Cindy's path to business school through management consulting experience

Abstract
This paper will analyze a particular case scenario and address the ethical issues presented for both the employee and the organization. A resolution to the issue will be proposed, which can help prevent similar future ethical scenarios. Case Background
Cindy has been employed with TA (Total Associates), a downtown city management consultancy company, for the past three years. She aspires to enroll in a graduate business institution a year from now, and has begun the application formalities already. According to her workplace's policy, personnel who work after regular office hours can arrange for their dinner at the company's expense Furthermore, the worker is allowed to take an Uber or cab home at the company's expense, as well. Cindy remains at her work place on a regular basis until 8:00pm, even if her work does not require it, and orders food more than sufficient for her dinner, whose leftovers she can retain for the following day's lunch. Occasionally, her boyfriend shows up at the workplace for dinner and Cindy hires a cab/Uber to get them both to his home, at the company's expense. She does this frequently despite the double Uber/cab fare to his home, as compared to Cindy's. Lastly, Cindy remains at the office late when working on her college applications, using company equipment for printing out and copying applications. Ethical Issues for Cindy
Substantial evidence from literature suggests that people working long hours, or on regular unconventional shifts (for instance, evening and night shifts), are highly prone to sickness and injury. Additionally, researchers have revealed that fatigue-linked errors among workers with highly-demanding work schedules have potential serious and negative public safety consequences. Consequently, bearing the above concerns in mind, the U.S. is witnessing increased support for novel protective legislation, for instance, for restricting work hours in the nursing and overall healthcare field. Cindy may become susceptible to the aforementioned effects owing to her unnecessary late hours at work. A second ethical issue for Cindy is her taking advantage of company benefits (food bill and Uber/cab fare at TA's expense, not just for herself but for her boyfriend, as well). Ethical Issues for TA
TA may face certain ethical consequences for reimbursing employee dinner and cab-service expenses (Writer Thoughts). No checks are in place to ensure the workforce doesn't take advantage of these facilities and run TA dry. Fraud is a more than possible occurrence. A recent Association of Certified Fraud Examiners research disclosed that illegitimate expenses account for roughly 14% of corporate asset misappropriation, leading to average losses of 30,000 dollars. For instance, with company credit cards (Poladian), even when personnel do not utilize them to make personal purchases, the company's bill might be higher as credit cards make spending (often unnecessary) money easy. The presence of a credit card in one's wallet could make a company representative book a pricier hotel or visit a pricier restaurant for a client lunch. Unnecessary expenses can be prevented by detailing appropriate expenses (which includes hotel ratings, meal guidelines, airfare class, and restaurant gratuity limits) in one's expense account policy (Dembe, 2009). Problem Resolution and Avoidance of Similar Issues in the Future
Although policies and laws haven't exactly changed with respect to where corporations can spend money and where they can't, employers are increasingly dependent on back-end approvals and automation for ensuring the process flows smoothly and for policy execution without micromanaging personnel. Corporations are increasingly leveraging organizational culture by providing personnel simple guidelines and mobile apps such as Concur, followed by enabling them to choose ethically, instead of overwhelming them with extensive approval procedures (Open at work: responsibility in company culture is changing spend management -- Concur). Expenses are captured at their time of occurrence, often with a cellphone-camera snap, and itemized subsequently for audit. This way, the workforce is given an incentive to do what is right, as they know of the charge-checking-before-payment procedure, and are driven by cultural standards, as well. This would be an effective way to go about resolving Cindy's problem, and ensuring such issues do not crop up in the future.

References

(2015). Business Travel & Expense Management - Concur. Open at work: responsibility in company culture is changing spend management - Concur. Retrieved September 8, 2016, from http://www.concur.com/newsroom/article/company-culture-responsibility-spend

Dembe, A. (2009). Ethical Issues Relating to the Health Effects of Long Working Hour. Journal of Business Ethics, 84(2). Retrieved, from http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10551-008-9700-9

Poladian. (n.d.). Accounting Software for Small Business - Intuit Quickbooks. Should You Give Employees Corporate Credit Cards? Retrieved September 8, 2016, from http://quickbooks.intuit.com/r/cash-flow/should-you-give-employees-corporate-credit-cards/

Writer Thoughts