You are an accountant in the budgetary, projections, and special projects department of Fernetti Conductor, Inc., a large manufacturing company. The president, Richard Brown, asks you on very short notice to prepare some sales and income projections covering the next 2 years of the company’s much-heralded new product lines. He wants these projections for a series of speeches he is making while on a 2-week trip to eight East Coast brokerage firms. The president hopes to bolster Fernetti’s stock sales and price.
You work 23 hours in 2 days to compile the projections, hand-deliver them to the president, and are swiftly but graciously thanked as he departs. A week later, you find time to go over some of your computations and discover a miscalculation that makes the projections grossly overstated. You quickly inquire about the president’s itinerary and learn that he has made half of his speeches and has half yet to make. You are in a quandary as to what to do.
Instructions
What are the consequences of telling the president of your gross miscalculations?
What are the consequences of not telling the president of your gross miscalculations?
What are the ethical considerations to you and the president in this situation?
