Question

Glenda Good and Danny Rock are department managers in the housewares and shoe departments, respectively, for Litwins, a large department store. Danny has observed Glenda taking inventory from her own department home, apparently without paying for it. He hesitates confronting Glenda because he is due to be promoted, and needs Glenda's recommendation. He also does not want to notify the company management directly, because he doesn't want an ethics investigation on his record, believing that it will give him a “goody-goody” image. This week, Glenda tried on several pairs of expensive running shoes in his department before finding a pair that suited her. She did not, however, buy them. That very pair was missing this morning.

Litwins recently replaced its old periodic inventory system with a perpetual inventory system using scanners and bar codes. In addition, the annual inventory is to be replaced by a monthly inventory conducted by an independent firm. On hearing the news of the changes, Danny relaxes. "The system will catch Glenda now," he says to himself.

Required:

1. Is Danny's attitude justified? Why or why not?
2. What, if any, action should Danny take now?

Answer 1

In this new inventory management system, bar codes and scanners are present which is used to track where the inventory is kep and if someone tried to steal then the scanners will pull an alarm notifying the security about the theif. Monthly inventory is far better than keeping an annual inventory as more inventory pushes more chances of theft. Danny's attitude is justified to some extent because he does not have to complaint to his seniors, the better inventory system and security will lead Glenda to discontinue stealing and if tried she will be caught.

Danny should confront Glenda and talk about this new safety mechanism and how good it is to catch a theif and also he should tell Glenda that he knows about her stealing the inventory and he will not report to anyone but she should discontinue this endeavor immediately.