Business Proposal - Organizational Ethics

Organizational problem

Organizational Ethics

The most affected stakeholder by the problem

The problem is most likely to affect the company staff, shareholders as well as customers. The Cross-selling scandal means fewer earnings for the shareholder, who are the critical beneficiaries of the profits attained through daily transactions (Tayan, 2019). The money lost at the course of the scandal will significantly reduce regular earnings. Customers of the bank are also other victims of the problem; the bank staff uses unethical means to exploit money from customers when unable to meet their daily targets.

The employees of the company were also affected by the problem; those found guilty of opening new accounts without customer permission were laid off their duties. Opening of unauthorized customer accounts was fueled by high targets, which were set by the management (Klemash et al. 2019).

Type of the problem

The problem is based on self-interests, knowledge, and skills among the staff and poor organizational structure (Klemash et al. 2019). The action of the bank staff to exploit money from the customers to attain their daily targets is entirely unethical.

Suspect causes

Among the critical causes of the problem are the splitting of customer deposits, overbearing sales culture, employees’ misconducts, excessive pressure of employees by the top management, and Illicit practices (Tayan, 2019).

Improvement goal and the long-term impact

The main goal is to identify a solution to the five leading causes of the scandal, which will help prevent the company staff from participating in any unethical practice that is not in line with its goals.

Impacts to the stakeholders

The cross-selling scandal has caused significant loss of finances to both customers and company shareholders.

Customers were able to lose significant amounts of money, which was withdrawn from their accounts without their consent.

Solution proposal

The company should consider making the roles of different executive directors clear. Having a clear and distinct role will help in holding individual staff accountable. Caution employees from doing any form of the transaction without customers' permission.

Those found guilty of exploiting customers for self-interests should be laid off their duties and prosecuted in a court of law.

Final problem statement

The cross-selling cases which go against organizational ethics have highly increased among the bank employees. The targets set by the management are putting employees under pressure to perform. Pressure cause employees to involve these acts to meet the set goals.

References

Tayan, B. (2019). The Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal. Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University Closer Look Series: Topics, Issues, and Controversies in Corporate Governance No. CGRP-62 Version, 2, 17-1.

Klamath Stephen, Jennifer Lee, and Jamie Smith. 2019. Human Capital: Key Findings from a Survey of Public Company Directors Retrieved from https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/