Consider what you have learned relative to ethics and financial reporting. What is the rationale for the calculations/process used to estimate the $180,000 uncollectible allowance?
Effective financial reporting requires accounting professionals to observe ethical behavior in the course of their duties. Management and other key stakeholders rely on financial statements to make decisions, so accurate and reliability in financial reporting is paramount. Financial scandals on the part of accounting professionals in the past have resulted in strict legislations to ensure that honesty, integrity, and transparency are maintained (Armstrong, Ketz & Owsen, 2003). The legislations also require that adequate disclosures are made when reporting financials of a company. In the case of XYZ manufacturing company, the assistant controller is under the obligation to follow the GAAP in reporting the allowance for uncollectible accounts. In this case, the company follows the accounts receivable aging method that requires the outstanding accounts receivables to be grouped depending on age. A specific percentage is then applied to each category. Any attempts to revise the allowance for uncollectible accounts to the current status is tantamount to misstatement and misreporting of financial statement, which is an offense
How do you think the misstatement of funds will impact the income statement and balance sheet?
The misstatement of allowance for uncollectible accounts from $180,000 to $135,000 will increase the earnings before taxes by $45,000. As a result, a higher net profit would be reported in the income statement. Similarly, the misstatement will increase the company’s current assets since the accounts receivables will increase by $45,000. This action is intended to make the company look financially healthier than it is (Lurie & Albin, 2007). Misstatement of financial information is illegal as it represents a false picture of the company in terms of financial performance.
What is the ethical dilemma you face? What are the ethical considerations? Consider your options and responsibilities as an assistant controller.
As an assistant controller, you are under the obligation to follow the generally accepted accounting principles in making a reasonable and accurate estimate of the allowance for uncollectible accounts. The dilemma here is whether your responsibility to present accurate financial statements of XYZ manufacturing company overrides your obligation of improving the financial position of your boss. The first option and the most ethical thing to do is to decline the controller’s request to alter the age category of the accounts receivables in order to preserve integrity and honesty as an accounting professional (Lurie & Albin, 2007). However, the negative consequences of this option is the possible loss of a job.
The other option is to comply with the controller’s request to report a lower allowance for uncollectible accounts of $135,000. The positive consequence of this option is that the assistant controller would retain his job. Similarly, the company will enjoy a more favorable position in the eyes of external parties, such as investors, creditors, and financial analysts (Lurie & Albin, 2007). However, the assistant controller will have to deal with the guilt of his actions in the future. He might also face litigation from the creditors and investors in the future is they discover about his actions.
Identify the key internal and external stakeholders. What are the negative impacts that can happen if you do not follow the instructions of your supervisor?
The key internal stakeholders include the managers, employees, and the board of directors. On the other hand, the external stakeholders include the creditors, investors, government, and financial analysts (Armstrong, Ketz & Owsen, 2003). If the assistant controller declines to comply with his supervisor’s suggestion, the worst that can happen is the loss of a job.
What are the potential consequences if you do comply with your supervisor’s instructions? Who will be negatively impacted?
Complying with the supervisor’s request would expose the assistant controller to possible litigation from the external stakeholders who rely on the financial information of the company to make critical investment decisions (Armstrong, Ketz & Owsen, 2003). The most affected parties are the investors and creditors since they rely on this information to do business with the company.
References
Armstrong, M. B., Ketz, J. E., & Owsen, D. (2003). Ethics education in accounting: Moving toward ethical motivation and ethical behavior. Journal of accounting education, 21(1), 1-16.
Lurie, Y., & Albin, R. (2007). Moral dilemmas in business ethics: From decision procedures to edifying perspectives. Journal of Business Ethics, 71(2), 195-207.
Ethics And Cultures In Leadership Writing Sample
Introduction
Ethics and culture in leadership make the leaders consider the people’s background, experiences, cultures, and religions promoting good leadership qualities. A good leader must practice three important leadership skills that are having a vision, being motivational, and being able to communicate to the people. Vision makes a leader have something great in his mind about what he or she is going to offer to the people and helpful to everyone. Be a motivator by encouraging people in their daily practices and even doing good things to them as a model of motivation. Communicate on the projects in progress to avoid misunderstanding between a leader and the nation and inform them of all changes and it is enhanced through communication. Therefore this is a discussion entitled to discuss the ethics and culture in leadership and the main practices a leader should do for him to have a good rule era.
Discussion
Strategic vision for a leader in an organization it’s important since it enhances transformation and makes a leader have a certain goal to achieve. Leaders now come up with their rules and plan the organization in a different manner that enables them to cut off the old practices and introduce new ones. Through this strategic vision, leaders are now able to connect with the people and create a strong bond between the leader and the people. Also, it leads to the distribution of leadership all over the organization. Distribution of leadership motivates the people since the leader is interacting with them and the people are able now to communicate out their problems and developments they want. Thus the strategic vision of a leader makes things easy since the people under him are feeling to interact with him through connectivity with the people (Fernandez, A. A., & Shaw, G. P. 43 (2020).
