Ethical Corporate Governance : Why does it matter?

Running head: CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Corporate Governance and Ethics
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Executive summary
The following report will look to address the business ethics standards within the organizations.
The chosen company for this paper is Commonwealth Bank of Australia. The ethical problem in
this context to be focused on is the financial complications and breaching of ethical conducts by
the concerned organization. The reports of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the
Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry have revealed all the ethical
misconducts made by the company. Arguments have been made to establish this conduct as very
unethical. The ethical theories and approaches have been used in this paper to relate the topic
from the perspectives of customers.

2CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Brief history of the organization......................................................................................................3
Discussion of the case......................................................................................................................4
Arguments regarding the case.........................................................................................................6
Ethical decision making approaches................................................................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

3CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Introduction
The aim of the following report is to make the case on the ethical behaviors of a chosen
company and discuss upon the reasons and impacts of behavior that they conducted in their
business environment. The company that has been chosen from the Australian index of
companies (ASX) is Commonwealth Bank. This bank has both good and bad reputations for
their operations. It has several branches in different countries but it operates strongly in
Australia. The ethical issue that will be focused in this paper is regarding the unethical financial
planning of the bank. The fraud on the customers and cheating on them is a serious flaw in terms
of business operations. Companies that indulge in this kind of problems are very much unethical
by all sorts. These unethical activities will be discussed later on in the paper and it will be
analyzed from the perspectives of the ethical theories at the workplace.
Brief history of the organization
Commonwealth Bank of Australia is one of the oldest banks of Australia and it has a very
rich tradition. This is a multinational bank and their branches are spread across countries like
United Kingdom, United States and New Zealand. It is regarded as one of the big four banks in
the country. It was established in the year 1911 (Commbank.com.au 2020). The headquarters of
this bank is located at Darling Harbor in Sydney. Commonwealth Bank is also considered as the
largest bank in the Southern hemisphere as well. The bank has more than 1100 branches and
more than 4000 ATM counters all over the world. However, the reports of the Royal
Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry
have revealed that Commonwealth Bank has practiced the unethical behaviors in their business.
All these unethical practices are regarding the financial planning and cheating with their