Mini Case 1

As an assistant manager in a restaurant company with an eye on his future, Bob wants to do as much as possible to ensure his career progression. He works long hours, spends a lot of time focusing on customer service and loyalty, and has learned how to train employees more effectively. Recently, however, Bob has become disturbed by some actions of his superiors which, to him, do not seem to be ethical. For instance, at the end of last month Bob was asked by the GM to inflate the inventory in order to show a better bottom-line performance for the last month. The GM explained that, while this is technically unethical, the last month was unusual in the sense that the restaurant had an accident in which the cooler malfunctioned overnight and many food products spoiled. To further explain this, the GM noted that, from his perspective, inventories are meant to capture longrange use of resources, not once-only events.

Question Should Bob inflate the inventory as requested by his GM? If not, what should he do?