Lying For Your Company

I was posed with an interesting question.  What do you do when your boss tells you to lie to a customer/client?  I'll make this easy for you, sometimes you are the Captain of your ship and you control your destiny and other times you have to get in the boat and row. However I would still try to diplomatically avoid this situation.  You may want to ask your manager what he/she is trying to achieve with this falsehood or what do we gain from this lie. If the manager can see there is little gain hopefully it will alter his/her decision.  Another question you may want to ask is what will the customer do if they become aware that they were lied to and who will be held responsible for this ethical breach?  If these two questions do not bring your manager around you probably don't have a choice but to support him/her.  I can tell you that I was once in this position and my manager flat out told me that I would be the one held accountable.  As I dusted off my resume I was grateful that he did not lie.  If this is the case  you should aggressively look for work at another company or another department to avoid further ethical considerations.  The bottom line is if you are asked to lie what is next, what if he/she lies to you, or what if things go wrong and you are targeted as the source of the misinformation.  I know you have heard the phrase "being thrown under the bus."  I assure you it will happen sooner or later.