Product Overview

This case is part of the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum. To see other material in the GVV curriculum, please visit http://store.darden.virginia.edu/giving-voice-to-values. In 2009, Ricardo Martinez, management assistant at Premium Capital Investment Advisors (PCIA), was asked to fabricate some of the information to be included in the monthly account balance statements addressed to five shareholders in Premium Capital Funds (Premium), a piece within a complex network of firms founded by Interbolsa, the largest brokerage firm in Colombia. The request, Martinez had been told by his supervisor, "came from the top." Martinez found himself at a crossroads: however outrageous the order was, refusing to obey it would certainly have negative consequences for his immediate future and medium-term career. Reporting the issue to the authorities appeared as though it would be totally useless—and yet, obeying was out of question. What, then, could he do to try to stop this falsification from happening?

Learning Objectives

The field-based A case challenges students to step into Martinez's shoes and figure out an action plan aiming not only to keep himself from getting personally involved in falsifying financial information but also to prevent the falsification from happening at all. Learning objectives include: - Helping student recognize the contextual factors underlying an ethical issue, including the stakes, interests, and potential rationalizations of the various people involved. - Helping students analyze the individual factors affecting ethical acting by someone facing an ethical issue: the potential for alignment between their own interests and those of other stakeholders, the personal risks involved, and the resources they can draw on. - Helping students practice developing action plans designed to raise their chances of being effective when solving an ethical issue. - Helping students practice giving feedback to other people regarding their own action plans influenced by their values.