Professional and Managerial Ethics Caselet Essay

Limaha Inc. is a world-renowned toilet manufacturer founded in 1967. Limaha led the innovation of advanced bathroom utilities and mainly caters to First Class airports and 5-star hotels. The recent Asian economy boom has led to increased demands of Limaha toilet bowls for the business expansion of their loyal clients. In response, the company has decided call for this unprecedented increase in production that must be met as soon as possible.Jenny Panaguiton, the purchasing manager of Limaha’s main office, was tasked to choose a supplier of premium porcelain to be used in the production of their patented No Pressure toilet bowls. This production will include a big production contract with a new posh hotel in the country’s capital whose construction is about to end with the installation of their bathroom fixtures. After careful analysis from 20 suppliers by the purchasing department, Jenny was presented and left to decide between two suppliers: O Mang China and Teddy B. Solutions. O Mang China offered superior porcelain at a high price. This price along with other costs necessary to deliver the porcelain to the production plants was estimated to exceed the company’s budget. Although Limaha can choose to go ahead and allocate more capital for this transaction, it could result to lower company profits if the previously agreed sales price of No Pressure toilet bowls is not increased. If Limaha decides to charge a higher price on their new product, there is a high possibility that the hotel client would back out from the contract and change to another toilet manufacturer for confirmed business ventures next year. Teddy B. Solutions, on the other hand, offered a lower price for the porcelain materials which is well within the company’s budget. Christopher Barrido, the company’s Vice President for Production even greatly encouraged Jenny on choosing Teddy B, as the really low price of the porcelain would bring significant favorable variances in their division’s costs. Not only would their division have a pretty image in front of the Board, there would even be a possible salary increase. He even promised Jenny of a bright future in the company if she makes the right decision. Jenny, however, doubts their VP’s motives, as Christopher would not normally recommend any supplier and would just leave the Purchasing Department on their decisions. She thinks Christopher’s actions have something to do with the generous gifts Christopher has been receiving recently from his long-time friend and classmate, Teddy B. Teddy B’s proposal is highly attractive when just considering the company’s profits. However, the production team who reviewed the samples from Teddy B showed results that were a far cry from O Mang’s porcelain. Materials from Teddy B produced inferior quality toilet bowls. The production team voiced out their concerns through Pie Bread, the production manager. Pie greatly discouraged the use of Teddy B materials to Christopher Barrido, arguing that the use of such materials would greatly affect their quality, and the name of Limaha Inc. could be tarnished through this. They were also very concerned that the hotel might withdraw previous arrangements with Limaha because of the fact that these inferior toilet bowls were simply not appropriate for the posh hotel. Christopher just won’t have any of Pie’s arguments. He argued that the employees under her department were only exaggerating about the quality of the samples. Teddy B has long been in the business of supplying porcelain, so he argued that the problem is not on the materials, but on the workers handling the production who are not being efficient enough to produce at the expected quality. Pie and Christopher’s debate had been long, and word travelled that Pie was even threatened of demotion if results with the Teddy B samples still would not improve. Needless to say, people from production are now pointing daggers to the purchasing department, as their decisions could cause them their jobs. And so Jenny tried to negotiate the price offer of O Mang China and asked for any other possible alternatives their company could have. Its owner, Osmong, however presented her a very outrageous offer. Osmong is her former lover from a very bad and traumatic relationship.  Osmong, feeling bitter, is still deeply in love with Jenny even after she broke up with him six months ago for a number of undisclosed reasons. Since the breakup, Jenny has vowed to never reconcile with this man again. In a desperate attempt to get Jenny back, Osmong offered to significantly reduce their price to go lower than that of Teddy B, if and only if, she agrees to go back together with him again. This new price would mean that there would be no need for a price increase on the No Pressure toilet bowl, and they could even attract more potential long-term customers because of their high-quality products at a really low price.  To add to the list of her worries, Jenny received a note to come to a private meeting in a nearby cafà © with Bea Wing, Limaha’s Internal Auditor. The meeting had been really stressful, as the topic was Teddy B’s alleged recent romantic interest with Jenny. Teddy has been sending Jenny many gifts and invitations to dinners since the start of the year, and they had gone to a few dates. Jenny, however, just treated their relationship as platonic, and concluded that nothing can come out of their business meetings. Bea however would not believe any of it. Bea had been married to Teddy B for three years. Sadly, a gap in their relationship has formed due to their busy schedules. She noticed her husband’s special attention to Jenny, and thought that a possible divorce could be coming to her soon if Jenny continues to â€Å"lead him on† with her business partnerships. Bea thinks that this new materials supplying contract could be the last straw. She later vowed, that if Jenny makes one wrong move on choosing her husband and destroy her marriage, she would definitely destroy her life. Jenny was visibly shaken, given that Bea really has the power to do so, with a few alterations on her department’s financial statement, and some words with Board of Directors regarding her process of choosing the material suppliers. Jenny really has a lot riding in this decision. The company profits, the production employees, her personal relationships, her co-workers, and her own job are at stake in this one important decision of choosing the supplier of porcelain for the No Pressure toilet bowl model. She could not afford to lose her job now, given that it is the only way for her to pay for the medical bills of her five dogs in the hospital. This one decision could make  or break her life. Even more so, she’s not even sure if it is right. What do you think would be the best action to take?