Case Study: Ethical Decision Making in Australian Red Cross, Ethics

This case study presents an ethical dilemma faced by Mr. James, an employee of the Australian Red Cross community services NGO. After being promoted to the finance department, Mr. James discovers that the new manager, Dr. Richard, is misusing and stealing organizational funds. Mr. James is press...Read More

Running head: ETHICS AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
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Ethics and Professional Practice
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Facts Case study
Mr. James is working with Australian Red Cross community services NGO. He has
worked with this company for 4 years now. He has been in search of jobs for more than 5 years
without success. This is good luck for him and takes every single activity within the organization
serious to secure this job. His family at least now can live a better life because James is earning.
He has been working with many of his colleagues in different departments. Due to his good job
and responsibility, he has been promoted from working as field worker to the financial
department. The community service organization has improved highly through his good
leadership (Farneti, 2009). He had been working very closely with their former manager and
things were running well. He is most trusted staff member within the organization and that is
why he has been given the department of finance. Unfortunately, there is this new manager
transferred here for the management of the organization. His name is Dr. Richard who has been
transferred from other organizations by the Australian ministry dealing with NGOs. Within four
months the organization has faced various financial crises. There is a misuse of funds within the
organization (Potter, 2016). In addition, some funds are stolen from the organization resulting
into the poor performance of the organization. Mr. James is aware that the new manager is
responsible for the misuse of organizational funds. Over those four months, James has been
ordered to authorize the transfer of money from the organizational account to the manager’s
personal bank account. Therefore James is aware that the manager is stealing from the
organization. James has been put under pressure by other management team members over the
ongoing financial crises.
Ethical dilemma in the case Mr. James case

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There is ongoing investigation within the finance department and therefore James is
under pressure. Dr. Richard is as well aware of what is going on and considering that he is the
manager in the organization, he is the only one who can fire James (Tenbrunsel, 2018). In fact,
James knows that his stay in the organization is by authority and grace of the manager. Dr.
Richard has sent a private message to James informing him that once he reveals what is going on
he will immediately fire him out of the organization. Now James is under dilemma because he is
so much pressed by the management team to report on what is going on. On the other hand, this
being only his way to earn a living, he cannot allow anybody or anything destroy his job. Now
James cannot reveal that organizational money is being stolen by the manager. On the other
hand, he is totally not happy about what the manager is doing because this is destroying his
reputation in the organization. Actually, other staff members are aware that James who was the
most trusted within the organization has been found with financial scandals (Richardson, 2014).
James is totally unhappy with this because he knows that he is innocent on this issues but
everyone proves him guilty of what is happening. In fact, some staff members are already
accusing and criticizing him of stealing from the organization. His manager is defending him
because he knows what is happening and even threatening anyone accusing him. James is given
3 days by the management team to write a report on how the funds have been spent within the
organization. This is adding more stress to James because a lot of have been stolen by the
manager and writing a report on this will be a big challenge.
Ethical decision making raised by the stakeholders in the case
Although some of the stakeholders are accusing James of having been stolen money from
the organizational account, some are defending him. This has called for an investigation to be
done regarding what is going on in the financial department. The first thing the stakeholders

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have done is to freeze the organizational financial account to prevent any alteration of the
transaction records. The second step they have taken is to summon Mr. James of what is going
on within the organization because over the last 8 years the organization has been working so
well (Trevino, 2016). James is under dilemma whether to say the truth or not. Many of the
stakeholders have sensed that something is going wrong with the new manager because he
sounds like he knows more about what is happening. Mr. James seems more stressful but not
guilt although some are accusing him. The right decision made by the stakeholders is to
investigate all the accounts having been received funds from the organizational financial
accounts for the truth to be revealed.
Outcomes of the Ethical Decision
James has been called by a private investigation team secretly for summon. He now gives
up and decides to explain what has been happening within organization. He explains that his
manager has been ordering the transfer of the organizational funds to his personal bank account.
He has also explained that he received many threats from the manager that once he reveals what
is happening definitely he will lose the job. He has told the secret investigation stakeholders on
amounts that the manager has already stolen and all the dates of the transaction (Kelman, 2015).
The stakeholders have requested a warrant for the arrest of their manager for further
investigations. The organizational financial account has been investigated and found that all what
James said was true. The manager has been stealing from the organization and threatening to fire
Mr. James if he reveals what is happening. Dr. Richard, the manager has been found guilty by
the court of law having been stolen over $200 million from the Australian Red Cross community
service organization (Gresham, 2015). He has been fined through the court of law to repay the
same amount he has stolen from the organization plus 40% fine for poor management and

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stealing from the public (Jones, 2011). Fortunately, James is still working with the organization
despite the threats he received from Dr. Richard.

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References
Farneti, F. (2009). IC reporting in the Australian Red Cross blood service. Journal of Intellectual
Capital, 10(4), 504-519.
Gresham, L. G. (2015). A contingency framework for understanding ethical decision making in
marketing. Journal of marketing, 49(3), 87-96.
Jones, T. M. (2011). Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-
contingent model. Academy of management review, 16(2), 366-395.
Kelman, H. C. (2015). Manipulation of human behavior: An ethical dilemma for the social
scientist. Journal of Social Issues, 21(2), 31-46.
Potter, J. (2016). Ethical dilemmas in social work practice. Boston. Journal of business
ethics, 59(4), 375-413.
Richardson, W. D. (2014). Ethical decision making: A review of the empirical literature. Journal
of business ethics, 13(3), 205-221.
Tenbrunsel, A. E. (2018). Misrepresentation and expectations of misrepresentation in an ethical
dilemma: The role of incentives and temptation. Academy of Management Journal, 41(3),
330-339.
Trevino, L. K. (2016). Ethical decision making in organizations: A person-situation interactionist
model. Academy of management Review, 11(3), 601-617.