Unethical Standard-Setting Behavior
Corporate unethical standard-setting practices adversely affect the corporate culture and internal and external stakeholders, including customers, employees, and vendors. The consequences of unethical behavior towards customers include poor utilization of organizational resources, low-quality products, unsatisfied customers, ruining the public image, the deletion of shareholder wealth, loss of market share, and bankruptcy (Kouchaki & Wareham, 2015). The poor utilization of a company’s resources is attributed to the misappropriation of funds, equipment, inventories, and even products. Misusing a company’s resources prevents the firm from accomplishing its long-term goals. Low-quality products stem from product quality and safety fabrication, which results in deceiving the customers. It also involves using low-quality raw materials and low-grade items in producing goods and services, leading to poor-quality products. On the same note, unethical practices entail submitting false invoices to clients and engaging in deceptive marketing practices that set unrealistic expectations in customers.
Unethical practices may also ruin the company’s public image by falsifying financial reports during the annual reporting, leading to a loss of public trust. The depletion of shareholders’ wealth results from the misuse of finances raised through equity. These funds are channeled into activities that do not maximize the shareholders’ wealth, such as increasing the top executive salaries and bonuses instead of investing in capital projects to maximize the firm’s returns (Fehr et al., 2020). The malpractices that interfere with the product quality lead to dissatisfied customers, resulting in loss of market share, predisposing the company to financial distress and bankruptcy. Unethical practices may lead to employment discrimination based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, religious belief, sexual orientation, and other aspects. This prejudice manifests during recruitment, promotion, training, and even remuneration. Unethical practices may also lead to sexual harassment, violation of workplace safety rules, wages, and overtime breaches (Fehr, Fulmer, & Keng‐Highberger, 2020). Sexual harassment results from the supervisors’ and managers’ intimidation of low-level employees. These laborers are threatened with losing jobs, deduction of salaries, and denial of promotion opportunities. It also includes pestering, verbal abuse, and physical violence—the violation of employee wages and overtime results in low remuneration. The workers do not receive the proportion of salaries in line with their company’s output. Unethical practices also include infringing the employee’s right to privacy by monitoring their cell phones. These malpractices demoralize the workers, leading to low productivity, which adversely affects the employees’ output.
Unethical practices toward suppliers result from the violation of vendor selection policies, whereby the contracts are awarded to unqualified suppliers. It also includes reimbursing suppliers in the absence of precise invoices and records entering into vendor contracts featuring vague terms and conditions. At the same time, accepting favors from vendors, such as money and inappropriate gifts, is unethical since it inclines the employees to select the suppliers during the prequalification procedure. Furthermore, the violation of supplier contracts and infringing on their intellectual property rights are considered unethical practices. Unethical practices adversely affect supplier relations, leading to unreliability in the supply and delivery of goods, services, and works.
Communication should motivate by informing the workers of their tasks and clarifying their conduct expectations. It also includes feedback on their performance, including the need for improvement. More often than not, unethical practices stem from ineffective communication practices in the organization, whereby the managers fail to clarify the employees’ tasks and roles in the workplace (Fehr et al., 2020). Communication manifests as a source of information to the employees in guiding them in decision-making. In some cases, the workers may engage in unethical practices due to a lack of guidance. In such cases, the company does not highlight the reporting structures and indicate the managers and supervisors in charge of various departments. Thirdly, communication plays a vital role in transforming individual values and attitudes. If a company implements an ethical culture that upholds integrity, it should communicate these values to the employees. This ensures the company instills workers’ corporate values to ensure they adopt the desired conduct. Communication promotes employee socialization in the workplace. The workers’ exchanges are crucial in information exchange. Lastly, communication facilitates the controlling of employees’ behavior in the workplace. Communication informs the workers of the hierarchy, policies, and guidelines they are expected to comply with.
The manipulation of data adversely affects the corporate culture and values since it creates an unethical corporate culture. As a result, the employees are more likely to engage in unethical practices as they perceive it as part of the corporate culture. Data manipulation also adversely affects the company’s brand image, leading to sales loss. This is illustrated by VW’s fabrication of its automobiles” fuel emissions. The company’s engineering department installed software that interfered with the precise reporting of the actual fuel consumption, misleading the customers about their carbon footprint. Subsequently, the company incurred $1.8 billion in losses in lawsuits (Cavico & Mujtaba, 2016). The company also experienced a decline in sales and poor public relations.
References
Cavico, F. J., & Mujtaba, B. G. (2016). Volkswagen Emissions Scandal: A Global Case Study Of Legal, Ethical, And Practical Consequences And Recommendations For Sustainable Management. Global Journal of Research in Business & Management, 4(2), 303-311.
Fehr, R., Fulmer, A., & Keng‐Highberger, F. T. (2020). How do employees react to leaders’ unethical behavior? The role of moral disengagement. Personnel Psychology, 73(1), 73-93.
Kouchaki, M., & Wareham, J. (2015). Excluded and behaving unethically: Social exclusion, physiological responses, and unethical behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(2), 547.
Lawrence, E. R., & Kacmar, K. M. (2017). Exploring the impact of job insecurity on employees’ unethical behavior. Business Ethics Quarterly, 27(1), 39-70.
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Question 
AC420: Cost Accounting I Unit 4 Assignment
Assignment:
Unethical Standard-Setting Behavior
In this assignment. you will be assessed on the following outcome:
- GEL..S.03: Communicate the impact of human expression on the workplace.
It Is Imperative that the reports prepared by accountants have accurate and Complete information. If management or cost accountants are unethical in their business practices, the impact or this will ripple across
many types of stakeholders. Accountants need to understand the implications of unethical behavior as well as the benefits to society of following ethical guidelines. What does manipulation of data express about the culture and values of the workplace or the employee? How may this influence the company culture?
Based on the Chapter 7 reading, analyze the impact of unethical standard-setting behaviors. If management is unethical n its business practices and manipulates financial data In determining cost standards, how will this
Impact the workplace environment and communication standards? What are the consequences for the company and who are the stakeholders that are impacted because of management’s unethical behavior? How would unethical standard setting practices impact both internal users (employees) and external users (for
example, suppliers)? (Ethics; writing) (Include a Word document consisting of 2-3 double-spaced pages for
this writing assignment)
Assignment Checklist
- Examine how corporate unethical standard-setting practices impact the corporate culture and internal and external users.
- Analyze the consequences for the company and the stakeholders impacted by management’s unethical
behavior. - Demonstrate exemplary ability to communicate the impact of human expression on the workplace
environment - Explanation of perspective from the following views such as stockholder, employees, and suppliers.
- Explanation of Interpretation of human expression in the workplace.
- Explain how manipulation of data affects the culture and values of the workplace or the employee?
Explain how this influences the company culture.
Directions for Submitting your Assignment
Be sure to respond to all the questions using the critical elements listed in the Assignment Checklist. Submit your assignment in a separate Word document by the end of the unit by submitting to the Unit 4 Assignment Dropbox.
Make sure to save a copy of your work and be sure to confirm that your file uploaded correctly.
Submit your completed assignment to the Unit 4 Assignment Dropbox. The assignment is due Tuesday 11:59
p.m. ET of their assigned unit.