Ethical Issues And Concerns Of Wells Fargo

As children we learn the value of good behavior, morals, integrity and honesty. Since the last recession job opportunities have decreased dramatically, people have been forced to do anything to hold down their jobs. The question is: How far are we willing to go keep our job? An example of this matter is Wells Fargo, who as a part of their tasks wanted their employees to reach unrealistic goals to keep their jobs. Employees had to violate ethical policies to achieve their target goals. The bank’s sale tactics resulted in a $185 million fine, 5,300 employees fired, and several other effects on the company and customers.
Identify and evaluate ethical issues and concerns of this case. Wells Fargo had an aggressive sales policy where the employees

What is the effect on the society?
As a company one of the most important impacts as that the bank will have to face as a result of this case is loss of market reputation, which may even affect its existing customer base. Lawsuits have already been filed against the company both by its employees and customers and fines have also been imposed on the company.
Banking is one of the most important components of the entire financial system of a society. It is practically impossible to conduct any financial transaction without the involvement of a bank. If any kind of fraud takes place at a bank, it has a severe impact on the trust and confidence of its customers. People begin to fear as to whether their money/deposits are in safe hands or not. In some cases, customers may close their existing accounts and even decide to keep their belongings/savings with them resulting in shortage of cash/finance in the system. This is not good for the economy as well as the banking/financial

In the given case, the sales goals were highly unrealistic and there was too much pressure on employees to meet their goals. While the bank had policies for each business process, there was no enforcement of those policies at the managerial level as they were too under a constant pressure to meet sales targets. It is essential for the top management to understand the importance of ethics and incorporate the same in the day to day functioning of the organization. In the given case, the employees who tried to report the fraud on the whistleblower hotline had to face adverse consequences (they were terminated). The overall purpose of establishing an ethical environment gets defeated if top management doesn't ensure that the ethical policies and procedures are implemented as intended. Therefore, I would advice the top management to change its attitude, set realistic performance targets and encourage employees to report any violation directly to an independent committee (may be the audit committee) with no fear of any adverse