Essay, Research Paper: Accounting In The 90'S

-MEMO-October 15, 1998To: Human Resource DirectorFrom: A Concerned EmployeeRegarding: The Accounting Department I am worker writing to you as a last resort. In the recent weeks I have come across a situation which I have given a lot of though to. It seems that the accounting department is reporting actual sales of a new a product that has not yet reached the marketplace. So as it is right now, the company looks more marketable than it actually is. I could not decide on whether or not to come forward with this problem, but I have decided that this situation is in violation of the Golden Rule principal that we follow at this company. I will explain why I think there is a violation, and hopefully convince you to take further actions on the matter. When I took a job here, I was told that we do to other s as you would have them do to you. I took this into consideration when making my decision to come forward. I believe that by showing these false figures we are in violation of that principal. The stakeholders in this matter are the investors, customers, and my job. If those figures do not come out the way they are being predicted to, our young company could be in serious trouble. A mistake like this now could be our downfall. I believe that if I was a shareholder I would not want to see false numbers about my investment. I would want only the bottom line on how my investment is doing, not what the company hopes will happen. The customers of our company deserve to know what kind of company they are buying from, and they will not be getting a good base to make that decision if we present false documents to them.
























I hope what I have said in this memo will convince you to investigate this issue further, and come to your own conclusion on what should be done. I hope that this can be resolved before it causes any major problems. Please do what you know is write. Sincerely,Concerned employee In contrast to the Golden Rule is Enlightened self-interest. This is the view that if the employee does what is best for them, they improve the well being of the rest of the company. This view does not make sense to me in this situation because what would have been best for me would be to keep what I discovered in the closet. By coming forward with it I put my job in Jeopardy, and that is definitely not in my best interest. If I would have kept the problem to myself, it might have worked out the way that Accounting predicted, but it also might not have. That is why I viewed The Golden Rule as the best policy, the stakeholders have a wright to know the truth, and to me that is the bottom line.