The Dilemma of an Accountant

The Dilemma of an Accountant
Studying the ethic case the dilemma is whether Dan Potter, who was assigned to an audit assignment should go by the audit and guidelines or whether he should disregard the ethical standards and continue to follow the instructions of his immediate boss. Dan Potter is working as a staff accountant at Baker Greenleaf. Dan final had an opportunity on first major audit assignment. This assignment required him to work under the supervision of his senior, Oliver Freeman, on an audit for a client's subsidiary. The Big Eight Firms shares the work. At the start of the work, Gene, his assistant, told Dan that Oliver was a strict authoritarian and a very inflexible man. During the course of the audit, Dan came across a material misstatement that legally required him to issue an "except for" opinion but his supervisor insisted on issuing a clean audit opinion, upon which Dan had several heated arguments with his supervisor. These events led Dan to question whether he should do as instructed by his supervisor or follow the codes on ethics and professional integrity.
The four main stakeholders involved in the case are. The first stakeholder is Dan, who wants to pursue a career free from professional misconducts. His goal is to carry out work honestly and according to the highest quality standards. He seems to have no compromise policy when it concerns applying business ethics and by doing so his main interest is maintaining the excellent reputation of his employer and securing an early promotion for himself. The second stakeholder is Oliver Freeman, who wants to maintain his supremacy over his subordinates, keeping good relations with the client and showing his loyalty to Baker Greenleaf by securing the client wholly for the firm. The third stakeholder is the client's management, who has a material misstatement in its accounts but is nevertheless interesting in obtaining a clean audit report for its subsidiary. The final stakeholder is Baker