Question

Scott Bestor is an accountant for Westfield Company. Early this year, Scott made a highly favorable projection of sales and profits over the next 3 years for Westfield's hot-selling computer PLEX. As a result of the projections Scott presented to senior management, the company decided to expand production in this area. This decision led to dislocations of some plant personnel who were reassigned to one of the company's newer plants in another state. However, no one was fired, and in fact the company expanded its workforce slightly. Unfortunately, Scott rechecked his projection computations a few months later and found that he had made an error that would have reduced his projections substantially. Luckily, sales of PLEX have exceeded projections so far, and management is satisfied with its decision. Scott, however, is not sure what to do. Should he confess his honest mistake and jeopardize his possible promotion

Answer 1

Answer:

Scott Bestor should confess his honest mistake.

Explanation:

Two of most important attributes that are required from an accountant are integrity and trustworthiness.

Refusing to tell the management his honest mistake in order not jeopardize his possible promotion is a short-run gain to him. But confessing his honest mistake has a long run gain as this will preserve his integrity and trustworthiness forever. In addition, it is unethical and a sign of disloyalty for an accountant not to disclose all the information relevant to the company based on his position as an account.

Therefore, Scott Bestor should confess his honest mistake rather than sacrificing his integrity and trustworthiness as well as the ethic of his profession for a short-term gain (i.e. promotion).