Reference no: EM132996535

You are an employed as the Chief Information Officer of a large chemical company which manufactures domestic and commercial cleaning agents and as such you sit on the company's Board as an Executive Director (ED). You have become aware through visiting consumer complaint websites that some of the cleaning products the company is making have faulty safety caps on their containers which break after 4 or 5 turns rendering them unfit as a child safety lock to prevent accidental ingestion of the solvents in the cleaning fluids which are deadly if ingested. You strongly suspect the age of the plastic bottle capping machinery and a minor change in the formula of the plastic used for moulding the caps are to blame.

This year is a modal year in terms of write downs and replacements of significant high value depreciated assets but the capping machinery is not on the list of necessary replacements. You suspect that other Directors are also aware of this issue, but because of the high levels of profits being made from the facility, and the large commitment to asset replacement already in progress they choose to overlook any concerns as no fault has ever been registered in the factory by the Quality Assurance team and the machine has at least three more years of life according to the asset managers.

You mention your discovery to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) but he is rather dismissive of your claim saying the primary purpose of the company is to make money to satisfy the shareholders and staying within KPI's to maximise Directors' compensation. He accuses you of drumming up trouble and trying to make a problem for the company.

What should you do if you are to maintain an ethical position and keep your job?