Ethical Decision-Making: Analyzing the Case of Joy Reed's Actions

This essay analyzes a case study involving Joy Reed, a district controller, and her unethical actions within a company. The study highlights her manipulation of financial records to earn bonuses, violating her professional duties by overestimating expenses, underestimating revenues, deferring revenu...Read More

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Ethics

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The significance of ethics in the contemporary business environment has grown substantially which
requires the development of code of ethics, code of conduct and implementation of fair competition policies in
order to minimize unethical practices in the business (Mowen, Hansen & Heitger, 2012). Professionals have to
comply with ethical principles while discharging their duties to act honestly and protect the interest of their
clients. A leader plays a crucial role in the company by guiding the ethical behavior of employees to ensure that
they did not engage in unethical practices (Frisch & Huppenbauer, 2014). In this paper, the case study of Joy
Reed will be evaluated to determine whether the decisions taken by Joy are ethical or not. The importance of
ethical leadership behavior and the role of Joy in shaping ethical behavior within the company will be analyzed
in this paper. Different ethical theories will be evaluated to support the arguments in the case.
Joy’s actions are wrong because she did not engage in ethical behavior while discharging her duties as
district controller. In order to earn bonus in the company, Joy has breached her professional duties towards the
company by overestimating expenses and underestimating revenues. She has also acted in an unethical manner
by deferring revenues for following years and writing off inventories. These actions adversely affect the
financial position of the company and make it challenging to evaluate the overall performance. The principle of
the Deontology ethical theory can be applied in this scenario. This theory distinguishes right and wrong based
on rules; if the parties breach their duties while taking a certain action, then it is considered as an unethical
behavior (Dion, 2012). As per this theory, the actions of Joy are unethical since she has violated her duties
towards the company. As a leader, it is the duty of Joy to shape the ethical behavior of others in the company to
ensure that its operations are conducted in an ethical manner. She has breached this duty because she told others
to engage in unethical practices as well in order to receive bonus
The company plays a key role in enabling the actions taken by Joy because it has established a
performance-based reward process in which the district manager, assistants and operation managers receive a
bonus based on their performance. There is a lack of effective policies in the company which governs the
actions of Joy which makes it easier for her to engage in unethical practices. The corporation should have
implemented whistle-blower policies to encourage employees to report any unethical practices in the workplace
(Lee & Fargher, 2013). The corporation has not implemented any policies in order to hold Joy accountable if
she engaged in unethical practices; therefore, the company plays a role in enabling the actions of Joy.

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As a marketing manager of the company, it is my duty to fulfill the interest of the company and follow
the directions issued by seniors. If my seniors had asked me to defer closing of sale until the next fiscal year,
then I would have told them no. It is the duty of a professional to engage in ethical practices in order to ensure
that the company and its stakeholders did not suffer any negative consequences due to my actions (Johnson,
Barnett, Elman, Forrest & Kaslow, 2012). It is also my duty to engage in ethical practices to maintain honesty
and integrity in my work. I would have rejected the instruction to defer the closing of sales, and I would have
reported this incident to senior executives to protect the interest of the corporation. Engaging in immoral and
illegal activities to earn bonus is wrong for professionals since others rely on their expertise and work to
conduct their operations and it negatively affects a large number of people.
The operations manager is responsible for effectively managing the operations of the company to
achieve its common goals. If I knew that the district manager had padded the budget and it is common
knowledge among other operations managers, then I would have reported this incident to senior level
executives. Involvement in unethical practices is wrong even if many people are doing the same thing. Here the
principle of Utilitarianism ethical theory can apply which is a part of normative ethical theories. This theory
judges the rightness or wrongness of actions based on the consequences of the actions. As per this theory,
actions which lead to achieving a greater good for a greater number of people are considered as ethical (Brunk,
2012). As per this action, the consequences of supporting or not reporting the actions of the district manager
and other operations managers will have negative consequences which will not achieve a greater good for a
greater number of people. The corporation will suffer a loss along with its shareholders and other key
stakeholders of the corporation. It is important that these individuals are protected based on which I should
comply with my professional duties. Thus, I would report the unethical practices in the company to higher
authorities to discharge my duties in an ethical manner.
A district controller is responsible for oversees the operations of the branch of a company situated in a
particular district in order to ensure that it is running effectively. In case I would have received any instructions
given by the district manager in order to accelerate the recognition of expenses which legitimately belong to a
future period, then I would have said no to those instructions. These instructions result in violating my duties is
a professional, and they negatively affect the interest of the company as well. I would have asked the district

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manager the reason for this instruction in order to understand her point of view. I would have told her that these
instructions are wrong, and they create wrong impression on assistance and operations managers. As a district
manager, it is Joy’s duty to ensure that a high standard of ethics is maintained by her to set an example for
others in the organization. Engagement in unethical behavior to earn bonus is a gross violation of the duties of a
professional (Goodman et al., 2013). I would have worn the district manager to avoid these unethical practices
in the future and monitor her actions in the future to ensure that she did not engage in unethical business
practices. Although I would have preferred to warn the district manager; however, she can also be punished for
her unethical practices since it is her duty to avoid and ensure others to avoid engaging in unethical practices in
the corporation.
In conclusion, the case study highlighted the unethical behavior of Joy as a leader in the company which
is also affecting other assistance and operations managers. These unethical practices negatively affect the
corporation and its stakeholders. Joy, marketing manager and operations managers have violated their duties as
professionals to ensure that an appropriate standard is maintained by them while discharging their duties. Based
on the evaluation of Deontology and Utilitarianism ethical theory, the actions of Joy and other managers are
unethical in the particular case. The actions which I would have taken to avoid the unethical practices are
discussed in this essay as well. It shows that importance of ethics in the contemporary business environment
and how it protects the interest of the company and its stakeholders by ensuring that professionals did not
violate their duties.

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References
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Frisch, C., & Huppenbauer, M. (2014). New insights into ethical leadership: A qualitative investigation of the
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