Kim Emighs Ethical Dilemma and Moral Courage - Essay Example

Kim Emigh’s Ethical Dilemma and Moral Courage Working as a mere budget and financial analyst at United s second largest phone company, WorldCom, it takes a lot of courage to pick up the phone and call a big boss and directly say, 'Frank, this is fraud, it is pure and simple, it is going to result in tax fraud. There will be SEC violations and you need to make everybody aware of it. It was audacious because he was not just being direct at admonishing a superior of a wrongdoing but also told him directly to make the authorities aware of it.

In so doing, he jeopardized not only his career, which later proved that action to be fatal as he was fired, but also his relationship with other fellow workers. He also ran the danger of being fired which later happened but under the guise of corporate reduction, as he was directly telling his superiors that “you are doing a criminal act” and you will be reported. Although Kim Emigh’s admonishment to his superior to make the authorities be made aware of it didn’t exactly happened as he was later fired, the gesture just showed personal integrity and an unbending professionalism on Kim Emigh’s part not to commit nor be a part of any fraud adhering to the ethical principle of his profession to be objective and not to misrepresent nor falsify any accounting records no matter who you are going against or fight with.

He a may be a man of integrity but paid a great price for it. For 14 months after he was fired, he was left unemployed that he had to cash in with his daughter’s college fund. That is a very difficult thing to do for any father because it jeopardizes the future of his daughter which he had previously prepared.