO on the low wages, the high cost of living and the challenges that enter-level employees face. There are criteria used to determine if employees should be fired for posting business issues on soil media. The federal labor law clearly state that employees should discuss workplace issues including social media posts (Miller, 225).

Policy: To eliminate confusion that exists between employee and employees on what to post on social media, the company should create a clear policy that state:  employees should not post   business confidential information on the internet and should adhere to ethical responsibilities (Miller, 225).

PK presentation

Social media policy

• How to solve social media ethical dilemma
• Employees should not violate the Code of Conduct when using social media
• Employees should understand   the consequences associated with violation of Code of Conduct
• Employees should avoid posting inappropriate information and images
• Employees should not publish business confidential information (Miller, 225).

How to solve ethical dilemma and manage social media use

• Look for legal advice and review the National Labor Relations Act before firing
• Set a policy on social media use
• Provide employees with privacy education
• Provide the employees with consequences for policy violation
• Focus on performance while offering discipline
• Develop nondisclosure agreements for confidential information (Miller, 225).

Work cited

Miller L. Roger. Business Law Today, Comprehensive. Cengage Learning, 2016

Enron Case on Wall Street

The topic highlights a firm that was highly valued on Wall Street and that was among the leading corporation in the world. It went from a global leader to being the largest corporate bankruptcy in the world.  The case highlighted the impacts of ineffective leadership, poor corporate culture, complicity among the Investment Banking Community and accounting malpractices.  These issues were the major cause for the collapse of the most priced Wall Street investment of the time.  This case is important since it shows what can happen to a firm and what its management is capable of when they become obsessed with maximizing profits regardless of the involved cost.  The ethical issues highlighted stems from leadership arrogance and ruthless exercise of power where those who point out management and accounting malpractices in a firm are eliminated and the failure to exercise oversight over the various operations in an organization.

Background

 Enron Corporation represents a story of a firm that attained dramatic height only to experience a dramatic fall.  The growth of the firm can be attributed to the deregulation of energy market which enabled firms to bet with future prices and an opportunity that Enron took advantage of.  Such a regulatory environment allowed the firm to grow and flourish at a time when the dot.com bubble was in at the top.  The firm was executing trades worth almost $350 billion and when the bubble started to burst which made Enron to embark on building of high-speed broadband networks (Seabury, 2015).  With big funds invested in this project, nearly zero returns were realized and after onset of 2000 recession, the firm was significantly exposed to market volatility. Both creditors and investors found themselves at the losing end as the market cap was vanishing. As the firm was crumbling under its weight, Jeffrey Skilling, the CEO was using mark-to market accounting to hide the losses incurred from various operations of the firm (Seabury, 2015). The executives recorded profits on investments that had not made a single dime, and such assets would be transferred to a corporation not in the books. An attitude that the firm needed no profits was created which implied that any loss could be written off without its bottom line being hurt.   This was done in collaboration with other Wall Street firms and soon the firm was experiencing a free fall.  The use of Special Purposes Entities enabled the firm huge toxic assets and debt an illegal practice.  The firm declared bankruptcy and reorganization was put in place so as to liquidate some assets and operations and pay creditors (Seabury, 2015).

 The case presents a leadership problem of failing to take necessary actions, providing proper insight and failure to bear the ethical miscues responsibility in an organization.  Lay, CEO downplayed the impacts of financial malpractices and executives left workers of the firm to their own devices.  Even after the collapse of the firm, no one in management owned up to the ethical and leadership errors (Gore & Murthy, 2011). The case of Enron collapse represents a regrettable incident. It is necessary to understand why and how it occurred so that to learn how such situations can be avoided in the future.  The firm had incurred huge losses due to financial malpractices, greed and arrogance in the entire management from top to lower levels (Gore & Murthy, 2011). The case will remain in the mind of business leaders in future, to set an example of greediness and poor leadership, and actions that can have been taken to avert the recurrence.

