You are a staff accountant with Munson-Libra Industries, a multinational company that manufactured and sold orthopedic devices. After the fiscal year-end, you are working with the controller to prepare the geographic disclosures. Yesterday you presented the controller with the following summary information:

 ($ in millions) 

Domestic Libya Egypt France Cayman Island

Revenues $845 $222 $265 $343 $2,311

Operating income $145 $76 $88 $21 $642

Assets $1,005 $301 $290 $38 $285

Today, you find the following memo on your desk:

 

Great job! Let's combine the data like this:

 ($ in millions)

Domestic Africa Europe & other foreign

Revenues $845 $487 $2,654

Operating income $145 $164 $663

Assets $1,005 $591 $323

Because of political instability in North Africa, let's not disclose specific countries. In addition, we restructured most of our French sales and some of our U.S. sales to occur through our offices in the Cayman Islands. This allows us to avoid paying higher taxes in those countries. The Cayman Islands has a 0% corporate income tax rate. We don't want to highlight our ability to shift profits to avoid taxes.

 

 

Analyze the ethical dilemma presented above by using the Analytical Model for Ethical Decisions (pp. 18-19 in your text).

1. Determine the facts of the situation (the who, what, where, when, and how).
2. Identify the ethical issue and the stakeholders.
3. Identify the values related to the situation.
4. Specify the alternative courses of action.
5. Evaluate the courses of action in terms of their consistency with the values identified in step 3.
6. Identify the consequences of each possible course of action.
7. Make your decision