Ethical Dilemma

Ethical dilemma: The controller wants a feedback from me about Joe’s possibility of hiring Joe. But Joe’s performance on his work is poor. I don’t know whether I should tell controller and firm the truth. Joe is dating with my sister and I don’t know if I should tell him what happened.

Issues to consider:

1.What should I say to the controller? Should I tell him my real opinion that Joe’s performance is below the expectations or just follow what he wants?

2.Should I tell the controller the relationship between Joe and me? Maybe it is not objective because Joe is dating with my sister.

3.Should I tell Joe what happened? Should I tell him the controller are asking my feedback on him and should I tell him his performance is below the evaluation?

4.Should I tell the firm and discuss the poor behavior of Joe’s audit work because it might affect our quality of the work which delivered to our clients? And should we tell this to our client?

Evaluate the dilemma:

Me: I have some pressure from controller and also from Joe. If I tell the controller the truth and he is my superior, he might feel unsatisfied with me because I disagreed with him. And my career maybe affected. But on the other hand, if I don’t tell the controller the truth, I will violate standards as an auditor and will not be professional. It might be awkward for me to tell Joe that he is below the evaluation of the firm and his job is at risk.

Joe: Actually, he is just being himself. He need to figure out how to improve his capability and skills so he can perform well on his job.

Firm: If the firm hire someone who does not have enough capability to do the work, not only the person is at risk, the firm is also at risk because the service provided by the firm in on question. Also the frim should comply with hiring policy. Joe’s work performance is below the expectation. Hiring him may violate company’s policy.

Controller: As a controller, he should consider that it might be some pressure to the subordinate to ask whether to hire someone who has superstar potential in the controller’s mind. And he should also see the evaluation of the person from more sources.