Reference no: EM131471341

Bill Kaufman, age 26, has been an assistant manager of the Manhattan region for Thor Environmental Management Systems for two years. During his four years with Thor, Bill has risen through the ranks to his current position in the biggest cash-generating region of the company. His superior, Francine Williams, is a friendly, but aggressive manager. She has acquired many influential friends in her 12 years with Thor Systems. As a result, she is slated for promotion to vice president.

Six months ago, Francine went through a nasty divorce, which Bill knew affected her deeply. In fact, Bill had heard rumors that Francine was drinking a lot. He has also noticed that her behavior had become somewhat erratic. One day, for example, Francine had fired four people because she had underbid on a small project, and they had told her that her figures were wrong. Sales have been slipping recently, and Thor’s executives have been pressuring Francine to bring them back up. Francine is confident that Thor can make up for the decline by winning a very big contract.

Last week Bill had faxed Francine the materials she needed to prepare the company’s bid on an important project. Francine returned the materials to Bill yesterday, along with her bid, which he also had to sign off on. But when Bill read through the materials Francine sent back, he found a problem. The bid Francine had prepared was inaccurate. In fact, it was so low that, if accepted, Thor would lose a substantial amount of money over the next three years.

Thor Systems recently established a code of ethics that says, among other things, "No employee of Thor Environmental Management Systems will knowingly prepare, submit, or report false information in order to obtain business." As far as Bill knows, however, no one has ever been reprimanded or fired for violating any of the code’s provisions, although he knows of some instances where certain employees have broken these rules. If Bill explains the problem to Francine and recommends that she modify the bid, he risks losing his favorite-son status and perhaps even his job. Bill is thinking about taking the problem to Francine’s superior. However, the company culture dictates respect for the chain of command. Employees who bypass their immediate supervisors have often been branded as undesirable and tend to be fired or laid off for some reason or to find their careers at a dead end.

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