Suppose Kelvin has seven controls listed as the top tier of project initiatives.

Question

Suppose Kelvin has seven controls listed as the top tier of project initiatives. At his next meeting with Charlie, he provides a rank-ordered list of these controls with projected losses over the next 10 years for each if it is not completed. Also, he has estimated the 10-year cost for developing, implementing, and operating each control. Kelvin has identifie three controls as being the most advantageous for the organization in his opinion. As he prepared the slides for the meeting, he “adjusted” most projected losses upward to the top end of the range estimate given by the consultant who prepared the data. For the projected costs of his preferred controls, he chose to use the lowest end of the range provided by the consultant.

Do you think Kelvin has had an ethical lapse by cherry-picking the data for his presentation?

Suppose that instead of choosing data from the range provided by the consultant, Kelvin simply made up better numbers for his favorite initiatives. Is this an ethical lapse?

Suppose Kelvin has a close friend who works for a firm that makes and sells software for a specific control objective on the list. When Kelvin prioritized the list of his preferences, he made sure that specific control was at the top of the list. Kelvin planned to provide his friend with internal design specifications and the assessment criteria to be used for vendor selection for the initiative.

Has Kelvin committed an ethical lapse?

Explanation / Answer

What is ethical lapse?

An ethical lapse is mistake or error in judgement which have negative consequences on either outcome or in process. We might say that it doesn’t necessarily means a complete lack of integrity but an oversight while taking decision without proper consultation or facts.

Now for the questions

Do you think Kelvin has had an ethical lapse by cherry-picking the data for his presentation?

Clearly Kelvin is favoring his selection by deliberately choosing lower end of loss projections rather than going by mean value across for all the initiatives. This is ethically wrong and might or might not cost the company in short run, but will pave way for negative consequences in longer run.

Suppose that instead of choosing data from the range provided by the consultant, Kelvin simply made up better numbers for his favorite initiatives. Is this an ethical lapse?

This is not only ethical lapse but is against policy for any well-run company where any employee cannot fabricate any data to suit his/her selection. It’s downright illegal.

Suppose Kelvin has a close friend who works for a firm that makes and sells software for a specific control objective on the list. When Kelvin prioritized the list of his preferences, he made sure that specific control was at the top of the list. Kelvin planned to provide his friend with internal design specifications and the assessment criteria to be used for vendor selection for the initiative.

Has Kelvin committed an ethical lapse?

Again, this is not only lapse in ethical sense but is illegal to share sensitive private information for personal gain. This can easily come under the purview of legal action against Kelvin, as we clearly see, he supplied internal data to his friend and promoted those selection within his company.

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