Reference no: EM133360105

Assignment:

Specific Requirements

Ethical Dilemma

Alex holds a degree in financial planning with a minor in humanities. Alex was always fascinated with the work of financial planners, as Alex believed in helping clients and their families to be more financially secured with their hard-earned life savings. Alex appreciates how a good piece of advice could potentially change and improve a client's life, and so being a financial planner could be rewarding.

After going through a difficult selection process, Alex successfully lands a very sought-after and competitive position as an adviser for an established financial planning firm. The firm prides itself as an honest, reliable, and trustworthy boutique firm, and is well known to service many famous clients, many of whom are celebrities along with their respective friends and family.

Mary, the head of department, is assigned as a mentor to Alex. She takes time to personally mentor and train new recruits and makes sure they are familiar and comfortable with their roles and firm's culture. Greg, who is the deputy head of the department is one of the many successful mentees of Mary.

Mary, in her induction speech said, "I believe in employees being the main asset of an organisation and seeing great talent succeed is my greatest satisfaction". Alex appreciates that talent and contributions of employees are highly valued and are determined to work hard.

As part of the company's decision to further expand its business, a higher revenue goal has been set for each
financial planner. While this puts everyone under pressure to secure more big clients, higher bonuses and commissions are offered to compensate for the additional stress. There is also a common understanding among staff members that they are expected to do all they can to win and serve their clients, and ensure the targets are achieved. A huge stigma is attached to being held responsible for not being able to achieve the targets.

Early on in their employment Alex befriended a colleague named Claire, a new associate who provides moral support and encouragement. Claire has been with the company for a few years and has good knowledge about the profession and the company. Claire is Alex's go-to person for advice and guidance. As their relationship becomes closer, Alex finds that Claire has an expensive taste, a person who admires and loves to own high-end branded clothes, watches, and jewellery.

One weekend Alex and Claire go out to shop at one of the luxury and prestigious shopping malls. Initially what started out as a window shopping trip, turns out to be a shopping spree for Claire. After browsing around, Claire purchases five luxury watches which makes Alex wonder how she could afford such a purchase, but Claire seems to be very happy with the purchase and so Alex decides not to probe further.

One day after a late afternoon meeting with clients, Alex hears someone is sobbing and starts to look around the cubicle. They discover that Claire is crying and decides to approach her to find out what has happened. While she was reluctant to share at first, she eventually opens up and says, "I hate Greg. He makes my life miserable and you won't believe what he has done to me".

Although Greg is the deputy head of the department, Alex has not worked closely with him as they usually deal with Mary. However, from the water cooler talk, it's clear that he has a reputation of being a thrill-seeker, a person who tends to take risks so he can be successful and can sometimes engage in inappropriate behaviour.

Sometimes this reckless behaviour has resulted in smaller clients losing significant life savings, but the rich and famous clients continue to benefit from Greg's approach to investing.

Alex asks Claire what exactly Greg did to her, to which she replied, "I found out he cheated on me. I have done so much for him which he never appreciates. Remember the time when we shopped together? It was him who told me to buy five luxury watches so that he could give them as a gift to high net worth clients and secure new businesses. I did that hoping he could be successful and now this is all I get?"

Alex is shocked by the revelation of this relationship and behaviour. Greg and Claire have been deliberately distant from each other because no one in the firm has knowledge about their relationship. Although Greg and Claire may have achieved their success on their own skill and merit, and there are no behavioural issues concerning how they interact professionally, it still troubles Alex that their personal relationship has not been more transparently disclosed. Alex wonders if this is simply to keep their personal life private, which they are entitled to.

Alex also starts to question the appropriateness of Greg offering luxury items to clients in order to secure potential businesses. The company's policy has no clear guidance on gifts, and a conversation with a fellow graduate working in a similar industry revealed that gift giving is a common practice everywhere.

Not long after the incident, Claire's employment is suddenly terminated and rumours quickly spread that she was fired due to her poor work performance. Alex learns that Greg reported Claire to Mary, and subsequently received Mary's blessing to fire Claire. Although Claire has a track record of not being able to achieve KPI targets for the past couple of years, Alex is still surprised and wonders whether her termination could be related to the relationship break down between her and Greg.

You approach Mary to discuss some of these issues. Mary thinks that even if Greg and Claire were in a relationship, it is private and is no one's business. Rather, she prefers to respect the privacy of others as long as the working relationship is kept professional. Alex also raises the issue of the possibility of gift giving by Greg, to which Mary responds, "You only hear it from Claire but how sure are you? Could that be used to discredit Greg's effort as Claire has been slacking for quite some time?".

At the company annual dinner, Greg receives the top financial planner award for his outstanding performance. He has not only achieved the given target, but he also brought 20 percent more revenue to the company than he was supposed to. Greg was publicly praised by Mary and she said in her speech, "I have known Greg for many years. A decade ago I was his mentor. We have worked together for two different companies in the past. Little did I know he would be my best mentee who I am so proud of! I think one of the best choices that I've made in life is to have him join our firm. Congratulations and keep up the good work, Greg!"

In this scenario you are assuming the role of Alex, who is the moral agent.

In responding to the case, you must do the followings:

1. Outline and detail the ethical decision-making model of your choice Outline and detail the ethical decision-making model of your choice from the TWO models covered in the unit in Topic 4 EITHER: Good Decision-Making Model (Longstaff et al. 2020) OR: Hartman- Ethical Decision-Making (Hartman et al. 2020).

2. Justify why you have chosen this model (as opposed to the alternate model) as the approach to resolve the ethical dilemma.

3. Apply the chosen model to the case as the moral agent (Alex).