Management 14th Edition by Leslie Rue,Lloyd Byars ,Nabil Ibrahim

Exercise 7

Padding the Expense Account?
Principals:
Rick Bell-residence accounts manager in Midland for United Electric Company. Rick is 25 years old, is considered to have good potential as a manager, and was promoted to his present job one month ago.
Stan Holloway-district manager for United Electric in Midland. He is 33 years old and has been in his present job 2½ years. His district, Midland, has strong political influence in the company, as the current president of United Electric was raised in Midland.
Stan is Rick's boss.
Chester "Chet" House-division manager for United. He is 61 years old and is located at company headquarters about 30 miles from Midland. He is Stan's boss and is also a close personal friend of the president of United.
At 7:45 am on the 28th of March, Rick Bell was preparing to leave Stan Holloway's office after chatting with him for a few minutes about the week's activities.
Rick Bell leaves Stan's office with the itemized list in his hand. During the morning, Rick gives much thought to Stan's request. At about 10 am , Stan calls Rick on the intercom and informs him that he (Stan) won't be able to go to lunch with them (Rick and Chet) that day because the local congressman is making an unscheduled stop in Midland to confer with some selected business leaders on some local issues that will be dominant in the upcoming fall election. He asks Rick to take Chet out to lunch and give him his regrets and to tell Chet that he (Stan) will see them after lunch around 2 pm. When Chet arrives, he and Rick leave for lunch and during the meal, the following conversation ensues:
Rick and Chet finished their meal in relative silence and went back to the office where they met Stan for their conference. After the conference, Rick went back to his office and gave some thought to the events of the day. That evening after work Rick went back to Stan's office with the results of his decision.
Questions
1. What would you have done if you were Rick?
2. Do you agree with Mr. House?s response to Rick?