You are a computer programmer working for a small business that provides specialized financial services to local,
Question:
You are a computer programmer working for a small business that provides specialized financial services to local, mostly small businesses. You have been working for company X for about six months. Recently X has been occupied with reengineering the inventory system of a local hardware chain, ABC Hardware. The objective is to enable ABC to keep better track of their inventory, to be more responsive to changes in customer demand, and to adopt a “just in time” strategy to reduce inventory. Your supervisor calls you into his office. “Do you know of any existing software products to help ABC keep better track of its inventory?” You mention a particular product that you have worked with in another job and point out that ABC could use it without any modification. The only drawback, you point out, is that this software is somewhat expensive. Your supervisor leans back in his chair, puffs on his cigar and says, “That’s no problem. We have that software. Why don’t you just install it on ABC’s computers?” You diplomatically indicate that this would violate the licensing agreement X has with the developers of the software. “Do it anyway,” your supervisor says. “Nobody’s going to find out, and ABC is a very important client. We need to do all we can to keep them happy.”
Question 1 – Doing Ethics Technique
Analyse the above case study using the Doing Ethics Technique.
Your answer should include
Q1. What's going on? (2 marks)
Q2. What are the facts? (2 marks)
Q3. What are the issues (non-ethical)? (2 marks)
Q4. Who is affected? (2 marks)
Q5. What are the ethical issues and implications? (3 marks)
Q6. What can be done about it? (3 marks)
Q7. What are the options? (3 marks)
Q8. Which option is best - and why? (3 marks)
We ask the students to analyse the above case study using either two or four classical ethical theories. So, it is always from the four classical ethical theories such as utilitarianism, deontology, virtue and contract.
Advanced Financial Accounting
ISBN: 978-0137030385
6th edition
Authors: Thomas Beechy, Umashanker Trivedi, Kenneth MacAulay