Stanley

Overview

Stanley, a corporate employee, has received some “excess inventory” from a general contractor because the contractor explained that is wasn’t a gift and that he was going to throw the golf clubs away.

Lesson to be learned

Stanley recently accepted “excess inventory” in the form of golf clubs from a contractor. The basic rule in jobs where others offer you gifts is to avoid a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest is whenever the loyalty of an individual is in question between their official duties and another party. A good rule of thumb is that a possible conflict of interest exists any time a 3rd party observer might wonder if our actions are driven by something other than our official duties. Whenever it comes to conflicts of interest, perception is reality! Even if decision making is not actually influenced by a gift, just the thought that it could appear to be influenced by that gift is an issue depending on the job and rules.

Theory

A theory that fits into the case is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which is “a set of management practices that ensures the company maximizes the positive impacts of its operations on society or operating in a manner that meets and even exceeds the legal, ethical, commercial and public expectations that society has of business” (Jimali and Mirshak, 2007). The Company, like many other companies across many different industries, already has rigid rules regarding no gifts. The Company, along with its employees, has ethical responsibilities to not accept gifts or bribes that will cause conflicts of interests or corruption. While Stanley may not have seen his actions as causing a violation of corporate ethics rules because he didn’t receive a “gift” he is starting to see the light of the situation from his business partner. He didn’t believe he had done anything wrong by accepting the gift, but the more he and Faust speak about it the more he realizes that he made a mistake. As explained, even...