Consequently, thousands of clients ended up paying or incurred penalties, fees, and interest payments on services they had not procured.
A comprehensive audit of the organization revealed that the employees opened millions of customers’ accounts using their details without their knowledge and consent, sometimes forging their signatures, leading to a $185 million fine (Reuters). However, the firm was recently embroiled in a decade-long scandal, which has been classified as an organization built on a culture of deceit and deception. Wells Fargo, a prominent financial institution in the United States, enjoyed tremendous reputation for ethical practices and excellent management and leadership. The Business Ethics and the Breakdown of Moral Values Although setting goals enhances staff productivity, excessive managerial influence on the workforce may spur inappropriate behavior and the eventual compromise on organizational ethics. The toxic corporate culture was attributed to rigid and indiscriminate targets set by the management and an incentive scheme that stimulated the employees’ desire to earn more through dubious means. An investigation into the long-running fraud revealed that employees falsified clients’ bank records, forged their contacts and signatures, and even transferred funds across accounts to levy service fees (van Rooji and Fine 1). From 2002 to 2016, the company’s workforce opened millions of unauthorized accounts in customers’ names without their authorization and knowledge. In 2016, America’s fourth-largest banking institution admitted to exerting immense pressure on its customer-facing employees to accomplish unrealistic sales quotas, triggering an explosion of organization-wide malpractices. Learn More A Current Business Topic That Involves Unethical Behaviorĭespite its corporate vision of serving as a trusted provider, Wells Fargo’s indiscriminate sales targets and poorly structured incentive scheme nurtured and encouraged unethical business practices.
0 kommentar(er)
