ETHICAL BEHAVIOR

In a 250-300 word response, relate an organizational example of the use or lack of use of ethical standards in management communications. The example may be from your own workplace or from a business situation with which you are familiar.  Support your answer by indicating why you believe it is an example of communicating in an ethical manner and why you believe the decision was made to communicate in the particular manner. Use references to validate your analysis. 

Respond to at least two of your fellow students’ posts by commenting on the examples they have given.

GISSELLS DISCUSSION PLEASE RESPOND AROUND 200 WORDS

There is a lack of use of ethical standards in management communications when managers communicate to their subordinates to perform unethical acts in order to produce results. Last year, Wells Fargo paid fines in order to settle allegations that its employees created millions of fake bank accounts for customers. When looking into the case, employees had stated that their management team was pressuring them to hit their quota. Many managers were communicating that employees were to do whatever it took to create accounts, if the employees were to fail meeting their goal they would be terminated. I believe that the management team felt a lot of pressure from the higher ups, that in turn made them take unethical measure to meet the unrealistic goal. "This ethical component reflects the extent to which the individual or group is willing to seek out and act on justifiable reasons, and to remain impartial when making ethical choices" (Baack, 2012). The managers tried to justify their actions by stating that they did not actually tell the employees to create fake accounts for existing customers. By threatening the employees and stating that they needed to do whatever was needed was enough to lead the employees in making unethical decisions. A better response to the type of communication could have been more centered around sales training. For example, hosting training classes in order to increase results and incentivizing employees by conducting contest revolved around sales. Using this method, it would increase the confidence of the employees in their sales ability which would result in increase sales.

Baack, D. (2012). Management communication. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu/books/AUBUS600.12.2/sections/sec8.1

QUENTINS DISCUSSION PLEASE RESPOND:

Does ethics even exist in business anymore? I think that I can write a book on my experiences just from one of my previous companies I worked for. It surely was an eye-opener in many different areas. This was a for profit mental health company who had an array of services based on various needs of the individuals. This company was fully staffed with psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, counselors, and other positons to serve the consumers. Nothing is perfect and it was a well-oiled machine until we got into the back end of the business that I was somewhat privy to.  Baack suggests that “Business ethics are standards and guidelines regarding the conduct of commerce and the development of relationships in business” (Baack, 2012, 8.1). When leaders ask their employees to do certain things that are not ethical, it poses a severe problem and allows for the company to have a bad reputation in the area they are in.

For some reason, the auditors targeted the company and either scheduled audits or came unannounced. During the scheduled audits, all hands were on deck to go through selected consumers’ charts and compare it to the billing figures. For dollar that was paid to the company, had to be accounted for in the documentation from either the staff or the doctors’ notes. So, needless to say, if the notes were not present, they had to be written to ensure there was no payback to the State. This was done many times and sometimes there were those who were at the job until 1am or 2am writing notes to be placed in the files of those selected individuals. The goal again, was not to have to pay back the State or to at least retain most of the monies, because they were careful not to make it too perfect, which would send another red flag signal. Not to mention the threats that came from the CEO if we did not complete what was asked of us. By no means, was there any grounds to be treated in this manner or told to do such things that interfere with ethical standards. In essence, their livelihood was in jeopardy. To cap this post, the federal authorities came in shut the company down.