7

You are an accountant for Barley Co.  Early this year you made a highly favorable projection of sales and profits over the next 3 years for the company’s hot-selling product.  As a result of the projections you presented to senior management, they decided to expand production in this area.  This decision led to dislocations of some plant personnel who were reassigned to one of the company’s newer plants in another state.  However, no one was fired and in fact the company expanded its work force slightly.
Unfortunately, you rechecked your computations on the projection a few months later and found that you made an error that would have reduced your projections substantially.  Luckily, sales have exceeded projections so far, and management is satisfied with its decision.  You, however are not sure what to do.  Should you confess your honest mistake and jeopardize your possible promotion?  You suspect that no one will catch the error because sales have exceeded your projections, and it appears that profits will materialize close to your projections.

a)    Who are the people affected by the situation?
b)    Identify the ethical issues involved.
c)    What are the possible alternative actions that you could have taken?