 The libertarian theory is largely applicable to this case, which calls for free markets and which basically means unregulated market.  In such a market, one possesses the freedom to buy or sell what they want regardless of how unpleasant they are. The libertarians actually oppose the regulation of the market so that people are allowed to engage in trading activities in the ways they wish. The Enron executives bought into this idea and engaged in various actions with little regard of the effect they would have on the economy and the people who depended in the firm.   Regardless of the responsibility placed on Enron management for the collapse of the firm, the case has various limitations shown in sharing of the blame.  A major limitation involves the failure to recognize the complicity on the part of banking community, which enabled the continuation of this fraud by consistently offering debt facilities without questioning the strategies undertaken (Johnson, 2003).  However, the actions taken by regulatory authorities including prosecuting the perpetrators and passage of Sarbanes-Oxley Act were largely effective. Their aimed at improving transparency and accountability by enhancing regulation of the market. But it’s hard to proof that this has been achieved in the modern market.

Summary

 The collapse of Enron was largely attributed to the arrogance and greed for more profit at any cost which led to accounting malpractices and filling of Bankruptcy.  The major problem in this case relates to unethical behavior in the entire organization. The purpose of the case is to show the impact of leadership arrogance and ruthless exercise of power which is unregulated.

Reference

Johnson, C. E. (2003). Enron’s ethical collapse: Lessons for leadership educators.

 Seabury, C. (2015). Enron: The Fall Of A Wall Street Darling.

 Gore, A., & Murthy, G. (2011). A case of corporate deceit: The Enron way. Negotium, 6(18).

Ethics in Accounting

The company has ineffective financial reporting as they have violated the agreement that they had with the insurance company. The company is afraid that the insurance company may not find them viable as they lack the capital to operate their business without driving them into great debts. The company failed to keep a thorough record on their update with the cash balance and hence time caught up with them before they could balance their ledgers hence resulting to them considering the option of closing the books a day later than the agreed time. The vice president should not have waited until the last minute while she would have been aware of the problem from the start. Communication is quite important in the business. For instance, if the company had a good communication system, the vice president would have known of their insufficient cash balance in their ledger and hence they would have worked together in talking with the Oconto Distributors to hand in their cheque earlier so as to receive the cheque on time before the closing of the ledger.

Making a wrong decision all for the right reason can at times have a negative effect and also a serious repercussion. Being the financial vice president it is very unprofessional to request the assistant controller to keep the books open. Lack of transparency in the financial reporting may destroy the insurance company trust (Klein, 2015). Financial reports, therefore, ought to convey a high degree of accuracy and should be concise. It is thus the duty of the controllers to deliver financial reports that are honest so as to allow the lenders to analyze the financial position and performance of the company. In this case, the assistant controller was unethical since the code of ethics for controller emphasis on acting ethically in the interest of all stakeholders (Klein, 2015). However, in this case, the controller acted in favor of the vice president rather than putting her integrity first and fighting for the interest of both the company and the insurance company. Ethically, the controller would have communicated with the insurance company explaining the situation at hand and thus seeking for their permission for the delayed closing of the ledgers. This would have been ethical and it would increase trust between the company and their lenders.

The vice president is expected to carry a level of trust that the other employees would emulate and also would rely on. Hence, the assistant controller, in this case, is obliged to follow the instructions as instructed by her senior, the vice president in spite of his or her own ethical perspective. Failure to carry out this task of keeping the books open may put the assistant controller at a higher risk of losing her job. Therefore putting into consideration that her job is at stake, she will be forced to follow the instruction of the vice president regardless of the unethical aspect of doing this.

Once the controller agrees to comply with the vice president scheme of closing the book at a later date, it will put her at a risk of being used by the vice president for other unethical practices to be overlooked and this may place the controller in a real financial misconduct (Elliott & Elliott, 2007). One cannot be able to replace honesty and ethical conduct within a business and therefore one act of misconduct by the controller can affect her career in a negative way. The vice president might also be negatively affected following her conspiracy with the controller and she may be forced to take responsibility for her actions and this may also put her work in line with that of the entire company. Once the insurance company realizes that the company decided to close the ledgers after the agreed date, the insurer may feel that the company is not in a position to pay their loan and this may negatively impact their business credit score. This may, in turn, lead to the business close down thus resulting in all the employees losing their job just because the company has a bad reputation with lenders following the violation of the agreement. Thus the controller has to think through this so as to ensure that all stakeholders’ interests including those of the employees are all served by making the right decision.

It is recommended that the controller ought to have closed the ledger in accordance with the accounting procedure and on the other hand, she would have advised the vice president to explain the situation to the insurance company. The vice president ought to consider offering the insurance company a draft asking them for a concession to close the books on the next day. The vice president could also make a consideration on calling the Oconto Distributors and plead with them to make an online bank transfer rather than giving them a cheque. In doing this, the insurance company will be more inclined to trust the company’s motives as they will see the act as an honest one.

