Ethics Assessment

V477 Ethics Assessment

Zhen Deng

1. John is the facility manager for Harrell Construction, which owned by Alan Harrell and his wife, Mary. Alan and Mary were getting a divorce, and Alan thought Mary did not do anything for the company. To protect the owner from claims made by his wife if she wants half the company, John is asked to reduced the value of equipment by decreasing the quantity of the organization’s inventory to make the company look like it is worth less than it really is.

2. Stakeholders:

1. Alan Harrell, co-owner of Harrell Construction
2. Mary Harrell, Alan’s wife and co-owner of Harrell Construction
3. John, facility manager of Harrell Construction
4. Employees of Harrell Construction

3.   1) Eliminate expensive items from the inventory sheets; because Alan is the boss of John, going along with Alan’s request can make their relationship better and may benefit hi work.

2) Refuse to change the inventory sheets; because Alan owns the company, and it’s not John’s business how Alan settles things with his wife.  John is behaving unethically if he goes along with Alan’s request.

3) Procrastination; because maybe Alan will forget his request or the divorce may be finalized without the inventory becoming an issue.

4) Tell Mary what Alan is up to; because as a co-owner of Harrell Construction, Mary has a right to know the true condition of company.

5) Terminate employee; because as a co-owner of Harrell Construction, Mary has never helped out in the shop and she’s never had any interest in this business. If she gets half the company as she claims, she may close down the company and leave everybody out of a job.

4.    1) Going along with Alan’s request could be seen as ethically objectionable because Mary is a co-owner of Harrell Construction, she has a right to know the true condition of company. Their behaviors can be regarded as fraud.

        2) Refusing Alan’s directive may damage their relationship and make it difficult to work for Alan in the future. If Alan is angry at John’s refusal, John’s job could be at risk.

        3) Procrastination may create hostility from Alan and further problems for John. Because the consequence would be changed whether John does anything or not. If John did nothing, Alan may be confused about John’s attitude and begin to mistrust him.

        4) Telling Mary what Alan is up to would be ethically questionable because Alan and John are good friends and he believes a lot in John. Telling Mary the truth touched on betraying Alan. It would make Alan very angry, and John’s job could be at risk.

       5) Terminating the employee could be seen as ethically objectionable because they did nothing wrong. The employer cannot terminate the employee without cause, and to discharge the employee there must be a legitimate reason.

5. Utilitarian Theory

        John is asked to falsify equipment records by decreasing the value of the organization’s inventory, and he is in a very difficult situation. On the one hand, he has become good friends with Alan, the owner of the company. On the other hand, falsifying equipment records may be regarded as helping Alan commit fraud. Furthermore, Alan implicated that doing not falsify records will make all employees lose their jobs.