Communication is a crucial tool that makes leaders build a strong bond and a good relationship with their people. Leadership is a connection between two parties that interact in their daily courses and they mostly interact through communications. A leader’s communications styles show how his vision will be taken by the citizens and their listening capacity will always be effective. Through the use of verbal aggressiveness, this expresses the leader’s facial expression and the people can judge the leader’s vision whether it’s true or just propaganda. The emotionality of the leader when communicating about his/her vision the people can now determine whether the leader has a concern. Also through the questionings to make the communication like a debate and people are now going to be more listening to hear the proposals? Thus the leaders should use these ways to communicate their vision and use better facial expressions (Brown, O., Paz-Aparicio, C., & Revilla, A. J. 6 (2019).
Motivation helps people to have positive thoughts about your leaders since you’re making them also look forward to major issues. Motivating as a leader brings the effects of the people under your rule to have positive thoughts and job satisfaction. Leadership entails motivation as one of the issues that make a leader good since he/she will be able to direct, mobilize the people, and influence them to work hard so that they can achieve a certain goal. Motivation makes people work towards a certain goal (Paais, M., & Pattiruhu, J. R. 580 (2020).
High ethical standards make a leader be in connection and it maintains respect with the leaders since it avoids the use of biased words between the two groups. The practice of the three major aspects such as vision, motivation, and communication shows that there are higher ethical standards and higher leadership practices.
Conclusion
According to the major practices, good leadership brings proper understanding and cooperation within the people. Also, we can know that a good leader is the one who has a vision for his people, motivates his people while working this leads to better production and reduces dependence rate among the people, and communication to avoid rumors spreading which can lead to even fights wanting for another leader. Through this leaders can even rule for more terms without the demand for elections of another leader.
References
Brown, O., Paz-Aparicio, C., & Revilla, A. J. (2019). Leader’s communication style, LMX, and organizational commitment: A study of employee perceptions in Peru. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Fernandez, A. A., & Shaw, G. P. (2020). Academic leadership in a time of crisis: The Coronavirus and COVID‐19. Journal of leadership Studies, 14(1), 39-45.
Paais, M., & Pattiruhu, J. R. (2020). Effect of motivation, leadership, and organizational culture on satisfaction and employee performance. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics, and Business, 7(8), 577-588.
Ethics And Professionalism In Healthcare Essay Example For College
For any business to grow, expand and survive in the current world, the stability of a society plays a very critical role. There are several stakeholders in most companies, and trust is one major issue they all require from the companies. Stakeholder management is needed to oversee the mutual relationship between the company and the organization (Werhane, 2000). The healthcare business has often been insulated from clinical issues for several reasons. In the beginning, hospitals were mainly operated by charitable and equitable premises. It meant that healthcare services would be provided without any relationship to the financial support provided. The clinical ethics were then compartmentalized from the business part of the organization (Werhane, 2000). However, this changed over the last few decades when the healthcare facilities got reimbursement from other sources. It has made it challenging to examine the effects of the stakeholders in the business on clinical professionalism. The ethical issues in the running of the healthcare facilities are related to finances and professionalism; thus, they affect each other mutually (Werhane, 2000). This paper examines the factors affecting ethics and professionalism in the healthcare sector.
Looking at Friedman conclusion, which is mainly based on the neoclassical economic model of rational choice, humans are presumed to act primarily to their interests and not any other person or entity (Werhane, 2000). From this view, it can be said that the management of many of the healthcare organizations is mainly focused on the self-interest of commercial competition. According to this theory, it is assumed that most of these health facilities will provide better services, reduce the cost of operation and improve their efficiency. However, there is no evidence since most profitable companies do not use Friedman’s theory.
Healthcare facilities are mainly created to take care of patients. Hence, their top priority should always be to maximize their patients’ treatment and well-being. The healthcare facilities must be economically stable to pay their employees and pay off any debts. Even if an organization is constrained to charity or government funds, it must do so. According to Friedman’s theory, if a hospital does not put their patients first but profitability, it would be immoral and irrational (Werhane, 2000). The approach fails to recognize the roles of stakeholders in an organization and the organization’s obligation to the stakeholders. Stakeholders perform several functions in an organization. The first is to define the organization, purpose, mission and vision. They are also essential in the survival and success of the company, and lastly, they are the most affected by the organization’s activities. Stakeholders are thus critical in any organization, be it a healthcare facility or otherwise.
Stakeholders’ theory describes their association with the organization in outlining its role both externally and internally (Werhane, 2000). Looking deeper into the view, the stakeholders can influence the organization. Employees of a healthcare facility have obligations to the organization that employs them, their patients and their profession. They are morally obligated to serve the community since they exist in it. It is thus challenging to figure out how a healthcare facility can prioritize profitability while offering quality services to the population. Stakeholders are often prioritized since they virtually control the organization. However, the patients in a hospital can be considered significant stakeholders of a healthcare facility since their primary role is to provide excellent healthcare services.
