Core Ethical Beliefs

The best thing anyone has ever done is to act morally and for the right reasons. However, as long as the conduct is seen as legal, one may commit a sin for the right cause. Both the religious perspective and legal considerations serve as my main sources of ethical guidance. According to the religion, only God has the authority to punish or praise a person. God's wrath may come in any form, from anguish to death. Christian qualities frequently include restrictions and restrictions that only God may override. While it may be wrong to kill from the human perspective, God has the right to life and therefore can take it at any given time. From the Christian virtue to which I owe my reasoning mostly, the killing can either be right or wrong depending on who does it. We believe as Christian that God has the power to cause harm as well as to reward. In the Christian teachings often we are taught that the wrongdoers will one day be punished and that those who left as per the expectations will be rewarded. This act of punishment can, however, not be performed by a man because we do not have the ability to judge individuals. Judging individual requires skills that only God has. If God, however, directs a person to kill to achieve a given outcome, then there is no wrong. I would also consider an act that is meant to protect people from the threat to life whether legal or not as long as it’s the only option available and as long as it does not go against God’s command.

Ethical Issues Recognition

From the case study, there some issues that need to be considered and addressed. Within a company, there are usually accepted codes of conduct that should act as the pillar of the organization’s decisions. Individuals within an organization should strive towards upholding such practices (Schermerhorn, 2014). Lisa as an accountant within the organization has to observe ethical standards regarding how reporting of figures should be done and must stick to it. Scott too had the duty to the shareholders and other stakeholders to manage their resources ethically and report the actual value to the shareholders. The CEO, Lang is the icon of the organization and must at all time maintain the real value of the company thus should not engage in the cooking of figures to match the desired outcome. Edmond as the chief financial officer must ensure that the values reported as per the accounting standards. Ernesto also uses his contacts with Bank’s president to acquire the loan from the bank despite not qualifying. The organization engages in malpractices, and this hurts the general industry level of competitiveness (Long, Mertins, & Searcy, 2013). The ethical issue is whether Lisa should adopt the cooked figures from Scott, Harvey, and Edmond to meet their personal needs of huge bonuses. Lisa’s job also depends on the collaboration with the senior management team. The management too is concerned about the future of the company with regards to the bank loan which may be recalled at any time should the value of the company drops.

Understanding Different Ethical Perspectives

Utilitarianism perspective on ethics proposes that an act that yields maximum or greatest happiness to the majority of people is moral or right. To the school of thought, it does not matter whether the act is legal as long as the outcome yields the greatest happiness to most of the people. The outcome of an action determines the means to achieving the act. Thus it does not matter whether other people are affected by such action. The individual perspective, on the other hand, focuses on the long-term result of a person’s action. An act thus will be ethical if the expected outcome will advance lasting self –interest. To the proponents of this view, as one engages in self-regulation, ethical culture is maintained or created. Therefore, ethical behavior is one that advances long-term interest. In so doing an individual must be able to overcome and reject external forces that hinder him or her from achieving self-interest and independence. The justice view on ethics calls for fairness and impartial treatment of everybody. In so doing, one must act with the utmost care to respect the dignity of others. It takes three forms procedural, distributive, and interactional. From justice view, the application of ethics must work towards establishing equitable treatment of all the affected party. Policies and rules thus should be fairly distributed. The ""moral right perspectives look into the fundamental rights of an individual. Right to liberty, life and fairness for people must be protected at all time. To this school of thought, an act would be considered ethical if it serves to protect the fundamental rights of the affected. These philosophical views have been instrumental in guiding the actions of actors to ensure infringements of rights are not entertained (Schermerhorn, 2014).

Application of Ethical Perspectives

To the utilitarianism, an act must yield the greatest happiness to the majority. In this case, the majority would favor shareholders, employees, the public, the government, and management. The action of cooking the figures would only benefit the management and the shareholders while deceiving the public, government and other employees thus on that basis, Lisa should go ahead and publish the right accounting information even if it means a few employees will lose their jobs. From the moral perspective, the act of changing figures was not a fundamental right. It is not a must to receive bonuses, but it’s a right to offer correct information to the public, employees, government and financial institutions. Lisa thus should proceed and provide financial information that reflects the actual value of the organization. Justice view encourages equity and fairness in an organization, in that connection Lisa ought to be fair by providing the real figures that include the losses to ensure the owners can make appropriate action, government, financial institutions as well as employees. Therefore, Lisa can only be fair if she could act to provide the information that promotes equity and fairness to the industry and the stakeholders. According to the individualism point of view, it would only be right if Lisa could engage in providing the right accounting information. By so doing Lisa stands to overcome the external factors that hinder her from pursuing or advancing long-term interest in the accounting profession as well as integrity. It is not right thus for Lisa to be coerced or induced to perform accounting preparations that do not conform to the standards (Long, Mertins, & Searcy, 2013). The four philosophical views have provided popular ways of handling the situation.

Evaluation of Different Ethical Perspectives to Guide Actions

Utilitarianism proposes that the action must yield maximum greatness to a great number of people. I find this view too much involving as the parameter of adjudging the most significant number of the affected will depend on the interpretation of the individual. An organization consist of both internal and external environment, determining whether one should consider both external or only internal factors makes me reject the view (Schermerhorn, 2014). On the basis of individualism, Lisa has two options accept the job and work according to the management or reject the job by providing the correct figures. Maintaining the correct accounting practices would see Lisa lose her job which will not help to solve the company problems at stake. The moral right’s view seems to be more concerned about the fundamental rights than the issue at hand. It is not Lisa’s right to stick to the company and offer amended result; she has the option of resigning and pursues her career elsewhere. The justice theory appears to be the most outstanding view to rely on in this scenario. It is important for Lisa to treat all the stakeholders in this case equitably and fairly by providing relevant for the organization’s growth. Correct publication of accounting figures will make the stakeholders to look for better management techniques as well as have a true value of the firm they operate or own. This choice of action will see Lisa lose her job, not for the worst reason but to better her experience and practice as financial controller in a different setup.

References

Long, J., Mertins, L., & Searcy, D. (2013). IRCS: Valuing Ethics at the Expense of Inventory. Case Study .

Schermerhorn, J. (2014). Chapter 3: Ethics and Social Responsibility. In Exploring Management (pp. 57-85). New York: Wiley.