Daniel Potter Case

Daniel Potter, a young accountant with a bright future at Baker Greenleaf is

presented with a moral dilemma at his job. Daniel is a strong and driven individual with

three core moral values, all of which he holds quite dear. First, Daniel believes that

Capitalism, the current system in place that is governed by checks and balances within an

entity, is the best form of governing a company and that the United States is the best

country in the world because it upholds that Capitalistic principle. Second, Daniel has

incredible loyalty towards his superiors and greatly respects their opinions. He also has

great respect for the clients and believes that by providing excellent service to them,

Baker Greenleaf will be a successful firm. Third, Daniel has high standards for personal

morals which are derived from the Code of Ethics set by the American Institute of

Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), his Protestant religion, and his own beliefs and

opinions. The dilemma that is presented to Daniel clashes with his three core values and

Daniel must take organized steps to get out of the mess he is in. Daniel, in the order

presented, must write a letter to Senator Lee Metcalf, gain the support of his co-workers,

write a letter to the superior of Oliver, then, as a last resort, contact the Securities

Exchange Commission.

Daniel’s confrontation, and the antagonist in our story, is Oliver Freeman. Oliver

has one goal at Baker Greenleaf and that is to make money for the Firm and to make his

clients happy. His frustrations are drawn from Daniel’s reluctance to do anything to

satisfy the Firm’s clients and Daniel’s willingness to voice his opinions and confront his

stubborn decision-making. In Oliver’s view, Daniel is protesting to what Oliver expects

of him, and Oliver is asking him to do something that is normal practice as far as he is
concerned.

Daniel is stuck in a messy situation, and he would feel like he needs to prioritize

his values, but he does not need to do that immediately. He must carefully take proactive

steps to get out of the mess got himself into, and his goals should be to separate himself

from the case that was assigned to him, understand the underlying practices at Baker

Greenleaf, hold onto all the integrity he possibly can at the firm, and to retain his most

prized ethic of all, his personal morals.

The first step of action Daniel should take is to try and get in contact with Senator

Lee Metcalf, preferably by phone, and ask him for specific advice on how one should

deal with a situation he is in. Senator Metcalf has no direct connection with the

company, and he could provide Daniel with great advice. Daniel does not believe in

nationalizing the accounting industry and he believes the Capitalist system with checks

and balances is the best system. Daniel is not throwing away this value by seeking

advice from the Senator because at this point, the confliction he faces is with one

corrupted person in an entire Firm. To avoid having Senator Metcalf use his example

publicly and as an example for nationalizing the accounting industry, Daniel would

describe his situation in third person, and present it as a puzzle for the Senator, or how

such a problem could be fixed. Any response from the Senator would be very helpful for

Daniel in making the right course of action, and preventing him from making any foolish

mistakes.

Daniel should then try and contact co-workers at his level that have worked on

similar projects. He should try to figure out what steps they took to solve issues like his

and if any of their steps violated the Code of ethics of the AICPA. If possible, he should
gain the support of these co-workers to make his appeal more organized and stronger.

Daniel should then be prepared to write a letter to the Superior of Oliver. This

letter would describe the entire situation Daniel is in, and he should describe how going

to the superior of his own superior is the only person who could possibly help him with

his dilemma since there is no independent review board for him to appeal to. He should

go on to say how he understands that he is young and has a lot to learn about company

operations, but at the same time he is concerned with the well being and security of the

company as this type of situation, if caught by authorities, could destroy the company and

cause every single person at Baker Greenleaf to lose their jobs. The priorities of people

who run the company, such as Oliver’s superior, is to make money for the firm, but

unlike Oliver, they want to keep the integrity of the company and keep it away from

dangerous waters. Using Kant’s theory of doing what is best for the stakeholders, it is

best to not make the client happy when it comes at great risk to the organization as a

whole. It is better for the stakeholders to have a minor drop in profit than to have the

entire firm shut down due to illegal operations. People like Oliver’s superior should

understand that there are many other clients they work with and they know that they

cannot depend on illegal methods to run a successful firm.

My reasoning for why Daniel should write such a bold and aggressive letter to a

superior of his superior is that he knows that he is valued at Baker Greenleaf and people

will listen to his opinion. He graduated from an Ivy League school and they trust him

enough to let him recruit graduates from Ivy League schools to work at Baker Greenleaf.

Even though it is a slippery slope to try and contact someone higher up the company

ladder, they have more concern with company policy and the overall well being of the
firm than people like Oliver. They will listen and have concern with Daniel’s case if they

understand that that they, as leaders of the company, will bear the most responsibility if

the Firm is convicted of accounting fraud. They would also realize that it would take a

lot of guts from Daniel to bring up such an issue with the risk of lowering his own

reputation further in the firm and they should respect Daniel for his bravery and morality.

One action Daniel should not take is talking to Oliver about the situation any

further. Oliver could not have made it clearer that he is not changing his mind about the

case and the way he has handled it. Daniel could tell Oliver that he is going to contact his

supervisor, but if Oliver would be willing to remove Daniel’s opinion from the files and

replace it with a false one that still had Daniel’s name on it, then why would he not be

willing to blackmail Daniel and do everything he could to give him a further bad

reputation in the firm? The first person that contacts Oliver’s advisor has an advantage

because they are the ones who would appear to have the most concern for the Firm and

the situation.

If the superior of Oliver reacts negatively to Daniel’s letter, and has a view that

the firm’s operations should be run in a similar way to Oliver’s view, then Daniel has to

follow through with his painful action of last resort. He should contact the Securities

Exchange Commission and let them know about the situation he faces in his Company,

and the Firm’s illegal practices. In doing so, he would violate his belief that the

Capitalism system is the best system, because he would be resorting to federal support to

solve his problems and not the check balance forces that should exist, in his mind, in an

accounting firm. Also he would be violating his belief in respecting his superior and

serving the needs of his clients by going completely over all of his supervisor’s heads and
accusing them of fraud. This last resort action for Daniel would only benefit his self-

interests, but it is the only way he can save his own personal morals. If he does not take

such an action, he will be conforming to the firm’s practices and he would be just as

guilty as Oliver in his practices. He would respect a superior who is an un-convicted

criminal, and live by a Capitalistic system that profits from fraud. Knowing that he is

guilty of fraud would live with Daniel for the rest of his life and he would have

permanently violated his personal morals, the most sacred of his ethics.

Daniel must go into his dilemma promising himself that he will stay true to his

beliefs and he must always do what he believes is morally right. The greatest harm he

can do to himself is reject his morals and have to live his life knowing that because of

people like him, people like Senator Metcalf call for nationalization of the Accounting

Industry. He also will always know that there is a chance that someone with stronger

morals than him will stand up to Oliver and the Firm and expose all criminal behavior

that has occurred in the Firm. As long as Daniel sticks with his values throughout the

process, he will get out of his dilemma happy and true to himself.