The Milner Ethical Decision-Making Case Scott Milner had worked hard all his life (all twenty-two years of it) and now, seemingly, everything was coming together for him. In one month, May 17th, to be precise, he would graduate with honors from the five-year accounting program at Midwest University (MU). After traveling in Europe with a couple of old high school buddies, Scott was scheduled to start in his dream job on August 1st. For as long as he could remember Scott had wanted to be a CPA and he felt fortunate to have landed a position on the audit staff of the prestigious public accounting firm of Debits Credits and Moore (DCM). However, even though it looked like everything was going his way, Scott was not a happy young man as his college graduation approached. He was troubled because, for the first time in his life, he was not one hundred percent sure he knew what he wanted to do. He was having second thoughts about his decision to work for DCM and pursue a career in public accounting. In fact, he was seriously considering a different career path altogether. Scotts father was a CPA and Scott entered MU committed to becoming a CPA himself and working for a big public accounting firm. He showed this interest early by becoming active in the accounting club and signing up for the five-year accounting program in his sophomore year. Starting his junior year Scott was excited by the prospects of pledging Beta Alpha Psi (BAP) and interviewing for an internship position. His plan was to work during the second semester, the famous busy season, with a large CPA firm to get a good taste of his chosen profession. He was very disappointed when he didnt get an offer from any of the big firms he was interested in. Instead, he settled for an internship with a small local CPA firm. During his work term Scott did mostly tax work, which he found not very interesting, and a small amount of auditing, which he loved. Overall, the internship was a good experience and Scott favorably impressed the practicing CPAs he worked with. He knew he could do the work and was recommitted to doing public accounting with a large firm. In his senior year Scott took MUs auditing class. His interest in public accounting combined with the brief auditing experience from his internship made this one of his favorite college classes. Scott was now one hundred and ten percent sure of his career path. Also in his senior year Scott became an officer in BAP. He was becoming a model student as evidenced by his sense of direction about his future, his very good grades, and his good relationships with the accounting faculty at MU. Early in the first semester of his fifth year, Scott eagerly began interviewing for a full-time position for after graduation. With his college record he was in a position to be rather selective and he interviewed only with large public accounting firms. One in particular, DCM, impressed Scott during the interview process. Although he talked to all of the big firms and, although they all made offers to him, he decided early in the process that DCM was his dream job. DCM gave him a very short acceptance period with their offer, but he didnt care. He accepted the offer with the plan to start work in August after his graduation. In the first semester of his fifth year Scott took Advanced Auditing as one of his accounting electives. He loved the course and got even more fired up about his career plans. During the

second semester Scott had another accounting elective to take. He chose Forensic Accounting. It too was very interesting. In fact, it was very, very interesting. This is where Scotts troubles began. With entry-level salaries hovering around $60,000 and demand increasing nearly one hundred percent each year, it was easy for Scott to see why forensic accounting was the hottest and fastest growing area in accounting. Scott had always known he wanted to do auditing work. Now he started imagining how neat it would be to concentrate on fraud auditing and help companies detect and prevent fraud and white-collar crime, design anti-fraud programs and controls, meet regulatory requirements, and implement the corporate governance activities required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Scott hoped that DCM offered opportunities in this field. About half way through that semester BAP sponsored a speaker from CloserLook, the leading forensic accounting firm in the Midwest. Scott attended the session, not because it was required for his class, but because of his interest in the subject. The speaker, Laura Dawson, who graduated from MU only two years earlier, fascinated the audience with story after story about her experiences in fraud auditing at CloserLook. After the session, Scott approached Laura to thank her for the presentation and tell her how interesting her job sounded. She suggested that if he was interested in the work he should send a resume to CloserLook since they were always looking for good people. A week later, Scott got a letter from Laura asking again if he would like to send a resume. Since he had accepted a job with DCM he wasnt sure whether it was proper to send a resume to CloserLook. However, he was simply too intrigued by the idea of working in fraud auditing and he sent the resume. Two weeks later he got a letter from CloserLook inviting him to Chicago for an office interview. Now Scott was in a panic. He was really interested in CloserLook but he had committed to DCM. Not knowing what to do, he called Laura asking for advice. She told him that if he came for an office visit, he probably would get an offer of employment that same day. Scott neglected to tell Laura that he had accepted an offer from DCM. ANALYSIS PROJECT 1 PROMPTS Prepare a written analysis of this case. Your submission should be 12-point Times New Roman font, double-spaced, 1-inch margins. Please submit as either a Word document or PDF. Use appropriate professional grammar, sentence structure, spelling, organization, and so on. Be specific. The expectation is that it will take approximately 4 to 5 pages to fully answer the prompts below. Please see the grading rubric for additional guidance. I suggest that possible legal issues should generally be ignored in this discussion. I wish to concentrate on integrity and the ethical issues, and we likely do not have sufficient legal expertise. In general, employers often do not have grounds for legal action, decide not to pursue legal action, do not succeed with such action, or are awarded insignificant damages if successful. As you consider the facts of this case it is suggested that you consider the role and importance of a persons word, of a commitment, of trust, of ethics and integrity, in everyday life, and business. What is the penalty or cost for violations?

In judging whether or not the decision to renege on an earlier employment acceptance is ethical, the facts of the case and the conditions surrounding the decision are typically of critical relevance. What are the key facts of this case? Explicit recognition of the various stakeholders is a critical element. Who are the primary, and secondary, stakeholders in this case and in similar employment situations? Upon considering the pertinent facts and identifying the various stakeholders it is appropriate to identify the dilemma posed by the case and ascertain what must be decided. It might be argued that some extenuating circumstances can justify a decision to renege. It is likely that you can identify some scenarios that seem clearly unethical, some that are clearly ethical, and many that are not totally clear. Consider the variations in circumstances that might surround an employment offer and acceptance and the related way in which the student and employer, and perhaps university Career Services office and major advisors, handle the entire recruiting process. The development of a code of conduct or ethics, not at all unusual in professional organizations or disciplines and at an increasing number of universities, might be considered for students, employers and possibly for Career Services (who would develop such a code and how might it be enforced?). Attempt to distill from the different possibilities or scenarios (a) guidelines or a code of ethics that students should follow when making such decisions, (b) guidelines or a code of ethics for employers and (c) guidelines or a code that components of a university (Business Schools, Career Services, Student Advising, etc.) should follow under varying relevant circumstances.