MBA402: Code of Ethics - A Comprehensive Guide

This comprehensive guide explores the importance of a Code of Ethics in the business world. It delves into various ethical dilemmas faced by organizations, including discrimination, exploitation, corruption, and dishonest behavior. The guide also examines the crucial role of whistleblower protections and the enforcement mechanisms for upholding ethical standards. Through real-world case studies and practical examples, this resource provides valuable insights for students and professionals seeking to navigate the complexities of ethical decision-making in business.

MBA402 CODE OF ETHICS

Table of Contents
Codes of Conduct............................................................................................................................2
Discrimination.................................................................................................................................2
Discrimination: Discussion..........................................................................................................2
Discrimination: Code of Ethics....................................................................................................3
Exploitation......................................................................................................................................3
Exploitation: Discussion..............................................................................................................3
Exploitation: Code of Ethics........................................................................................................4
Corruption........................................................................................................................................4
Corruption: Discussion................................................................................................................4
Corruption: Code of Ethics..........................................................................................................5
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour...............................................................................................6
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour: Discussion.......................................................................6
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour: Code of Ethics.................................................................6
Whistleblower Protections...............................................................................................................7
Whistleblower Protections: Discussion.......................................................................................7
Whistleblower Protections: Code of Ethics.................................................................................7
Enforcement.....................................................................................................................................8
Reference list...................................................................................................................................9
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Codes of Conduct
A conduct code or a code of ethics is what may be regarded as the principles valuable to any
organisation, firm or a business sector. It lays down an accumulation of several principle
objectives, ethical guidelines, behaviour patterns, regulations and expected conduct in the form
of written collection to enlighten the workers, employees and the members of a particular firm to
adhere to the rules of an organisation. These are basically formulated to ensure that the
organisations can run in a similar pattern of moral and professional outcomes and help to rectify
them in cases of mis-happenings.
Weyns (2020), suggests that this basically helps to ascertain a form of dignified and clear vision
of the organisations to achieve the intended target and to help limit the unwanted loopholes and
conflicts within the organisation premises. Similarly, according to Kitto and Knight (2019), a
business code of ethics lays out the expected rules or rather milestones that the organisation
expects the employees and the working members to achieve. The primary intention for any
business to set these conduct codes is to help them carry out the business with honest work and
integrity. As opined by Thaler and Helmig (2016), the basic purpose of setting these guidelines
revolves around the basic morals universally such as embracing diverse work culture, or setting a
basic rule for the attire rules that the employees of the company must maintain. Moreover, it also
envisions regarding incidents of harassment, bullying or misconduct to control the disputes in the
organisation.
Discrimination
Discrimination: Discussion
The act of discrimination is common within the premises of an organisation. The act of
discrimination is defined as the distinction made between groups of individuals who are treated
on the basis of certain facets (Stypinska and Turek, 2017). Be it religion, origin, caste, language,
financial status or gender, discrimination prevails in every organisation and workplace. As
opined by Dhanani, Beus and Joseph (2018), a person is said to be discriminated against when
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he/she is treated differently and is withdrawn with the ability to enjoy basic privileges and rights
as that of any other person. Discriminating between clients who are normal to those who are
disabled is one such act of discrimination. As evident from the case study it is understood as to
how even unknowingly CBA conducted an act of discrimination by the provisions of touchpad
devices (Albert terminals) that did not have any dedicated buttons for the blind and visually
impaired Australians to feed their PIN numbers (Abc, 2020). This discriminating act was
reported by the annoyed Australians which was later attended to by the CBA.
Discrimination: Code of Ethics
 The employees of the CBA must not practice any means of discrimination between
cultural differences of colleagues or clients.
 The discrimination must not be practicsed on terms of religion, caste or colour.
 The underprivileged must not be dominated by the privileged ones.
 All the employees must live in harmony and respect.
 All should practice collaboration.
 All must practice warm communication and avoid sarcastic responses.
 There must be no act of conflicts raised on cultural and language differences.
 Everyone must ensure that they do not initiate or support refuting statements towards the
potential of a co-worker.
 The newbie must not be dominated by the experienced.
 All clients to the CBA must be treated impartially and without any biases.
 The employees must ascertain that no personal conflicts are entertained in the working
space.
