Business_Ethics_Relations

Business Ethics Relations XGMT/216 March 20, 2012 Ethics are used today to decide if what a person is doing is right or wrong. We sometimes struggle to judge based on ethics and virtues we have acquired throughout our lives. Over the course of our lives we will notice that the actions of others can cause change or dilemmas in the lives of one another. I will be talking about a supervisor who took and spent money from the office fund that was not authorized and allowed it to fall on her employees. Danielle, a friend of mine used to work in a business office that was privately owned. The office held maybe 10-15 employees, not including the three supervisors and one head manager. Danielle, her supervisor and about three other employees had access to the office cash. This cash was only to be used for office supplies, parties, or luncheons. In order to use this cash it had to be authorized, meet the requirements, and the user had to have a legitimate receipt. Everyone had to have the use authorized even the supervisors to ensure that there was not any personal usage. One day after adding up the cash and going over the receipts for a supervisor she noticed that the missing cash and the list of expenses did not add up. She did not become alarmed at first, but instead she made a mental note to check it again the following week after it was replenished. The following week Danielle noticed that the difference in the missing funds and list of expenses had increased a little bit more and instead of becoming alarmed she asked a fellow coworker to check behind her. The co-worker checked behind Danielle and just advised her that maybe the last noted person that had been in the cash forgot to put down all of the expenses the cash was used for. After a couple weeks had passed the head manager called all of the employees into her office to advise of the difference in the paperwork and the cash and wanted to remind them that unauthorized usage of it will be a cause for termination. This bothered Danielle and her co-workers because they all knew that they were not the ones who used the cash in this way. Danielle and a few of her co-workers tried to come up with ways to prove that they were not the ones involved, but no matter what all documentation and usage could easily be reported back to them. Danielle was really bothered that she did not know how to prove that it could possibly be a few of the supervisors using this money for unauthorized usage, so she came to talk to me for ideas. After carefully thinking about it I advised Danielle that maybe she should bring the idea of a credit card to her manager because this would help keep up with the transactions on the card. Danielle’s manager agreed to this and the office started using a credit card for their office purchases. After only a month of having the card the manager realized that it was not the employees on Danielle’s level, but two of her supervisors that were using the cash for personal usage. They were using some of the employee’s names and authorizing them which is why the manager thought that the employees were to blame. For some of the transactions they were not writing them down at all. The manager was able to tract the purchases down to locations and dates and found that a lot of them were after hours, needless to say they were fired and she had to issue and apology to the employees for the assumptions. Using the funds in the right way would have created reliability and trust between all employees and the manger. The authorized usage of the company cash was not shown by the two supervisors, because they were purchasing things they were not supposed to and blaming it on the employees. I do not believe this would have happened if a credit card was used at first so that the manager could have better access and the employees do not need to have it in their possession unless they are going to use it. These supervisors need to be made aware of their unethical action. I know that corporate cards are set to be used for traveling expenses and things within the business, but I do believe that they can be a set up for failure when placed in the wrong hands. Corporate credit cards organize expenditures and generate custom reports to facilitate a business’s accounting records. This will help them to identify where the money is spent and who is spending it (Soyer, 2011). These cards should be removed from the employees after they return from their business trips because even those with strong morals may have hardships that cause them to second guess themselves and do things that are outside of their character. If I were confronted with this problem today, I would do a few things to ensure that the right people are notified of this incident. Being that money is involved I would first write down all transactions that I have to use the cash for to ensure all of mine are accounted for and authorized. Secondly, I would advise the manager that we should not only have to provide receipts but also write down a list of things that we are required to purchase. I would have notified the manager of the number difference after the first incident. I do understand that requesting a change in the process and bringing this to the attention of the head manager may result in the termination of my supervisor, but I need to make sure us as employees are protected. References Soyer, A. D. (2011). Managing office expenses by using corporate credit cards. AAOS Now, 5(6), 34. Retrieved March 20th from University Library