ethics_in_excess_inventory.docx
The ethics case of “Excess Inventory” demands that the reader think of ethical issues in a more vigorous light than just black and white, or legal or illegal. In the story, Stanley and Faust, two executives from the same firm, are playing golf and Faust sees that Stanley has an expensive set of new golf clubs. This raises some questions, and after a few uncomfortable moments of trying to avoid coming clan, Stanley then asserts that he received the clubs from a contractor who also owned a sports shop and just had excess inventory. He was adamant about it not being a gift, as the company has a firm ‘no gift’ policy in effect with its employees, but the more that Faust unraveled Stanley’s excuses the more obvious it became that the golf clubs were a gift. Furthermore, Faust spent time explaining why the seemingly harmless gift to a lower level employee of the firm actually had power, as in the end it was actually the people in the lower levels of a company that were in the position to make a contractor’s life easier, or even to allow him to get by with some questionable behaviors. The every day workers’ activities were where bribery was the most effective, and so these people should not be so quick to think that they could not possibly be receiving gifts for bribes. Finally, Faust then put it upon Stanley’s conscience to think about the golf clubs, not justify them, for when something has to be justified there is probably something wrong with the very nature of it. If there was truly nothing questionable about the golf clubs or the intention of the sender, then Stanley would not have squirmed when questioned, or gone on the defensive so quickly. Faust tells Stanley in the story to think about things not in the terms of black or right, accepted or not accepted under company policy, but rather as an ethical question that people have to decide for themselves. If they feel no guilt, shame, or need to justify their actions then the actions in question are probably above reproach, but this was not the case in Stanley’s situation.
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