Question

Scenario Two: (1000 Words)

Luke and Zane are two audit seniors working for the same Big Four accounting firm. Both started employment with the firm around the same time. They have mutual respect for each other; however, they have been highly competitive since they commenced work together. Luke has recently married and he and his wife are paying off their mortgage. Zane is single with a reputation in the firm for playing hard but working hard too. They have both been seniors for almost 18 months and are looking for promotion to audit supervisor. They are both aware that there is only one supervisor position available. Luke recently replaced Zane on a particular job, and the reason given to both Luke and Zane was that another assignment had arisen with a long-time client of Zane's. Once Luke had replaced Zane on that particular job, he realised that the client had called the audit manager to say that they were not impressed with Zane, as he had missed a number of issues within the audit and was arriving at work late. The audit manager had not discussed these comments with either Luke or Zane. After going through the work that Zane had completed, Luke realised that Zane had performed an excellent job, identifying a number of issues that he thought he might possibly have missed. Furthermore, Luke suspects that Zane and the client had a personality conflict, and that the client has misled the audit manager. Luke realises that he can finish off the audit, resolve the issues and obtain a good review from this assignment, which would help him in the promotion stakes. He also knows that the audit manager is unlikely to bring the client's unsupported allegations to Zane's attention.

Required

(a) Work through this scenario using the American Accounting Association decision making model, and decide what action Luke should take.

(b) Would your decision be any different if you used the Mary Guy decision-making 2 model?

Answer 1