Question

What are your thoughts? Do you think it will work? Will it be cheaper or more expensive? Inhaled insulin is still not readily available in 2020, what factors do you think could be influencing this? http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/drugmakers-launch-inhaled-insulin-for-needle-phobic-diabetics-1.2219068

Answer 1

The link "ache.org/about-ache/our-story/our-commitments/ethics/ache-code-of-ethics' is for the detailed ethical guidelines published by the american college of healthcare executives.

The guidelines relevant to this case that are applicable to Healthcare Executives are as follows :

• Conduct professional activities with honesty, integrity, respect, fairness and good faith in a manner that will reflect well upon the profession

The Healthcare Executives Responsibilities to the Organization

• Be truthful in all forms of professional and organizational communication, and avoid disseminating information that is false, misleading or deceptive

• Report negative financial and other information promptly and accurately, and initiate appropriate action;

• Prevent fraud and abuse and aggressive accounting practices that may result in disputable financial reports;

• Create an organizational environment in which both clinical and management mistakes are minimized and, when they do occur, are disclosed and addressed effectively

• Implement an organizational code of ethics and monitor compliance

The Healthcare Executive's Responsibilities to Employees

• Creating a work environment that promotes ethical conduct

Discussion Questions :

Q1. I my opinion, Donna's philosophy of treating employees like Family has contribued to this issue, as this had led to a blind trust in what information was being sent to Donna was 100% accurate. Also, owing to this very philosophy there was no " Maker Checker " principle followed - as we dont that in family, we dont second guess our trusted family members - we dont cross question them or their integrity.

Blind trust in a professional setting is un-warranted and un-called for, specially when your business is no loner a smaller one- as in a small business we cant hide things due to the low scale.

Donna's past success/expereinces clubbed stellar reputation of Harry's 30 year work experience gave Donna the confidence that a monthly review should be enough- which is a pitfall of most successful businesses and CEO's, the complecency due to a smooth success ride.

Q2 : However, the issue with this philosophy surfaced when the things were going down and people avoided reporting bad performance, thus what Donna needs to do are 2 things :

1. Segragate responsibility of Managing and reporting to 2 teams, so that we have a "Different Maker - Different Checker" balance in place.

2. Start using alternate KPI's and data points to co-relate overall picture. If some of the business/labs are slowing down then overall profit/revenue should be impacted - and that should be visible in the reported numbers. Overall revenue and fudging is more difficult as the final number needs to tie up with the money in the bank account. The reconcilliation should be a periodic avtivity.

Q3. Harry committed the following violations :

• Be truthful in all forms of professional and organizational communication, and avoid disseminating information that is false, misleading or deceptive

• Report negative financial and other information promptly and accurately, and initiate appropriate action;

• Prevent fraud and abuse and aggressive accounting practices that may result in disputable financial reports;

• Create an organizational environment in which both clinical and management mistakes are minimized and, when they do occur, are disclosed and addressed effectively

Harry's responsibility in this case are as follows:

1. He missed the core business issues of slow down

2. When they surfaced, he inflated the numbers that were shared with the management

3. When people were raising the alarm, he quelled the voices via iron-hand appraoch

4. In Family spirit hiring his son as a full time employee and allowed him to avail all benefits and perks- which is incorrect as his son should have been a part time reseracher

5. Till the end, he was worried about his son loosing the job as one of the main outcome of incorrect and inflated number reporting, signifies the mind set with which he operates

Q4 . Absolutely not, there is no justification for in-correct and in-accurate number reporting. As the saying goes

"There is no 99% honesty".

Harry should have come clean with Donna on the issue, admitted his mistakes and also if possible, genuinely mention the reason for this whole fiasco.

Q5. An organization works well owing to the structure, policies and rules. Thus as a professional , Stan should have looped in harry in the conversation with Donna - as what he was sharing with Donna should be known to Harry as his immediate supervisor.

If the case were that Harry was deliberately hiding information and also asking Stan to keep quite about it, then its very valid to Stan to directly approach Donna and share this.

Q6 . The breach done by harry was wilful and deliberate, there is no question that this was incidental/accidental. Thus Donna should fire harry immediately and set a clear example of intolerance of the organization towards breach od conduct and ethical guidelines. There should not be any other recourse, as these things are never hidden and would be known to employees/stake holders and people at large.

Another approach would be that Donna asks Harry to resign,and the detailed information is shared with Shareholders and Management team only. This is very likely to avoid major confusion, issues and disruption.

Either way, Harry shouldnt be allowed to continue in his current role. If he is allowed to get away, what stops him from doing this again.

Q7. Donna should definitely report this to board.At the same time, She should also report the restated finacials alongwith strategy going forward, changes implemented for monitoring and reporting.

If Donna, were to hide this- then she is doing what Harry did- which is outright ethical and punishable crime. Which essentially goes entirely against the ethics and code of conduct.

Normally,Board should issue a fair warning to Donna with clear mandates on the future outlook. The simple reason that Board shouldnt fire Donna would be her stellar work over 40 years and not a single similar issue was ever reported/occured. Harry has already been let go- thus the leadership at the helm needs to be maintained.

In an extreme situation, as Donna is nearing te retirement time - Board would use this opportunity to initaite succession planning and Donna to continue at the helm till a new leader is onboarded.

Thanks