Several factors influence the priority of a healthcare organization. Their missions and patient preference are some of these factors. Additionally, the professionals in a healthcare facility, that is: doctors, physicians, nurses and other members, are very vital in the capacity of a heal organization. They are often responsible for delivering the care to the patients and not the management; thus, they cannot trade off professional commitments over patients’ health which is immoral.
The chain in the healthcare system is a selective distribution where there are only a few intermediates in the supply chain (Elms et al., 2002), but there are several parties who can provide the same care. Every hospital strategy is to reduce the cost of operation whilst offering a quality health care service for their patients in a suitable environment. These strategies can range from operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. It is challenging to achieve all of the strategies at once. Therefore, the hospitals must compromise and eliminate one of the strategies. They might provide excellent quality for their patients, but the cost will be high. It may only cater to those who can pay for health services that are immoral since the main aim of a healthcare organization is to cater to every patient equally. On the other hand, providing cheaper services for every patient lowers the health organization’s profits, more so if charities and state funds do not back it (Elms et al., 2002). This may lead to the organization’s bankruptcy, thus its eventual downfall. Health care organizations have to compromise one of the strategies to achieve their desired goals.
Joyce Ching, a 34-year-old, gave testimony on her ailment of persistent abdominal and pelvic pain when she visited her doctor. The doctor failed to appreciate the potential and gave her a pelvic exam. The pain continued for months until she saw a specialist where it was found that she had a cancerous tumour. The situation must have resulted from capitated payments, which are always guaranteed whether the patient gets treated or not (Elms et al., 2002). It entices the health organizations to admit very many patients and, in doing so, maximize their profits through capitated payments with reduced quality of healthcare service offered to the patients. From the above case study, the day Joyce visited the doctor, he had already seen 39 other patients who could be argued to be why he failed to recognize the cancerous tumour (Elms et al., 2002). The physicians did not provide quality health care to Joyce Ching due to potential financial gain.
Insurance is another factor that hugely affects the ethics of the healthcare sector. Patients are limited as stakeholders since they are not the direct payers but the insurance company (Elms et al., 2002). Most of these insurance contracts are based on their work. Thus, they are stuck with the company that their employers provide. It makes it difficult to exit from the relationship with their insurance company unless they lose their jobs. Employers are tasked with negotiating insurance policies for their employees with various companies, which leads to limited insurance choices for the employees. Those who have chronic diseases often tend to stick with their insurance policy even if it may be costly on their end (Elms et al., 2002).
Employers often team up to increase the number of employees covered by an insurance policy, allowing them to get premium concessions from the insurance companies. Insurers also take advantage of many employees to reduce capitation payments from healthcare facilities. The health care organizations are limited since some have fewer resources to fight back, and the contract signed by their employers restrict the patients. Employers and insurers have teamed up to reap the benefits that are not aligned with the ethic that orders patients. These factors have moved the stakeholder power from the patients to their employers and insurers, which is against the healthcare core mandates.
Stakeholder management is always used to control the stakeholders’ impact on an organization. It manages several stakeholders’ expectations for the reasons of public health where there are several stakeholders with diversified goals. The management team needs to understand the stakeholder’s interests and balance them evenly without bias. It can be achieved by cooperation between specialized and primary health care that ensures the commitment of strategic management. Additionally, competitive principles also apply to the health care facilities to improve the care provided to the patients. The main focus for the organization should be to enhance the value of patients meaning the quality of care received per cent paid. The model follows the Porters model, which focuses on providing value-based competition (Elms et al., 2002).
In conclusion, Friedman’s theory about social responsibility helps define the primary focus of health care organizations. The stakeholder’s theory shows the relationships between the organization and its stakeholders, which are sometimes oversimplified. Business ethics are crucial in running a healthcare organization since they have to efficiently provide the best patient care while still being productive. Since the mission of the medical organization is not profit, they should not put profitability as their top priority. Medical care facilities should first develop a clear prioritization of their stakeholders before designing concordant solutions. Managers can use the stakeholder’s theory to prioritize the needs of their stakeholders. The managers should talk with the stakeholders to agree on the organization’s core values. In doing so, there needs to be addressing the differential impact of ethics and incentives on behaviour. When both ethics and motivations support a behavior, it is challenging to identify the outcome of the action. Some factors in the medical care sector promote professionalism based on rationality and morals. Other factors are against the ethics of the medical industry, such as profitability over the quality of the healthcare provided. Stakeholders, whether the patients or external, have a massive impact on the ethics and professionalism in the sector and thus need to be considered carefully. The health care facilities can acquire more in-depth insight into the consequences and possibilities of the strategic development process they have in place, helping them make better decisions. The strategies must involve the size of the facility, competition, other health care provider in the chain and their financial status.
References
Elms, H., Berman, S., & Wicks, A. C. (2002). Ethics and Incentives: An Evaluation and Development of Stakeholder Theory in the Health Care Industry. Business Ethics Quarterly, 12(4), 413–432. https://doi.org/10.2307/3857993
Werhane, P. H. (2000). Business Ethics, Stakeholder Theory, and the Ethics of Healthcare Organizations. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics, 9(02). https://doi.org/10.1017/s0963180100902044