Reference no: EM132893465

Suppose that you are the newest member of a civil engineering firm in a small southwestern Mexican-American city. The city has only four such firms and your company, which is the youngest and smallest, has been having difficulty getting contracts. The firm's engineers are excellent and its work is always very fine. Every member of the firm, from the president down, is deeply committed to technical excellence and determined to see the organization succeed. The difficulty in getting contracts has been the firm's inability to submit economically competitive project proposals. The situation has become so desperate that the company is struggling for survival and has been extending itself beyond its resources to avoid a lay-ff. The other firms are not hiring and, given the seniority policy at your company, you would be the first to go in a lay- off. You have moved to this city because your spouse has a teaching job at the local community college and the two of you just decided to try to begin a family.

The city is now considering putting in a new sewer system and has put out a request for proposals. Part of your job is to work on proposal preparation and to explain any questions about the proposal to the company's president, who, like you, is a registered engineer. You complete the proposal and pass it to the president. The next day the president sends for you. He instructs you to change the proposal so that is comes in at roughly three thousand dollars less than the original figure. You tell him that this will not be possible- you have already arrived at the lowest figure you could honestly submit and changing the proposal would have to include gross falsifications of estimates.

You have a fine record as a loyal employee and the president decides to take you into his confidence. He proceeds to tell you that he has spoken with the mayor, who is currently in the last stages of his campaign for re-election. The mayor is well liked in the large but poor Mexican-American community but has had trouble financing a campaign to register the Mexican-Americans and bring them out to vote. What is more, the sewer system will most benefit the Mexican -American community, which is clustered in the lowest part of the city where floods from the mountain rains and snow melts are most damaging. Every summer at least one child is drowned in one of the runoff washes that make up the current system for handling flash waters.

The mayor's opponent has been opposed to the sewer system because, she says, building and maintaining it would necessitate an increase in city taxes, which she has promised to avoid. She has made clear that, if elected, she would not support the new sewer system. The timing is such that whoever wins what promises to be a close race will decide on the project.

The president of your firm, whom you have previously found to be a very honest, sensitive and fair man, tells you that after much painful thought, he has privately arranged for a large contribution (which has been adequately laundered) to reach the mayor's campaign fund, thereby supplying more money for the mayor to get out the Mexican -American vote that can carry him to reelection. He also tells you that in exchange for the contribution, the mayor, who has good friends on the city's board, has instructed him how to write the proposal so that it will be accepted by the board with no challenge. Both the president and the mayor know that there will be cost overruns after the project is begun. But they also know that if your firm does the project, it will not cost the city all that much more than if one of the other firms does. The mayor also strongly believes that increasing choices among civil engineering firms is in the long term best interest of the city and he wants to see your firm stay in business.

If you refuse to change the proposal, you will most likely be laid off. Also, if your firm doesn't get the contract, there is every reason to believe that not only you will be laid off, but that this will also be the beginning of the end of the company. Although it is a fine firm, your company has been unable to successfully compete with older, larger organizations that have worked very hard to keep your company from getting established.

Base on Business Ethics, what would you do?