Question

"Doing Bad to Do Good"

Caroline ran a small consultancy firm that specialized in offering

business support services to local community organizations and social enterprises. Caroline grew up in the local community where she worked and members of her extended family still lived there. Her first job was as a community economic development worker, facilitating the development of social enterprises within the community. Over the past 20 years, Caroline had worked with (and for) many community and state organizations and had a reputation as a conscientious, trustworthy and ethical consultant.

Even though the community organizations or social enterprises were Caroline's direct clients in her consultancy business, often the funding for the work came from program-based local state funding agencies or corporate donors. In addition to writing business plans and providing financial accounts and marketing services, Caroline was often asked to provide program evaluation services. For this work, Caroline was hired by the community organization (under contract) to carry out an evaluation of that organization's programs. Her fee, however, was arranged and paid directly by the state agency in order to facilitate transparency.

Caroline had been asked by a state agency to carry out a financial evaluation of a community organization that worked with severely disabled clients and assisted them with their applications for state financial income and medical support. Without the assistance of the community organization, whose employees and volunteers worked tirelessly to help their clients 24/7, the majority of these individuals would be unable to live above the poverty line.

While conducting the evaluation, Caroline learned that in some cases the information provided on the client's application for statutory support was exaggerated in order to secure the highest allotment of funding for the client. When confronted, the Director of the community organization admitted that on occasions, his employees inflated some disabilities so that their clients would not lose out financially. He admitted that this was an unwritten policy of the organization. His rationale for this was that the state agency's criteria for the benefits meant that his employees must "do bad to do good" for their clients. Caroline knew the community organization very well, and held its employees in the highest regard. She knew that the employees collectively held substantial knowledge and experience in the field and were competent and highly motivated towards achieving the social mission of the organization. She also realized that without the services offered by the community organization and the state benefits, their clients would be in dire financial need.

Under the terms of reference for the evaluation, Caroline was required to report on the application process carried out between the community organization and its clients. If she revealed this "doing bad to do good" practice, it could have a catastrophic effect on the reputation of the community organization and its employees. If Caroline did not report on the practice, and at a later point the fraudulent activities of the community organization became known, Caroline's reputation as an independent and trustworthy consultant could come under scrutiny which could end her business and her relationship with state agencies. Caroline knew what she wanted to do but how could she highlight the application problems, without sacrificing the clients' much needed funds and without risking the Director's position in the community organization?

1. What levers/responses can Caroline use to enable her to act on her values in a way that maximizes the positive impact and minimizes negative outcomes for all parties?

Answer 1

Caroline must write about the application problems in the report along with all the positive points she found in the community organization. For any firm ethics are the most important and they are to be followed. Caroline must stand by her ethics and report the problem. But she can do it in a smooth manner by adding suggestions to solve the issue and giving positive points about the organization which helps it rectify the mistake and not disturb it's reputation and at the same time Caroline will have the satisfaction of they way she did the work . So by doing this she can ensure both the sides have positive impact and minimized negative impact.