Decision Making at a Baked Goods Factory

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to buy fuel. He was going to return this money back immediately after he would receive his salary. However, immediately after he returned back from the bank, the unexpected audit was started. Nurlan had a feeling that it is more likely than not that the cashier would return five thousand tenge he took for fuel to factory’s cash funds by the end of the day. However, he disclosed lack of five thousand tenge in his report, which he sent to a factory’s top management. Then Nurlan turned off his computer, locked his office and went out of a factory’s building.

He was walking slowly along the street thinking about first month of his work at a baked-goods factory. Nurlan just received his first salary, but he did not feel joy. He felt sadness: Although he received a position in a manufacturing company that allowed him to watch from within how product is created and to be a part of this process, Nurlan could not agree with “injustice” that he witnessed at his new workplace. Every time he was conducting an audit, the audit revealed a violation of legislation or factory’s policies. Following his professional duties, Nurlan disclosed all these violations properly in his reports to a factory’s top management. He did this despite the fact that he did not consider any of these violations as harmful for the factory. Instead, Nurlan would rather agree that if managers of procurement department, the head of a shift from

manufacturing department and the cashier strictly followed all rules that they violated, they would cause more harm to a factory. Nurlan saw that the violators did not even try to derive a personal benefit, but all of them acted in the best interests of the factory.

Nurlan was very confused. He did not know what to do: on the one hand, he did not want to leave the baked-goods factory, but on the other hand, he was not sure that he would be able to continue working as an internal auditor there.

Questions (optional):

1. Did employees of Procurement Department act ethically when they ordered strong alcoholic drinks in the restaurant where they conducted negotiations with representatives of potential supplier of flour in hope that the representatives would disclose information that otherwise they would unlikely disclose?

2. Did Nurlan act correctly when he disclosed violation of Internal Policy of the Factory in relation to consumption of alcoholic drinks during negotiations in his report?

3. Did Nurlan act ethically when he disclosed violation of Internal Policy of the Factory in relation to consumption of alcoholic drinks during negotiations in his report, if he agreed with the Head of Procurement Department that obtained information was more important than committed violation?

4. Did the head of the shift of the Manufacturing Department act correctly when he continued production of baked goods to deliver them in full quantity and predetermined time to grocery stores despite of breakdown of dough doser and possible errors in doses?

5. Did Nurlan act correctly when he disclosed violation in dough usage reports to top management?

6. Did Nurlan act ethically when he disclosed violation in dough usage reports to top management, if he was agree with correctness of the decision made by the head of the shift?

7. Did Nurlan act correctly when he disclosed lack of money in a factory’s cash funds to top management?

8. Did Nurlan act ethically when he disclosed lack of money in a factory’s cash funds to top management?

9. How would you suggest Nurlan to resolve his dilemma?