Performance and Ethics Accounting, Finance, SPSS Research Paper

PERFORMANCE AND ETHICS
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Performance and Ethics
Discuss Joy’s ethical behavior; are her actions right or wrong?
Joy’s behavior is unethical. Her actions are hinged on greed to earn a bonus, and he is desperately trying to maximize bonus. Her actions are not in good faith and not in the best interest of the organization and therefore they are unethical. Additionally, her actions and decisions are also wrong. Inflating expenses and underestimating revenue are not only costly accounting practices but also can have adverse effects on the operations of the business. It can also lead to failure of the business if not detected and affect the return on investment for the shareholders. Thus, when Joy only thinks of herself and a few other employees, her actions have a detrimental effect on the business immediately and in the future.
What role does the company play in enabling the actions taken by Joy?
The actions of joy are an indicator of poor remuneration standards adopted by the company. She is stealing from the company by deliberately overestimating expenses and underestimating revenue to earn bonuses. It seems her salary and any other perks the company gives are not enough to meet her demands, and therefore she resorts to finding loopholes in the system to earn more. Employees often exploit loopholes to increase their income CITATION Spe11 \l 1033 (Pickett, 2011). Using her position to determine the profitability and by extension the value of net operating income, she tries to maximize her earnings. Thus, the company could be underpaying her employees hence making them complacent intentionally and or unintentionally to Joys schemes to milk more money from the company.
The company has also designed the bonus motivational program poorly such that it encourages queer schemes to beat it. Poor motivation programs can be counterproductive CITATION Mic141 \l 1033 (Robinson, 2014). First, it is capped on 130% hence any other earnings past that figure do not include an extra coin. The employees will therefore not be motivated to maximize net operating income because it does not translate to more earnings on their part. For example, if it is the target earlier in the year, the employees can be lax because their bonus value is already secured and any extra effort cannot translate to higher income.
The organizational structure is poorly structured and or has overlapping roles. The standards of operations procedures are also either poorly structured such that they cannot stop a district manager from instructing the sales team to participate in schemes that are not in the best interest of the organization. If these standards of operations are existent, they are grossly violated with no consequences. The system’s inefficacy is compounded by poor employee integrity standards because they are complicit in schemes that are evidently not in the best interest of the organization. For example, if the sales group is instructed to defer closing sales to the next year without proper basis to support such directives, it indicates that they are either disempowered to report questionable decisions by their superiors and or are complicit of such schemes which are not in the best interest of the company. Such decisions also ought to trickle down from the top management through the sales department but not from the district manager. If it is not standard practice to defer sales to the next year, then Joy has either to provide the sales group with the irrefutable rationale for such decisions.
If you are the marketing manager for the district and receive instructions to defer closing of sales until the next fiscal year, what would you do?
If I receive such orders from my superior or if the district manager is empowered to issue such directives, I would go ahead and defer sales. The request must be formal and communicated through formal channels to protect me in case the issue is found to be unprocedural or ultra vires. Even if the district manager is empowered to issue such directives and I notice that they are outrightly malicious, I can report it to the senior management directly. Secondly, if I receive such orders from another manager at my level, then I would question his/her interest in issuing such directives. I would ask for a written and or formal documentation detailing the reasons for the deferment. The reasons must be satisfactory and in accordance with the operating procedures of the company. If I sense that the instructions are not in the best interest of the company, I will try to discuss them with the district manager, and if he /she gives unsatisfactory reasons for it, I turn the request down and or recommend that he/she makes the request through my superior. If the district manager is unapproachable, I will request him/her to have a meeting to discuss the reasons for requesting deferment of closing sales. If the reasons are not satisfactory and he/she insists that I defer the sales contrary to the operating procedures, I would request guidance and a...