Case Study Scenario Questions

When your companys annual report was delivered to you today (a Friday), you noticed that a crucial not was omitted from an important statement. The missing word reverses the intended meaning of a summary statement about company finances. You have only until Monday to meet the SECs deadline for mailing the reports. You check your original text submitted to the printer and find that the mistake is not in the original. It is now 4:00 p.m.

1. Which statement below best describes your responsibility?

A. Since you provided correct information to the printer, you are not responsible.

B. You have a legal, but not an ethical responsibility.

C. You have an ethical, but not a legal responsibility.

D. You have both an ethical and a legal responsibility to correct the mistake before distribution.

E. You have neither an ethical nor legal responsibility to correct the mistake, but would in order to defer negative consequences from your superiors.

2. What would you do?

A. Mail the annual reports as they are, figuring few would notice the error.

B. Make the printer reprint them free to correct the error even though it will delay your mailing by two weeks.

C. Have the printer print an insert free and spend the weekend inserting them in order to make your Monday deadline.

D. Pay the printer to print an insert and pay your staff overtime over the weekend to insert them in order to make your Monday deadline.

E. Forget the whole thing and trash the annual reports.