Question

answer the following question and back up your answer with logical reasoning.   Include a comment to EACH of the 5 critical pieces of ethics （INTEGRITY, OBJECTIVITY, PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE, CONFIDENTIALITY and PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR） minimum of 200 words.
; how they would be disregarded, and what would make it right?

You are a CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) member who is a non-executive director of a large services company. The board of directors meets on a monthly basis to discuss the quarterly forecast and other business issues.It is the responsibility of the finance director to distribute papers at least two weeks prior to the date of the meeting. These papers should first be signed off by the CEO. Recently documents have only been received a day before the meeting. You have raised this with the finance director who has stated the delay is due to the sign-off by the CEO. You do not feel that you are given sufficient time to review the papers, and also believe the information that is available is not complete and therefore difficult to fully appraise. The CEO is a very dominant character and many members of the board are nervous about broaching the matter. What would you do?

Answer 1

Ans

There are five fundamental principle of CIMA's Code of ethics to be applied when faced with ethical Dilemmas.

Ethical Dilemmas

Under the CIMA's Code of Ethics, the following fundamental principles are likely to get affected in the given scenario.

INTEGRITY : It generally refers to being honest and straightforward in all your profesional and business conduct. But it is actually more than being honest, it means standing up for something that you genuinely believe in. In the given scenario, being a member of CIMA and a non executive director one need to uphold its integrity by addressing the matter to the relevant authority. Hence there is a need to be straightforward and honest.

OJECTIVITY : Objectivity refers to taking decision without any fear or favour, hence not being subjective and offering an independent view of opinion. In the given scenario, objectevity is being compramised due to the fact that relevant information is not provided in due course of time as well as the information provide is not complete. And also there is a percieved threat of CEO's behaviour. Which could influence one's objectivity.

PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND DUE CARE : It refers to maintaining the professional knowledge and skill based on your profession. And taking adequate care before making any decision. In the given scenario in order to carry out your role as proffesional i.e. as Non executive Director, one need to have correct, complete and timely information, so that any opinion or decision is based on professional competence and due care.

CONFIDENTIALITY : Here one need to ensure that information is not disclosed by you to anyone who is not authorised to receive such information. In the given scenario also one needs to maintain the confedentiality of the information. This can be done by resolving the issue internally and involving only those persons who have authority to receive such information.

PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOUR : It means in all situations, a person is able to maintain a professional approach and ensure that the dignitiy of the profession is not affected. Hence one should abide by all relevants laws and shoud avoid any action which could bring disrepute to the profession. In the given scenario, one's profession behaviour would be compramised if the issue is not addressed to the relevant authorities and one would not be able to discharges its duties in a professional manner. Not only the Non executive director but ohters participating in the meeting would not be able to discharge their duties properly.

Resolving the Issue

In order to resolve the issue in the given scenario, one needs to uphold its integerity by addressing the matter in an honest and straightforward way. As because if it is not addressed then no one would be able to act with sufficient expertise, because the sufficient information is not made avialable in due course of time.

Since it is an internal matter as suggested by the above principle, confidentaility of information needed to maintained by resolving the issue internally i.e within the organation. For the issue to be resolved one can revisit the Financial director as well as the CEO in writing and ensure that the issue is resolved. And if the issue continues then make sure to have it on the Agenda for the next board meeting.

The above suggestion could be used to resolve the matter satisfactorily so that the non executive directors and its colleagues are able to exercise their role and duties in a more professional and deligent manner.