EMPLOYEE MISCONDUCT

You are the sales manager for a multinational company, with reason to suspect that one of your top salespeople, Arnold, is not always playing by the rules. You have the following evidence of this:

• He submitted questionable expenses and offered sales incentives to buyers that are not approved by the company.
• At the end of last year, you discovered that Arnold falsely submitted a large order so he could make his sales quota for the year.
• In mid-January, he submitted product return paperwork before the product was shipped. Because the month end accounting was complete, he was paid a bonus on this false order.

You have overlooked things in the past because Arnold has grossed the highest sales revenue in the company for the past five years.

Address one or more of the following questions:

• What are the issues that are raised in the case?
• As Arnold's sales manager, what will you do? Should you reprimand him, retrain him, or hire him? Why?
• How can you avoid these types of issues in the first place for all sales representatives?
• What technology solutions could you use to address this concern when managing a global sales organization? For example, what if you were in the United States and Arnold was in Mexico?