References

Klein, G. L. (2015). Ethics in accounting: A decision-making approach.

Elliott, B., & Elliott, J. (2007). Financial accounting and reporting. Pearson Education.

Ethical issues in Fertilife and the company

In light of the Fertilife schemes and company issues in regards to waste disposal and employees’ treatment, it is quite evident that the company has developed a bad reputation following their lack of ethics. The company is putting more focus getting ahead and in making more profit and are thus taking preference for ethical decision making. It is true that it is hard to understand the importance of having an ethical code of conduct in the business as the effects are rather gradual and unnoticeable at the beginning, but the reality is lack of ethics within an industry creates a wealth of issues for an industry and this is the case happening in Fertilife Company. This paper, therefore, will seek to discuss the ethical effects of the company’s behavior in regards to employees and waste disposal. Lastly, the paper will seek to present and discuss the economic motivations, environmental and moral considerations that the company should focus on in regards to the employees and waste disposal treatment.

It takes a number of years for a company to build their company’s reputation and only one scandal can destroy them in totality. Thus Fertilife Company is on a path to destruction due to their unethical behavior towards their employees. This is a problem that will ultimately cost the company if they fail to look into the problem and address it with immediate effect. It is through this that the company will be regarded as an ethically responsible company and this will help the company in reducing the risk of having a scandal with their employees of with the environment. Treating of employees unfairly and cutting their salaries and creating a hostile environment for them will only worsen the situation in Fertilife and this is already affecting the company’s reputation. This is all wrong and quite unethical and hence most of the employees will be so angry that the employers have a low disregard for them. They will thus be unable to forgive the company and actually will continue to feel insulted by the fact that the company is failing to address the issue. This will increase the employee’s stress, attrition and dissatisfaction hence resulting in low productivity. Happiness in an organization leads to a productive workforce and this is a common feature for highly successful businesses (Tran, 2015). The company will thus continue to incur losses as a result of having a stressed and unhappy group of workers especially the Mexican employees who are treated unfairly as they will be less productive, will take more time off and will have minimal interests in the work hence will require more supervision. Fertilife Company should, therefore, consider addressing the issue on their employees working conditions. Poor waste disposal is dangerous, illegal and unethical. It is quite clear that Fertilife Company prioritizes financial necessities over certain values, for instance, the ethical and social responsibility values. Cost of treating the waste and disposing of it in a proper way has been the driving force behind the company’s unethical behavior towards waste disposal and also towards their employees (Baranyi, 2010).

The company should, therefore, lay out the code of ethics as this is the first step towards addressing their issues. The managers ought to monitor whether these codes are implemented hence making the process more efficient. It is thus important for the company to note that acting ethically responsible towards their employees and waste disposal is, in other words, a Corporate Social Responsibility for the organization (Tran, 2015). The company should stop exploiting their employees and especially the Mexican employees hence they should start paying them equal amounts with the ones paid to the US workers. The company has a moral responsibility to equally meet the health and safety standards for all of their employees regardless of where they come from. Though the Mexican laws are lenient on environmental rules as they fail to have pollution control and disposal guidelines, the company should not take advantage of the situation and thus they ought to make an environmental consideration. In doing this, the company will conserve the environment in which they are also a part of. Environmental protection by the company will help secure a safe future for the generations to come (Baranyi, 2010). It is thus important to deduce that businesses derive substantial benefits and avoids great risks through carrying out actions that are right and humane towards the employees and the society surrounding the business and through making proper considerations such as environmental and moral considerations. The company should, therefore, motivate their employees by giving out gifts and celebrations for good performances and this will aid in creating trust and close relations with the employees hence allowing them to be more productive. It is through these important steps that the company will start realizing a turnover in their businesses hence resulting in them becoming successful in the industry.

References

Baranyi, Á. (2010). The Importance of Ethical Principles in Industrial Environmental Protection. PEACE STUDIES, PUBLIC POLICY AND GLOBAL SECURITY–Volume VI, 143.

Tran, T. (2015). Corporate social responsibility and profits: A tradeoff or a balance.

