MBA Adminssions Ethics Essay
- This is a preview of the essay.
To view the full text you must login!
Discuss an ethical dilemma.
The company's previous finance manager had overlooked employees making tax-exempt purchases under the company's tax-exempt status. However, I faced the state revenue department auditor's inquisition about these past purchases and had to explain the tax bill and penalties to my boss. Within weeks, I met with the department heads about the company's policy against employee's making tax-free purchases. Not a month after that meeting, I discovered that the head of our human resources department was making such purchases. My dilemma was whether to escalate the violation to our internal auditor as company policies dictated, or find an alternative approach.
While the situation demanded immediate attention, I was reluctant to make a snap decision because of the effects of: 1) escalating the issue could have created barriers between our departments, jeopardized my peer's reputation, or worse, damaged my relationship with my peer, 2) attempting to quietly resolve the situation could have resulted in no corrective action, and 3) avoiding conflict by overlooking these incidents would again have exposed the company to additional tax liabilities and penalties, and 4) I could have appeared unable, or unwilling, to handle the challenges of my position. I also thought about how I needed the support of management if the policy was going to be enforced across the company.
The ideal situation was to handle the situation according to company policy. However, this is not what I did...