I think in this case there isn't necessarily a right (or fast) approach. Like many of the other widely known corporate ethical cases, emphasis must be placed on reevaluation of their values and rebuilding trust and honestly with both their customers and the public as a whole.
One thing I believe the corporation has to start doing is including ethical and moral benchmarks in their performance evaluations. They need to show the current and any new employees that success at Wells Fargo is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is important to start the new ethical programs internally because the culture definitely needs some drastic changes. Once the corporate culture begins to change the employees will start displaying ethical values to the account holders. Once the customers begin to see the bankers consistently showing concern for them as people and not just ways to gain profit, the publics' view will slowly start to change.
Management and regulation are guided by two principles that are often combined into one. The first is you get what you measure and the second is what you measure will be gamed. So to put it all together you get what you measure but only exactly that. Measurement is often tricky concept to get just right: you often get what you want but the downfall is often stated measurement are taken too literally by employees. The best way to get the measurements you are aiming for is to establish specific goals, use management-by-walkaround, and finally continuously monitor and give feedback to employees.
Ethics are established throughout a person's life so it is safe to say that you can teach and encourage ethics in the workplace. Most people are at the conventional stage of Kohlberg's moral development; they judge the morality of actions by comparing them to society's views and expectations. People want to be viewed as an ethical person by their coworkers so when you begin to transform the corporate culture and expectations of employees to act ethically will start to spread.
Sources:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts
https://www.slideshare.net/verzosaf/doing-the-right-thing-ethical-challenges-for-todays-filipino-librarians
https://www.wellsfargo.com/commitment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZG1quHG6I
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-consequentialism-deontology-and-virtue-ethics
One thing I believe the corporation has to start doing is including ethical and moral benchmarks in their performance evaluations. They need to show the current and any new employees that success at Wells Fargo is measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. It is important to start the new ethical programs internally because the culture definitely needs some drastic changes. Once the corporate culture begins to change the employees will start displaying ethical values to the account holders. Once the customers begin to see the bankers consistently showing concern for them as people and not just ways to gain profit, the publics' view will slowly start to change.Management and regulation are guided by two principles that are often combined into one. The first is you get what you measure and the second is what you measure will be gamed. So to put it all together you get what you measure but only exactly that. Measurement is often tricky concept to get just right: you often get what you want but the downfall is often stated measurement are taken too literally by employees. The best way to get the measurements you are aiming for is to establish specific goals, use management-by-walkaround, and finally continuously monitor and give feedback to employees.
Ethics are established throughout a person's life so it is safe to say that you can teach and encourage ethics in the workplace. Most people are at the conventional stage of Kohlberg's moral development; they judge the morality of actions by comparing them to society's views and expectations. People want to be viewed as an ethical person by their coworkers so when you begin to transform the corporate culture and expectations of employees to act ethically will start to spread.
I think the ethical framework that is most useful in this case would be to follow the deontological approach. Being that Wells Fargo is in the Banking and Investment industry it is important to emphasize duty when they are facing ethical concerns. They have a duty to their customers to give them good advice and to use their expertise to help perform their jobs of helping customers manage their money. Deontology emphasizes the character of the actions. If the Bankers would use this approach they would think of universal laws such as "don't steal"(personal info) and "tell the truth." No subjectivity would be involved so all of the employees would take the same course of action.
Virtue ethics is another approach that could be beneficial. Virtue ethics measure actions against some given set of virtues, with the goal of being a virtuous person. It emphasizes the character of the person making the actions. Knowing what the extreme of the characteristics is people must be able to find the "middle ground". Virtue ethics considers emotions and motivations but this approach may incur some flaws because one disadvantage is that it is relativistic.
Sources:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2016-09-09/wells-fargo-opened-a-couple-million-fake-accounts
https://www.slideshare.net/verzosaf/doing-the-right-thing-ethical-challenges-for-todays-filipino-librarians
https://www.wellsfargo.com/commitment
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bAZG1quHG6I
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-differences-between-consequentialism-deontology-and-virtue-ethics
Finding a middle ground and using virtue ethics are what I think are the best rout to be taken. This is a fantastic combination that can be used by big corporations. Will they use it in the future? Or will they just brush it off and try harder to not get caught? Its not easy to say but the implications are clear that something needs to change. Encouraging workplace ethics is a must.
ReplyDeleteYes virtue ethics can be great assuming it is carried out in the correct way and i agree with what you mentioned about it needing to be a long term plan. It can't be implemented just until this issue gets forgotten about or else this will happen again in the future.
DeleteDo you feel that Wells Fargo needs to adjust its' hiring practices in relation to a new and improved ethical code? It seems that bringing in people with a more internalized moral compass would help prevent being persuaded should a dilemma like this surface again in multiple levels of the company.
ReplyDeleteI think maybe looking at past job history and elaborate criminal and background checks could definitely never hurt . I think it is key to find "new blood" that are more ethical but it can be tricky right after a scandal to find quality new people o fill the positions of the people that were fired.
DeleteI really like how you expanded on everything. I think this is one of your strongest blog posts. I completely agree with you about the deontological framework. They absolutely have a duty to their customers to guide through what's right and what's wrong. I think it will take them years to make the changes such as overall ethics and company culture. What do you think their first step should be?
ReplyDeleteI think the first step is to send a personal apology to the customers that were affected and to start to create an ethical training program. I feel this would be a good starting line to start to influence both internal and external shareholders.
Delete