Business Ethics: Values, Theories, and Case Studies

            Small, unethical transgressions often seem innocuous and employees often rationalize their misconducts to justify their actions. They develop an attitude that no one got hurt following the transgression and everyone does it. It is these minor ethical abstractions that motivate people who are good to gradually do more bad things that may end up being measured as major ethical transgressions as they find themselves comfortable with what they do. Minor ethical abstractions are taken seriously more than all the other cases (Cohn 2014). This is because they usually end up making it easier for the people to justify other bigger serious unethical conducts. Over time, these minor ethical transgressions such as stealing a pen at the workplace can place employees in positions where they will gradually increase their unethical behaviors. However, most of the individuals’ often just small recklessness as opposed to other major unethical behaviors. Unfortunately, moral disengagement is likely to happen when unethical behavior increases progressively over time rather than immediately (Cohn 2014). Minor ethical abstractions ought to be taken seriously and the victims should be reprimanded with an immediate effect since minor unethical behaviors may develop into major violations with time if they are left unchecked.

            Therefore, to help control and prevent unethical misconducts in workplaces, the human resource managers should emphasize strong ethical policies and should also deal with minor ethical transgressions before they rise. Through instilling of strong ethical culture that clearly defines and punishes transgression, will put employees in a more vigilant mindset. The company should also take part in offering ethics training to their employees while the managers should continually enact and reinforce ethical standards.  

References

Cohn, E. (2014). Stealing a Pen at Work Could Turn You On to Much Bigger Crimes. Retrieved from:                 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/25/stealing-from-work-corporate-    fraud_n_5530999.html

Reflection Paper

            Whereas legal ethics gives a description of what a lawyer must do, many lawyers do not meet the ethical requirement of the profession. And that is the reason why there are many unethical practices in the legal profession and many refer it as not a profession but rather a competitive business (Stuckey, 2007). This has destroyed the reputation of the profession in the public image. As a profession I will strive to ensure good practice of the profession so as to preserve the image of the profession by striving to avoid all the malpractices associated with the profession.

            As a lawyer, I will strive to represent my clients faithfully, competently and diligently with the right ruling which is in accordance to law. I will represent my clients just the way I would want to be represented such that my clients can put all their trust in my judgment.  If my clients have entrusted me to represent them in courts of law then I should not cheat them in any way possible.  Before my personal interests and by doing so, I will work towards the better mate of my clients. In order to build client confidence, I will have clear and prompt communication with the clients and this will help to build trust with them. I will put first fidelity to clients before my personal interests (Stuckey, 2007). To avoid resulting differences, I will ensure proper fee agreement by discussing appropriately and reach fee agreement by considering all factors involved and acceptable by the client. I will seek to offer fairness, civility and integrity in my judgment by resolving the existing differences fairly with the opposing parties; this involves cooperating with the opposing counsel in a considerate representation of my client.

            In honor of my profession, I will always execute my duties with dignity to meet the standards required by law. As an associate to the courts of law, I will offer respect and courtesy so as to ensure justice in my service. By doing so, I will preserve the law by offering quality service required (Stuckey, 2007). I will ensure to practice law as a calling of public service but not a business like. I will ensure to explore with my clients the possibilities of solving court matters. I will also strive to protect the public from the unethical law practices by enforcing the ethical standards governing the legal profession. I will also conduct myself keeping in mind that my actions will speak of the profession outside; therefore those actions must be in line with the ethical demands of the profession.

            In order to give a good image to the public, I will always work in cooperation with my colleagues in the profession of law. Proper cooperation gives room for assistance where necessary such that we are able to assist each where need be for the better mate of the profession (Stuckey, 2007). I will always defend my colleagues against any criticism outside or inside the profession in order not to tarnish the name of the profession.

            As a pubic representative, I will always give moral counseling to my clients on how they ought to conduct themselves. I will serve as a public official by ensuring that my service of lawyering can be accessed by whoever in need. By doing all these, I believe my lawyering service will have met ethical standards of the profession.

References

Stuckey, R. T., & Clinical Legal Education Association. (2007). Best practices for legal education: A vision and a road map. New York: Clinical Legal Education Association.

