As one of the Five Regional Managers, How Do You Handle This Situation?Essay Preview: As one of the Five Regional Managers, How Do You Handle This Situation?Report this essayAs one of the five regional managers, how do you handle this situation?As I approach this task of creating an ethical standard program, one of the first core components to analyze is the ethical culture of the organization. Research has stated that a firms ethical climate has an effect on its sales force. Salespersons perceptions of an organization with a positive ethical climate are strongly correlated with their individual commitment to quality and overall commitment to their company. Although it has been said that ethical climate does not have a direct effect on performance, it does have an indirect effect on performance when using individual commitment to quality and organizational commitment as intervening variables (Press, 1990).
[1] Research and information sources on the principles of moral and ethical practice in the financial sector are sparse. Nevertheless, some sources in the research literature, such as the Journal of Management Psychology and the Journal of Sociology, indicate a tendency among the various disciplines of management to focus on the ethical norms and moral foundations of the practices in the financial sector, which are often described as being based on individualized moral norms such as those expressed in a series of ethical standards (Forster, 1999).
According to the authors, this approach is particularly beneficial in areas such as risk assessment, accounting, financial planning and financial data (Dewitt, 1983). On the other hand, although no firm is perfect in terms of ethics, individuals who commit to a low quality, ethical and ethical standard may be able to perform and benefit from ethical performance through different means and with different and sometimes difficult situations when necessary. For instance, it may be the more individualized practice of setting ethical norms, set of ethical standards, and ethical obligations, but with the benefit that in many instances, the people who commit to these standards have more flexibility and can work very efficiently on the tasks themselves.
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About the Author Robert Leffler and his students at Dartmouth College used to spend most of their time studying the ethics and values of companies in the financial industry. Thereby, a number of key research results from these students led to the development of the principles of ethical governance and the theory underpinning decision-making. Robert Leffler, formerly from the College of Law, is now a law professor in the Columbia University School of Law. The author has worked for more than 20 years at numerous financial companies, but also has served on several advisory boards and is co-author of “Ethical Corporations and Their Impact on Corporations: The Politics of Equity and Equity Planning at the Economic University of Geneva (2012). After graduating from the law school, Robert joined the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked at the USF Bank in Washington DC. After graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Robert joined the Financial Aid Administration at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. He has covered legal and policy issues for over 28 years, and was awarded a Masters of Economics from the University of Southern California, where he was a three-year recipient of a graduate thesis in criminal justice. His dissertation in public sector economics was published in the Journal of Public Economics. While in the private sector and for a number of years running, he served as the deputy public policy and administrative affairs manager for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Robert was also chairman/president of the Congressional Commission for Financial Services Policy. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve System during the Great Recession, John F. Lehman served as the chief counsel from July 2008 to February 2009 at the FDIC. Prior to joining the Federal Reserve in May 2008 he also worked as a senior advisor with the FDIC’s Financial Operations Working Group on financial capital markets, its Financial Operations Research Group and the International Business Review Group. Following Lehman’s departure from the Federal Reserve and his departure from the FDIC, he was appointed Director at the Federal Deposit Reform and Consumer Protection, in November 2008, and as a senior counsel to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The following year he was appointed Director at the Securities and Exchange Commission. Robert was formerly President and Chief Accounting Officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (1997-2001), from May 2001 to October 2000 as an independent, outside counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He was named special counsel for the Senate Finance Committee (1999 to 2002) by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, as
In this situation, clearly, there are a vast amount of factors to consider, when proceeding with both the development of the ethical standards program as well as how I will present it to my colleagues in order to gain not only their support, but belief and enthusiasm behind the recommendation. My process must be strategic and assess our current programs in place and any ethical issues. My approach will adhere to The Clayton Act (1914) and the Robinson-Patman Act (1936) as well as overall FTC standards. (Murphy, 2005)
In addition, critical thinking and assessing the impact for all of my stakeholders will be essential. It is a vital relationship between critical thinking and ethics that must be kept in balance if both are to be viable and useful.
Ethical Issues at HandThere are several ethical issues at hand as it relates to this case study. One primary ethical issue is the aspect of account changes to benefit the sales representatives who have been there longer and therefore, are aligned with older clients which results in larger bonuses for them. This ethical issue relates back to the principle of fairness as it relates to employing, compensating, promoting, disciplining and firing personnel. In addition, the tendency to treat top sales employees with more leniencies is also unethical.
A second ethical issue is the sales quotas, as it clearly apparent that some sales teams are making more money than others and setting such high quotas, which seem unfair can drive unethical behavior in the younger sales representatives, since they are being given customers with a lower sales target, hence, lower commission.
Approaching my Colleagues for Project SupportClearly, I would outline the issues at hand that I was aware of and work to create a joint solution to the issue, to attempt to “train” my new colleagues on the aspects of ethics in our organization. In providing data to them, my intent would be to showcase the critical importance of ethics and principal of fairness, but also offer a few options to incentive their sales team in an ethical manner, which would align with our corporate code of ethics.
Therefore, after assessing the situation, I would perform an ethical conduct audit to showcase to my colleagues data, reporting channels, corporate & sales culture, perceived reward system, “Warning signs”-Unethical behavior, patterns of potential misconduct and steps to resolve.
Once this step is complete, I would then also combine my prior research, regarding our company and ethical and legal guidelines in order to develop an Ethical Standards Program
Colleagues & SupportThe recommendation would clearly highlight the following:Establishment of Explicit Ethical Goals and Criteria for SalesDemonstration of Commitment to Ethical Sales Goals and CriteriaCommunication of Ethical Sales Expectations and Train Workforce to Enact Ethical Sales Goals and CriteriaAssessment & Monitoring of BehaviorMaintaining & Evolvement