Exploitation
Exploitation: Discussion
Berenstain (2016), suggests that the term exploitation refers to as a means of using somebody or
some resources in an unethical manner with a primary intention to take advantage of it for
personal benefit. In companies, exploitation can often be defined as when the organisations
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pressurise the workers to outperform themselves without providing with justified salaries or
incentives or even appreciating them labour (Bell, 2016). As brought forward by the case of
money laundering incident in the CBA bank branches, it was known that two culprits named Mr.
Khan and Mr. Shaffi had been conducting fraudulent behaviour with respect to deposition of
money through various bank branches (Australian Financial Review, 2020). This highlighted the
immense desire of the CBA to focus on the continuation of depositing units that overlooked the
legal advisories and is what led to the incident of fraud. Moreover, the questions were raised on
the negligence of CBA to identify multiple large deposits with a hidden motive of gaining a
superior position in the market. This therefore effectively accentuates on the exploitation carried
out in the CBA for personal company benefits.
Exploitation: Code of Ethics
 All employees must ensure transparency in their work.
 The accounts handled by huge clients or celebrities must be deliberately monitored and
must not be overlooked, given their recognition.
 The employees must keep a close track on the huge deposits and withdrawals and report
the same to avoid fraudulent acts.
 The employees must report any sort of misconduct and exploitation in terms of behaviour
and financial payment to the head of the bank.
 There should be no cases of fiscal mishappenings and every money handling must be
documented.
 The documents of every client must be checked for its authenticity and must be recorded
for future references.
Corruption
Corruption: Discussion
Rothstein and Varraich (2017), defines corruption as a form of dishonest and unethical practice
by any privileged or authoritative body to misuse of the position for personal benefits. It can also
be further understood as the eradication of trust of the public by the organisation to meet its own
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company targets and attain significant benefits. As opined by Kakavand et al. (2019), it provides
a ground for the practice of illegal exercises and offensive and fraudulent activities while ruining
the trust of the public. As presented in the case of hawking done by CBA, it is seen as to how the
CommInsure policy of selling policies over telephonic aids were used as a bait to attract and
exploit the clients of the CBA (Abc, 2020). With numerous records of exploitation and forgery
reported by the customers of CBA, it was known that CBA had been selling the policies.
However, later on it was claimed that the bank was not to be blamed for poor treatment of the
clients as this did not relate to breaking a law but was still criticised and condemned.
Corruption: Code of Ethics
 The employees must not indulge themselves in granting or receiving any undue
advantage to a third party directly or indirectly.
 The employee shall avoid any form of relations to a third party which makes them doubt
their integrity.
 Any potential situation encouraging corruption must be reported to the higher authorities.
 The employees must refrain themselves from corruption, active or passive.
 The employees must avoid working under influence and favouritism.
 No form of illegal payments must be made to or received from a client.
 An environment of integrity and vigilance must be maintained in order to withstand
situations of receiving or offering illicit advantage.
 When dealing with a service provider, diligence must be maintained in terms of
legitimacy of a deal.
 Any form of confidential information must not be disclosed to a third party without strict
authorization.
 A contractual relationship shall be maintained only under precise and transparent Code of
Ethics.
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Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour: Discussion
Dishonesty in a workplace can be multifaceted and can occur due to varied reasons. By having a
comprehensive understanding of the forms and causes of dishonesty can help an employer to
combat workplace dishonesty by developing relevant policies. Fraud is an act of dishonesty.
Fraudulent behaviour is an intentional form of deception that is executed for personal gains.
Fraudulent behaviour is considered as a criminal activity and can lead to dire consequences
(Schuchter & Levi, 2016). There can be different causes of dishonest and fraudulent behaviour in
a workplace such as lack of supervision, inadequacy of systems, extreme pressure and so on.
According to Warfield (2012), 89 cases of fraudulent behaviour was reported including 93
employees between January 2001 to July 2012 in Australia and reportedly more than $1 million
was stolen from different organisations. Hence, it becomes imperative to build an environment in
a workplace where there is a fundamental culture of honesty and trust.
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behaviour: Code of Ethics
 The employees must understand what dishonest and fraudulent behaviour means by
reading the policy.
 The employees must be transparent in their stand on fraudulent behaviours.
 The employees must be familiar with the Code of conduct.
 The employees must be aware of their assigned responsibilities and adhere to performing
their tasks with supreme honesty.
 There must not be any form of request or receiving of bribes of any kind from anybody.
 There must not be any participation in conspiracy against the organisation and must not
encourage it in any way.
