Wells Fargo Unethical Business Practices

Ethics or the lack thereof, in business, is a very hot topic in our society today. It seems as if, a person cannot turn on the evening news or pick up a newspaper without seeing a story centered on unethical business practices in the workplace. With that being said, an individual might ask the following questions: “Why are so many organizations resorting to unethical business practices and what is fueling these new behaviors”? More importantly, is human resources aware of what is transpiring within their own company?” Additionally, what level of involvement does human resources have in these often highly public but sensitive situations? During my research, pertaining to businesses in the news for unethical behavior I found a very interesting article about Wells Fargo & Company. I found this article particular interesting because I do much of my personal banking at Wells Fargo bank.
A civil lawsuit, has been filed in Los Angeles against Wells Fargo for the unethical treatment of its internal customers (their employees), and their external customers.
In a nutshell, the company has been accused of setting unrealistic sells goals for their associates. The quotes, set by the corporation are so high that it has triggered unethical business strategies from the employee population. According to zacks.com, “Wells Fargo adopted fraudulent tactics to achieve the sky-scraping sales targets, including the opening of unauthorized and unnecessary accounts, and issuing illegal cards (Wells Fargo Faces LA Lawsuit for Unethical Conduct. n.d.).” The article went on further to address some of the possible reasons why workers would violet the ethical code of conduct at Wells Fargo. A very competitive banking industry and increasingly low interest rates are a few reasons mentioned in the
article.
After reading this article, the first organizational behavior/practice that I thought about was ill conceived goals and how that translated into bad behavior. In the case of Wells Fargo bank, senior leadership assigned unattainable sales goals to their works with negative implications attached if the goals were not met. In thinking critically about this situation, the average person may ask the question: “What was the underlying objective of the company?” Furthermore, “What was the firm really encouraging their employees to do?” This article does not address what role human resources played in this situation. However, it is my opinion that human resources had to know the possible ramification of the new goals. One thing is clear, the human resources department did know about the goals. So from an ethical perspective, “How did they think the employees would respond to the pressure?” It is the role of the human resources department to ensure that all company decisions are made with the associate’s best interest at heart. Life is a summary of the choices that a person makes and we all have to be accountable for our own actions. However, I think the goal setting was made from a “profitability perspective” and not a “people first perspective.”