  CHAPTER 4: Ethics and professional judgment in accounting

The underlying behavioral characteristics of good judgment

Personal traits and behaviors are very closely related to a good judgment. Being skeptic leads to questioning and doubting may lead one to find more accurate answers to vital things that may inform the judgment. Being focused and objective also increases chances of maintaining accurate and good judgments. Attitudes and beliefs are personal traits that influence and have an impact on good judgments .This values determine the manner in which one can handle a judgment .personal values are responsible for creating awareness and finally passing a good judgment .therefore, sticking to the objectives and using ones value a system enhance a good judgment .skeptics assist in shaping the mindset of an auditor in line with independent thinking. A person’s value system is what impacts the whole judgment and explain the arrival into the good judgment (slide 1& 2).

The link between moral reasoning  methods and making professional judgments is that moral reasoning provides direction and guidance that inhibits loss of objectivity which then can enhance decision making that amount to a professional judgment .Moral reasoning maintains values, personal beliefs that are useful for making professional judgments. Moral reasoning helps in changing theory into moral practicality. It also signals on what one is supposed to do when faced with a dilemma. Considerations are likely to be influence by the moral compass of the individual (slide 5, 6, 7).

Cognitive dissonance is helps to bring together conflicting concepts, belief and behaviors to produce a professional judgment.it harmonizes opposing concepts to come up with a reliable a credible judgment that is not biased. Cognitive dissonance ensures and confirms the manner in which a professional judgment was made. It enables critical thinking and deductive reasoning of the actions behind the professional judgment and can evaluated .Cognitive dissonance influences thinking patterns of an individual. Thinking often shifts and impacts judgment in totality .Cognitive dissonance does not only influence thinking but the whole process of making decisions that eventually have an impact on the final decision. Hence cognitive dissonance I influences professional judgment through thinking patterns that later affect judgment (slide 7).

The role of professional judgment in making ethical decisions is that it centralizes and frames the reasoning and factors that led to that particular judgment. Professional judgment components can be reaped apart to come up with things required for ethical decisions. Professional judgment provides direction that van be used to in making ethical decisions which suit a y situation.it also applies various knowledge and experiences absorbed from different accounting sectors slide 6 & 7).

The AICPA code addresses issues of professional judgment in the following ways. It includes the citizen’s interests and other stakeholders.it has a framework that see to it that measures and safeguards are put in place to curb any violations. Any breach against its rules and regulations is rectified in all the areas (slide 12 & 13).

When a professional judgment differs with its rule and regulations it has the capacity to differ and follow its own regulations. It also defines and determines whether a professional judgment is good enough to eliminate any threat in the near future. AICPA code provides a platform that can be used to evaluate a judgment if it’s truly good or biased. In addition to this it protects the entire system from bad decisions and creates awareness where necessary (slide 12 & 13).

Works cited

M.C. Graw Hill Education .Ethics And Professional Judgment in Accounting. (2017).

Ethics and Human Subject Research

            Dan Markingson was forced to get enrolled into a drug study despite his incapacity to make decisions concerning his treatment. His mother who kept on observing him, noticed how his mental condition went on deteriorating, requested that he may be removed from the trial but the drug investigators did not take a proper trial, thus, a failure by the clinical investigator. Therefore, in this case, it would be good for the investigator to observe clinical trials ethical conduct. This ensures that the right standard for clinical trials is met and it is able to provide credible and accurate data. It was ethical for the investigator to supervise the clinical study frequently (Stone, 2010). It is ethical not to involve people without adequate medical knowledge and training in making assessments of the study, for instance, in this case Dr. Olson delegated duties to an unqualified medical worker. It was then necessary for him to supervise the investigation.

            Therefore, the possible solution to avoid such messes from occurring is through following Fisher’s Model. Physicians should always sustain a professional commitment to do what is right (Fisher, 2012). For instance in this case, a social worker who took charge in assessing Markingson’s clinical trials noted everything wrongly, meaning, she did not do the right thing for this case. Also, Dr. Olson did not execute his duties rightly. The second model suggests that it is important to acquire APA ethical standards in order to foresee any situation that may need planning and also to be able to identify unanticipated situations so as to make ethical decisions about such unanticipations (Fisher, 2012). This was also a failure because the one in charge was not adequately trained and so, she could not anticipate situations.

References

Stone, J. (2010). Conducting clinical research: A practical guide for physicians, nurses, study co-ordinators & investigators. Cumberland, Md: Mountainside MD Press.

Fisher, C. B. (2012). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists. Thousand Oaks, Calif: Sage.