Scenario A 1. What do you see as the issues raised by the facts in the scenario? Describe as many as you see. * Third-party beneficiaries meaning that employees can sue Stephen (promisor) for not keeping its promise. * Bonuses are discretionary. It is not an obligation to give all employees a 15% bonus. * Not fair to give employees who work harder than others the same bonus. * US law requires that American workers must be sought before the employer hires a foreign worker for a job, which leads Stephen to a borderline Fraud situation. 2. What do you see as the consequences of Stephen’s decision? * Stephen’s decision of decreasing his employees’ bonus may decrease their intrinsic motivation, interest and performance on the job. * Nancy may not be as qualified and trained as the other employees. Since it’s a small accounting firm, he cannot afford to loose his clients especially that the beginning of the year is a critical time for accounting firms. * She’s lacking of qualifications since she just graduated with a BBA and isn’t a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) yet. * Hiring a foreign worker will increase the firm’s expenses (visa and lawyers process). 3. What alternative courses of action did Stephen have? * Instead of decreasing his employees’ bonus, which is detrimental to their morale and productivity, to find funds for his cousin’s hire, he could have let her pay all the foreign employment expenses. * Stephen could have helped her find a permanent job through acquaintances and hire her in the future since she could have applied for an employment-based permanent residency visa which would give her 6-12 months to find a job and still be able to stay in the country. * He could have convinced her to go for a Master in Accounting, which would have bought her some time. 4. If you had been in Stephen’s place, what would you have done? Explain * Where I come from, we rely heavily on an extended network of reciprocal relationships with parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins… * Growing up in a collectivist society (Morocco), loyalty is paramount and family comes first. Offence leads to shame and loss of face and the employer/employee relationships are perceived in moral terms (family link). * To conclude, I would have done the same thing if I were in Stephen’s place.

Scenario B 1. What do you see as the issues raised by the facts in the scenario? Describe as many as you see. * More expenses for Stephen’s firm. * Less revenue for accountants ($3,000 to $5,000 annually). * Stephen could have saved more money all those years if he had purchased his office supplies from Office Supplies Co. nation wide chain. 2. What do you see as the consequences of Stephen’s decision? * Stephen has more expenses he could avoid. * If he stops buying from Janet’s Stationary, he could loose some clients and reputation. * Janet could pick another accounting firm. 3. What alternative courses of action did Stephen have? * Stephen could buy his supplies from Office Supplies Co., and decrease his expenses. * He could buy from both places in order to keep good relationships with local suppliers and decrease the costs of the firm buying at Office Supplies Co. 4. If you had been in Stephen’s place, what would you have done? Explain * If I were in Stephen’s place, I would have kept my business with Janet’s Stationary. Buying from an independent creates a local multiplier effect: the more you spend at a local’s business, the more is reinvested locally versus a corporate chain where a significant portion of their revenue goes elsewhere. * Local businesses provide a strong foundation for the economy: taxes, fees… It may create new jobs, which I could take advantage of. * Supporting small businesses helps keeping more money within our community, contributing to the marketplace competition driving prices down. * I would spend less at Janet’s Stationary and buy cheaper products from Office Supply Co. * It helps me build and keep good relationships among the local community. Doing business locally may be profitable to my company as well; Janet could send me potential clients. * It also let small businesses support each other directly and help build relationships for Marketing.

Scenario C 1. What do you see as the issues raised by the facts in the scenario? Describe as many as you see. * Firing an accountant to be part of the program and get tax-break. * Might loose some of Michael Becker’s clients. 2. What do you see as the consequences of Stephen’s decision? * Employees would have to work harder in order to replace Michael Becker. * Accountants LLC will benefit from the program and get tax-break. * Michael Becker could sue Stephen for wrongful termination. 3. What alternative courses of action did Stephen have? * Stephen could have lobbied his congressman, write him a letter to participate in the program without firing anyone. 4. If you had been in Stephen’s place, what would you have done? Explain * I would have lobbied first and find out if I can still be in the program without firing anyone. * If it doesn’t work, I’d have fired the most senior accountant because he gets a higher salary and kept Michael Becket as a Junior Accountant I’d have supervised. * Junior Accountants tend to not disappoint their boss and pay attention to accuracy and details better than seniors sometimes.

Scenario D 1. What would you do? I wouldn’t take it for the following reasons: - If John gets caught, he could sell me out and I could be expelled from school. - What if I stop studying because I have the exam and the professor realizes it and changes everything? I wouldn’t take the risk because I could fail the exam and still be expelled from school. 2. Would you respond differently if you learned that many of the other students in the class also have copies of the exam? - It would be too risky. Somebody could have warned the Dean and if somebody gets caught, everybody could be expelled from School and we cannot rely on someone’s trust. - I would also want to check how I’d perform myself at the exam without any help. 3. If you decide not to cheat, would you tell the professor what happened? Would you tell him who circulated the exam copies? - I would never denounce anyone! - If my classmates succeeded at cheating without getting caught, good for them!
- I would pretend like I wasn’t aware of what was happening. 4. Two year later, you’ve graduated from Baruch and you have a job with a large accounting firm. One day you are working on an assignment at a client’s location. The client remembers that you graduated from Baruch and asks if you know anything about John, who is being considered for a position by the client. What would you say? - It depends on my relationship with John but since we graduated from the same school, I would recommend him to the client without giving any further information. 5. Would you answer to #4 be affected, if the work your firm was doing for the client was for a one-time only project rather than being for a major client of your firm? - I would put more thoughts about it. - If it were a one-time only project, I would say that he’s good at what he’s doing. - However, if it were more that a one-time only projects, I wouldn’t recommend him for the goodwill of the company. 6. Three years after that, your human resource administrator tells you that Jon has applied for a position at the firm you work for. However, he would be working for a foreign division of the firm and would have no contact with your division. The HR administrator asks you, as a Baruch alumnus, whether you know John and if the firm should hire him. What would you say? - I would say that I’ve heard of him and that he was a good accountant but that I wasn’t personally sure of his qualifications. 7. Okay, it’s now ten years since you graduated and you have your own accounting firm. John is applying for an open position in your company. Would you consider hiring him? I would for sure consider of hiring him since he may have gained experience in ten years; we would bring back some memories about our college experiences (if any), and he could also bring some of his clients to my company. 8. If you decide not to hire him, would you tell him why? Yes - Honesty is the Best Policy!