The six-step approach in resolving ethical dilemmas:
A. Obtain the relevant facts.
Bert Cruz has been working for 6 months as staff assistant for a law form, Alvendia and
Castro. Currently he is assigned to the case of Ryan manufacturing Company under the
supervision of Carlo Reyes, an experienced senior lawyer. There are three junior legal
assistants assigned to the case, including Bert, Carlos and more experience assistant Martha
Sy.
During lunch on the first day, Carlos says, “it will be necessary for us to work a few extra
hours on our own time to make sure we come in on budget. This case isn’t very profitable
anyway, and we don’t want to hurt our firm by going over budget. We can accomplish this
easily by coming in half an hour early, taking a short lunch break, and working an hour or so
after normal quitting time. We just won’t write that time down on our time report.”
Bert recalls reading in the firm’s policy manual that working hours and not charging for
them on the time report is a violation of Alvendia and Castro employment policy. He also
knows that seniors are paid bonuses, instead of overtime, whereas staff are paid for
overtime but get no bonuses.
Later, when discussing the issue with Martha, she says, “Carlos does this on all of his jobs,
He is likely to be our firm’s next manager. The partners think he is great because his job
always comes in under budget. He rewards us by giving us good engagement evaluations,
especially under the cooperative attitude category. Several other senior staff follow the
same practice.”
Required:
A. Obtain relevant facts
First fact is Carlos, who supervises them says that “it will be necessary for us to
work a few extra hours on our own time to make sure we come in on budget.
Bert recalls reading in the firm’s policy manual that working hours and not
charging for them on the time report is a violation of Alvendia and Castro
employment policy. He also knows that seniors are paid bonuses, instead of
overtime, whereas staff are paid for overtime but get no bonuses.
Martha, she says, “Carlos does this on all of his jobs, He is likely to be our firm’s
next manager.
B. Identify the ethical issue from the facts.
Ethical issue is if it's ethical for Bert to work even if it’s against firm policy and
not record hours that he has worked.
C. Determine who is affected by the outcome of the dilemma and how each person or
group is affected.
1. Bert
whether he have to violate the firm’s policy
performance evaluation will be affected
there would be accustomed practices
salary will be affected
Working hours will be affected
2. Martha
It will be same as Bert because they are junior legal assistant
3. Their Firm Alvendia and Castro
Firm’s Policy will be violated
Could result on underbilling in the current and future engagement
Could affect employees ethical values by which they will think it will be okay to violate
firm’s policy
Could affect the firm’s ability to motivate and retain employees.
4. Staff assigned to Ryan Manufacturing in the future
Could result in unrealistic time budget
Could result in unfavorable time performance evaluation
Could result in pressures to continue practice of not charging for hours worked
5. Other employees in firm
Following the practice of this engagement may motivate others to follow the same
practice on other engagements
D. Identify the alternatives available to the person who must resolve the dilemma.
Talk to higher supervisory or manager or the partner about Carlos request
Refuse to work on the engagement
Refuse to work the additional hours
Tell Carlos that you will not do additional hours
Quit working for the firm
E. Identify the likely consequences of each alternative.
Considering the potential consequences if Bert decides to work the additional hours and
not report them. He will likely get good evaluation for cooperation and perhaps a salary
increase. In the long term, what will be the effect of not reporting the hours this time
when other ethical conflicts arise?
The manager of the partner will about the unreported hours
Management informs Bertthat either the company gets legal fee or the company will
change lawyers
Bert will be fired on the engagement because there is a possibility that Carlos won’t
agree with Bert
Bert will lose its current job
A supervisor asks Bert to initial certain procedures as having been performed when they
were not.
F. Decide the appropriate action.
Bert could decide that the only relevant consequence is the potential impact on his
career. Most of us would conclude that Bert is an unethical person if he follows that
course. At the other extreme, Bert can decide to refuse to work for a firm that permits
even one supervisor to violate firm policies. If I were Bert that could be a tough decision.
But if we base on which is better and which is beneficial to the entirety of the staff or
employees, I think It could be acceptable that bert should refuse doing additional hours.
becuase its not healthy for the firm and the employees itself just becuase of a dumb
senior lawyer acting to be good for the firm and on promoting itself. As a lawyer, Bert
should act as the goodness of the entirety of the firm.
