Question: Description In MAA250 You Are Learning To Apply Your Ethical Principles To Real‐world Problems. In This Assignment, You’ll Be Applying Your Learning About Ethics And Ethical Decision‐making To A Case Scenario, As You’ve Been Doing In The Weekly Seminars. Coming To An Understanding Of Your Own Ethical Approach And How Others Have Theorized Ethics …

Question: Description In MAA250 You Are Learning To Apply Your Ethical Principles To Real‐world Problems. In This Assignment, You’ll Be Applying Your Learning About Ethics And Ethical Decision‐making To A Case Scenario, As You’ve Been Doing In The Weekly Seminars. Coming To An Understanding Of Your Own Ethical Approach And How Others Have Theorized Ethics …

Description

In MAA250 you arelearning to apply your ethical principles to real‐world problems.In this assignment, you’ll be applying your learning about ethicsand ethical decision‐making to a case scenario, as you’ve beendoing in the weekly seminars. Coming to an understanding of yourown ethical approach and how others have theorized ethics isimportant for all professionals.

Write your analysisas if you were a financial professional. That means your wordchoice, the terminology you use, your spelling and punctuation, andthe structure of each response must be appropriate for aprofessional, and well‐informed, audience. This is important tokeep in mind as you draft, edit, and proofread your responses.

Specific Requirements

Ethical Dilemma

Malinda is a veryself‐motivated person. Long before she graduated from Deakin as anaccounting and finance graduate, she had been exploring her careerand employment options. She often kept herself updated with thelatest information about the accounting and finance industry.Malinda also took every opportunity that she had to speak withnumerous industry insiders for their advice and perspectives aboutthe job and industry. She knew that she will be a step closer toher dream job if enough efforts were put in.

Malinda was on top ofthe world when she managed to land in her dream job as anaccountant in a major listed company with global reach. Tofacilitate her early days in the organization, she was assigned toa mentor at work, Emily. Emily had been with the finance departmentfor many years, and throughout the years she had earned thereputation of being an honest and reliable employee. She even hadreceived numerous awards for her excellent contributions to thecompany, and is also very well accepted by her superior, Borat, theChief Finance Officer (CFO).

Malinda and Emilyworked very well together. Malinda also picked up bits and piecesof Emily’s story – she had managed to pursue a successful careereven through three terms of maternity leave, following the birth ofher children. One of them had a learning difficulty. The companysupported Emily with time off to manage the demands on her at home.When Malinda told Emily of her father’s long‐term illness, Emilyconfided that her husband had also been on that path. They bondedvery well over the shared adversity and even became bestfriends.

The sudden and rapidspread of COVID‐19 had plunged the company into an unprecedentedand uncharted uncertainty. There was severe economic downturn whichmeant that business was tough. Demand was slacked locally andglobally for several of their leading products while competitionfrom competitors was intense. Profit margins were tight, andshareholders were definitely upset with the performance of thecompany. In fact, “do your work or leave” was how one angryshareholder addressed the management of the company during its lastAnnual General Meeting (AGM). A large number of their stocks wereheld by retirees. There were conversations in the office that theCFO was under immerse pressure to deliver some good news when themid‐year financial results were to be released next month.

Malinda was tasked toassist Emily and team in preparing the company’s financialstatements for the mid‐year financial results announcement. Theywere almost in the final stage of the report, and all that wasneeded was some information on capital expense account for thesubsidiary companies that were located overseas. Emily personallytook responsibility for this.

Late one afternoon,she told Malinda that the total amount of capital spending was $4.8billion, and upon completing the consolidation they find that thecompany reported a $1.4 billion profit. Malinda was blown away, butEmily somehow showed little excitement. They then started tocompile all the necessary information for a presentation with theCFO on the following day.

The meeting withBorat went well, as he seemed to be very pleased with the financialposition of the company. On the way out of the meeting room,Malinda overheard the tail end of a conversation between Borat andEmily. Malinda thought that she heard “…well done Emily…incrementand promotion…”

On the followingmorning, Malinda was called by the CFO to get the accounts of thesubsidiary companies since Emily was on medical leave. WhileMalinda was sorting out the documents, she found that the capitalexpenditure amount reported by the subsidiaries was significantlydifferent than the one Emily told her. Malinda was surprised andinvestigated further.

Malinda quickly wentinto the accounting system, and she identified a large number ofthe operating expenses entries were reversed in the system. Theadjustment resulted in a nearly $60 million reduction in operatingexpenses, and was a key reason for the company to be in aprofitable position. From her accounting lessons, she was awarethat moving expenses from operating expense account to capitalexpense account would delay the full recognition of the expense,which should have been recognised immediately if they would hadbeen in the operating expenses account. Malinda figured out that ifthe correct figures were plugged in, the company would be atloss.

The followingmorning, Emily looked pale and shaken. She had gone to the doctorwith her husband. The outcome was bad. He was diagnosed with anincurable illness and was told that his health will deteriorateover time. Malinda spent the whole morning supporting andcomforting Emily. Malinda thought that it was not the right time toraise her concerns with Emily.

Thus, Malinda raisedher concerns with the CFO but was only to be told “it is all good”.Not happy with the response, she pushed for clarification. Borateventually sighed and opened up.

“OK, Malinda. I willbring you into the circle of trust. Emily’s husband is my brother.He has been sick for some time and the recent COVID‐19 pandemicresulted in him losing his job. The medical bills and the loss ofincome drastically added the financial burden that Emily has tobear. She already has to face the stress of his medical conditionsin addition to the needs of her young children. I could not justsit by and see the financial pressure piled on top of her stress.Her promotion and increment would definitely take off some of thefinancial pressures that she has”.

Borat then continued,“Let it slide, Malinda. Pursuing this further would only break her.Do you want that on your conscience?”

Based on her ethicstraining, Malinda was of the view that these activities andexpenditures were not in the interest of the different stakeholdersof the company. If Malinda were to take some action to bring theseissues to light and it turned out that the firm was indeed actedagainst the policies and regulations, then there could be a riskthat the company would face legal actions and even running thepossibility of collapsing.

With justification,use an ethical decision‐making model of your choice taught in thisunit to resolve the ethical dilemmas outlined in the case above,where you must take the perspective of Malinda.

In responding to the case, you must dothe followings:

  1. Outline and detail the ethical decision‐making model of yourchoice (300 words)
  2. Justify why you have chosen this model (as opposed to alternatemodels) as the approach to resolve the ethical dilemma (200words)
  3. Apply the chosen model to the case. (2,000 words)