Ethics Case Blake Romney became Chief Executive Officer of P

Ethics Case Blake Romney became Chief Executive Officer of Peters Inc.two years ago. At the time, the company was reporting lagging profits, and Blake was brought in to \"stir things up.\" The company has three divisions, electronics, fiber optics, and plumbing supplies. Blake has no interest in plumbing supplies, and one of the first things he did was to put pressure on his accountants to reallocate some of the company\'s fixed costs away from the other two divisions to the plumbing division This had the effect of causing the plumbing division to report losses during the last two years; in the past it had always reported low, but acceptable, net income. Blake felt that this reallocation would shine a favorable light on him in front of the board of directors because it meant that the electronics and fiber optics divisions would look like they were improving. Given that these are \"businesses of the future.\" he believed that the stock market would react favorably to these increases, while not penalizing the poor results of the plumbing division. Without this shift in the allocation of fixed costs, the profits of the electronics and fiber optics divisions would not have improved. But now the board of directors has suggested that the plumbing division be closed because it is reporting losses. This would mean that nearly 500 employees, many of whom have worked for Peters their whole lives, would lose their jobs Instructions Answer the following questions 1. If a division is reporting losses, does that necessarily mean that it should be closed? 2. Was the reallocation of fixed costs across divisions unethical? 3. What should Blake do?

Solution

Answers

1. A division may report losses due to various reasons. Poor performance of the division is one of the reason. The market conditions of the product which is dealt by the division is another reason. The decision to close a division is depend upon the reason for the losses. If we can save some of the fixed costs due the closure of a unit which is giving larger amount of losses tthe it should be necessarily closed.

In the present situation the losses had happened due the misappropriation of fixed asset among the divisions. Hence the plumbing division should not be closed.

2. The reallocation of fixed assets are unethical.

3. Mr Blake should allocate the fixed assets ethically to achieve over all objective the business.