PROFESSIONAL ETHICS. Ethical behavior is essential to the conduct of business activity. Consider each of the following business behaviors:

1. A controller prepares financial statements that grossly overstate the performance of the business.

2. A CPA resigns from an audit engagement rather than allow a business client to violate accounting standards.

3. An internal auditor decides against confronting an employee of the business with minor violations of business policy. The employee is a former college classmate of the auditor.

4, A tax consultant advises his client on ways to legally minimize tax payments to the government.
5. A manager legally reduces the price of a product to secure a larger share of the market.
6. Managers of several large companies secretly meet to plan price reductions designed to drive up-and-coming competitors out of the market.
7. A staff accountant treats as confidential details of her employer’s legal operations that would be of interest to the public.
8. A recently dismissed staff accountant tells competitors details about her former employer’s operations as she seeks a new job.
REQUIRED:
From the viewpoint of most people in the United States, identify each behavior as ethical (E) or unethical (U). Simply make a list of the numbers 1 through 8 and write E or U beside each number.