Vicarious liability???? More and more when something goes awry, lawyers are suing everyone and everything that had a finger in the pie, right down to the individual and then letting the court sort it out. The 'book' may direct an individual to do something unethical. The company would seem to be at fault, but I would think vicarios liability doesn't necessarily let off the individual for knowingly doing something that a reasonable person would determine to be injurous or unethical. Either way, if named in a lawsuit, the cost to the individual while the court sorts out blame wouldn't be cheap.
"My boss told me to jump in the fire."