Harry Plimpton is an accountant for Handley Company. Early this year, Harry made a highly favorable projection of sales and profits over the next 3 years for Handley’s hot-selling computer PLEX. As a result of the projections Harry presented to senior management, the company decided to expand production in this area. This decision led to dislocations of some plant personnel who were reassigned to one of the company’s newer plants in another state. However, no one was fired, and in fact the company expanded its work force slightly.

Unfortunately, Harry rechecked his computations on the projections a few months later and found that he had made an error that would have reduced his projections substantially. Luckily, sales of PLEX have exceeded projections so far, and management is satisfied with its decision. Harry, however, is not sure what to do. Should he confess his honest mistake and jeopardize his possible promotion? He suspects that no one will catch the error because sales of PLEX have exceeded his projections, and it appears that profits will materialize close to his projections.

Instructions

(a) Who are the stakeholders in this situation?

(b) Identify the ethical issues involved in this situation.

(c) What are the possible alternative actions for Harry? What would you do in Harry’s position?