Topic 8 DQ 2

Consider an ethical decision that you have witnessed or have had to make in the workplace. Without revealing identifying information regarding the employer or coworkers involved in the incident, describe the situation. Identify the process that you went through in considering the ethical dilemma, the choices that you made, and the results. Would you do things differently today? Why or why not?

To participate in follow-up discussion, ask questions or comment upon posts by your classmates, respond to questions to your post, and respond to subsequent questions posted by your instructor.

Please write a discussion post response to the following post from student.

One ethical situation that I have experienced was when I worked as a financial aid coordinator for my university. I was in a unique position where I awarded scholarship to students based on their grades and I was the one that verified if these students were received their scholarships. This for me was a lack of internal controls that I brought attention to. I had many friends jokingly ask me to give them some money. I thought in the back of my head, like any good auditor would, how I could get away with something like this. If I were to search up some of my friends and make it seem like an accident that they were awarded certain scholarships while receiving kickbacks from this act, I could be making a great deal of money. I notified my employer of this opportunity as I was worried that someone in the future could carry out this fraudulent activity. He notified me that for this reason we signed documents upon employment and that would be federally charged. I think that anyone desperate enough to make these decisions should not be put in these situations. My employer did not change any internal controls as he found me to be someone honest and trustworthy. I no not think that I would have done anything differently because I gave information to a decision maker who decided not to use it. As accountants, we are usually not decision makers and providing accurate and up to date information is our goal. I think that was a great opportunity for me to grow and show my ethical morals to my employer. Ethical decisions-making is commonly based on core character values that include good citizenship, caring, fairness, responsibility, respect, and trustworthiness. It is notable that ethical decisions usually generates ethical behaviors and subsequently provides an excellent foundation for good business practices in a business organization. Also, in professional relationships, it is noteworthy that good decision usually builds trust and respect and is commonly consistent with good citizenship.

I worked as a salesperson in a business organization with the rest of the sales team. The organization established a new branch, and as a sales team, we were mandated to go to the field and look for clients who would purchase the organization’s products. The team had a critical target through which they were required to meet daily. Seeking new clients in the target market was a challenging experience as the product being marketed were not fast-moving. Since the head management was so strict on the team meeting the target, ethical problem arose. We had to lie that we had gathered the potential customers one time. Together with the team, we faked the list in the customer form by filling in the fake names and telephone numbers (Lee & Jin, 2019). Those were the key ethical dilemmas that were experienced in the workplace. The overall results were negative. As a result of faking the customers, this massively affected the sales in the organization. The overall sales were systematically reduced, the organization recorded losses, and the management found it challenging to pay the workers since the company was incurring losses. This led to the workers being laid off, and sadly, I was one of the workers who lost their jobs.

Reason to do things Differently

There are various reasons why I would do different things once I work again in a sales team. The critical issue is constantly being honest regarding all the challenges encountered and working with the senior management to address the problems rather than taking part in fraud. This is important because it will enable the organization to determine how the issues will be solved, seek expertise in the case and pave the way to the dynamic solutions to the problem. This will enable the organization to make a profit and lead to the business organization’s sustainable growth. The other important issue is always to adopt the service and don’t sell methods. Ideally, the sales process is about dynamically helping the buyers make informed decisions ( Chonko & Hunt, 2018). This will be a critical approach because it will systemically lift the overall pressure from the sales representatives to have an attitude that they will sell anything. Also, through the essence of building the customer base, which is packed with people and companies, as the salesperson, I will be engaged in serving and helping and, in the process, building the relationship that will work on a long term approach and help the business organization to grow to the next successful level. Generally, I will engage in seeing the bigger picture of why sales are essential in the overall growth of an organization and why I should always take part in the process guided by transparency and honesty.

References:

Chonko, L B., & Hunt. S. D.(2018). Reflections on ethical issues in marketing management: An empirical examination. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 28(1), 86-95

Lee, J. Y. & Jin, C. H. (2019). the role of ethical marketing issues in the consumer-brand relationship. Sustainability, 11(23), 6536