In case study 1-7 we are tasked with evaluating a situation where
Kevin Lowe is struggling at his new job as an auditor. He has been
with the company only a short time and does not yet have his CPA
certification. After having a sit down with his managers to discuss his
slower than average performance, he is left with two ethical
dilemmas. The first is that he believes he will not keep his position at
the company if he cannot speed up. To compensate for this he is
deciding if he should work from home and not charge the firm or
client for his time. The second situation is the action of ghost-ticking
that some of his peers use. Ghost-ticking is when the auditor marks a
task as complete even when it is not.
When evaluated through Kohlberg’s theory, the responses on what
Kevin would likely do are dependent on what stage of cognitive
development he falls into. There are six stages with two steps in each
stage.
The preconventional level consists of stage one and two. Stage one is
about obedience to rules and avoidance of punishment. What is right
is judged by others. Stage two is about satisfying one’s own needs.
Rules and authority are important in this stage but are overshadowed
by satisfying personal needs first. In both stages Kevin would likely
choose to work from home and participate in ghost-ticking. Level
two, the conventional level, consist of stage three, fairness to others,
and stage four, law and order. In stage three decisions are not only
motivated by rules but what is best for others. Stage four emphasizes
the morality of law and a duty to social order. In both of these stages
Kevin would work from home but would not engage in ghost-ticking
as it is not only not fair to others but does a disservice to society. The
final level, postconventional, consists of stage five, social contracts,
and stage six, universal ethics principles. Stage five is about upholding
the rights, values, and legal contracts of society. Decisions in this
stage are based on a rational calculation of benefits and harms to
society. Stage six is said to rarely occur. Individuals in this stage
determine right and wrong based on what they consider inalienable
rights, universal in nature and consequence, that apply to all people.
Ethical principles in this stage outweigh other rights, laws, and social
agreements that may exist. At this level I believe Kevin would work
from home in stage five but would not in stage six. At stage six Kevin
would believe the ethical course of action is to be paid for his work
regardless of the situation. In both stages he would not participate in
ghost-ticking.
James Rest’s ethical decision-making model is a four-step process
developed by reversing the decision-making process during an ethical
dilemma. Rest also bases his model on cognitive development the
same as Kohlberg. Step one moral sensitivity, the ability to detect that
a situation is moral in nature, discusses that an individual must first be
able to tell that a situation is moral in nature before being able to
make a moral decision. Step two is moral judgment, the reasoning
used during the decision-making process. Perspective reasoning is
used to determine what outcome would ideally take place in the
ethical situation and the outcome reflects the cognitive
understanding of the individual. Step three is moral focus which
focuses on an individual’s willingness to take moral action and place
ethical values over non-ethical values. The final step is moral
character. This step recognizes that intentions and actions do not
always align. An individual may want to take moral action in step
three, but may not, even if they have reasoned in steps one and two
that there is an ethical dilemma, and they know what should be done
about it. People with strong ethical character are more likely to carry
out ethical intentions with ethical actions. Based on this decision-
making model, assuming Kevin is of strong moral character, I believe
he would work from home, but would not engage in ghost-ticking. In
this model there is no downside to working from home. It helps the
company, the client, and himself. Ghost-ticking however, is clearly an
unethical decision and as such would be identified by Kevin and
dismissed as an acceptable action.
When comparing these two models I think the best option for this
case is to use Rest's decision-making model. While the end results are
the same as using Kohlberg's (except stage 6), it is difficult given this
scenario to know what level of ethical cognition Kevin is at. Because
of this, it is impossible to predict how he would react under the
circumstances. Using Rest's model allows Kevin to simply ask
questions that lead him to the (hopefully) correct solution. The only
possible pitfall I see is that Kevin potentially doesn't see this situation
as an ethical one which would result in him not working through the
four-step process of solving his dilemma. However, if he did, which
seems apparent in the case study, he should conclude that working
from home on nights and weekends is okay, and that ghost-ticking is
not.
