The ethics of being a decent person

"Avoiding further self-inflicted crises – and the human damage they cause – will require more attention to both institutional norms and ethical leadership. That responsibility ultimately lies at the very top."

This statement can easily be applied to a multitude of ethical scandals. When crises happen, it is usually the lower level employees who take the brunt of the responsibility. The actual blame lies with those at the top of the hierarchy - the CEO's with incentive systems, the managers who don't set ethical boundaries, the boards who do not consider ethical codes of conduct. THESE are the people who should be criticised and should be blamed for the culture they create.

Firstly, let's take a look at the Wells Fargo ethics and code of conduct. Their "vision" is to satisfy customers' financial needs and help them succeed financially. Their values include leadership, what's right for customers and ethics.

.....riiiiiiiighhttttt

Sounds like an average bank's typical ethics code until you remember that they had to pay a $100 million fine to the Consumer Finance Protection Board in 2016 for their unethical actions. They also agreed to pay $5 million to customers and $185 million in penalties. 

Since 2011, Wells Fargo employees had been secretly creating millions of unauthorised bank accounts and credit card accounts for customers without telling them. This allowed employees to boost sales figures and make more money. Sounds like the fault lies with the employees, right? Wrong.

The culture created by senior managers and CEO John Stumpf meant that employees felt pressured to hit sales targets and feared they would lose their jobs if they didn't perform well enough. Even after the scandal, CFO John Shrewsberry still blamed the employees for "under performing". 

However, these employees did try to reach out and get help. A former Wells Fargo employee refused to carry out tasks, like opening fake accounts and called the ethics hotline and emailed Human Resources, informing them of the unethical sales activities. After sending that email, he was fired eight days later. Apparently, he was consistently late to his job.

It might be easy to blame the employees for actually carrying out these unethical tasks. However, the blame lies with the higher level managers. They set the culture. They create the rules. They pressure employees. If an employee reaches out and acknowledges what is going on, he is penalised. 

What are employees supposed to do - risk losing their job or be unethical?