M. K. Gallant is president of Kranbrack Corporation, a company whose stock is traded on a national exchange. In a meeting with investment analysts at the beginning of the year, Gallant had predicted that the company's earnings would grow by 20% this year.

Unfortunately, sales have been less than expected for the year, and Gallant concluded within two weeks of the end of the fiscal year that would be impossible to report an increase in earnings as large as predicted unless some drastic action was taken. Accordingly, Gallant I ordered that wherever possible, expenditures should be postponed to the new year-including canceling or postponing orders with suppliers, delaying planned maintenance and training, and cutting back on end-of-year advertising and travel. Additionally, Gallant ordered the company's controller to carefully scrutinize all costs currently classified as period costs and reclassify as many as possible a product costs. The company is expected to have substantial inventories at the end of the year.

Use the above ethical case to respond to the below questions:

What is the ethical issue?

What are the available options?

What are the possible consequences?

What should the manager(s) do?