 The employees must always act in the best interest of the company.
 There must not be exploitation of any level of the employees’ position for personal gains.
 A strict vigilance must be maintained by the employees to identify potential frauds.
 The employees must report the endangered frauds to the concerned personnel as per the
policy.
 The employees must cooperate with evaluation and management of fraudulent incidents.
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Whistleblower Protections
Whistleblower Protections: Discussion
As opined by Vandekerckhove and Phillips (2019), a whistleblower is a person, either an
employee or a government agent, who discloses the information of a secret and fraudulent
activity to the higher command or/and the public. The information of the alleged fraudulent
activity can be diverse in nature, for instance corruption, violation of established laws and
regulations, a threat to the companys’ interest and so on. However, whistleblowers take huge
risks of a severe vengeance and reaction from the wrongdoers. Additionally, they are susceptible
to face social stigma, criminal charges and termination from their jobs. Hence, it is vital for an
organisation for developing policies to protect the whistleblowers, internally and externally.
Australia is believed to be in an era of whistle blowing in the private sector where the
establishment of the required legislation has created an environment to support whistleblowers
and their service for their organisations (The Conversation, 2020). It can act as a catalyst for
shifting the existing description surrounding whistle blowing.
Whistleblower Protections: Code of Ethics
 The organisation will protect the anonymity of a whistleblower.
 The identity of a whistleblower can be disclosed in order to comply with the existing law.
 The organisation will not venge against a whistleblower.
 A whistleblower will not face any form of adverse employment action like termination or
ill treatment.
 Any whistleblower must contact higher authorities if they feel retaliated.
 The whistleblower is not entitled to seek protection for their personal wrongdoing.
 A whistleblower can be an employee or someone acting on behalf of the employee.
 Protection will also be rendered to an employee who participates in the investigation.
 A whistleblower will not be discriminated against on any grounds.
 The organisation will not be required or prohibited to compensate an employee for
participating in court actions.
 The organisation will not authorize the disclosure of any confidential information.
 The organisation will not diminish the rights of a whistleblower to negotiate.
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Enforcement
Code of Ethics is crucially important for developing an environment of integrity, trust and
honesty in the workplace. Moreover, it governs the behaviours and working relationships of the
top management and board members with the stakeholders as well as with the employees.
Regardless of the type or size of the organisation a Code of Ethics is inevitable for a standard
administration and management. The employees need to have a comprehensive understanding of
the policies that the organisation establishes for them to follow. Training sessions and workshops
need to be organised in order to make the employees aware about the regulations, policies as
well as their rights as an employee to contribute to the organisation’s integrity. The top
authorities should also set an example in their leadership and encourage the employees by
providing actionable resources. Furthermore, the workforce tends to adopt ethical behaviour
more faithfully when an employee’s ethical behaviour is rewarded.
The penalties for any breach in the Code of Ethics can broadly be categorized as minor and
major. The minor penalties are deployed for minor infractions such as incomplete work, misuse
of office equipment etc. A series of warnings, oral and written, reduction in privileges are
included in minor penalties. However, a repeated breaching of even the minor Code of Ethics
can lead to stricter penalties. The major infractions include severe acts such as threats towards
colleagues, abuse of authority, violence, frauds and so on. The retaliation for such extreme
violation of Code of Ethics can lead to demotions, job transfers and termination from the job.
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Reference list
Abc, 2020. CBA Faces Criminal Charges Over Comminsure Scandal. [online] Abc.net.au.
Available at: <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-10-04/cba-faces-criminal-charges-
comminsure-scandal/11573790> [Accessed 18 September 2020].
Abc, 2020. Commonwealth Bank Settles Discrimination Claim By Blind Australians Over
Touchpad Devices. [online] Abc.net.au. Available at: <https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-
10/commonwealth-bank-settles-discrimination-claim/10702194> [Accessed 18 September
2020].
Australian Financial Review, 2020. CBA Money Laundering Scandal: How It Happened.
[online] Australian Financial Review. Available at: <https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-
services/commonwealth-bank-safe-haven-for-criminal-activity-20170804-gxp54g> [Accessed 18
September 2020].
Bell, A., 2016. Re-imagining the office: the new workplace challenge. CRC Press.
Berenstain, N., 2016. Epistemic exploitation. Ergo, an Open Access Journal of Philosophy, 3.
Dhanani, L.Y., Beus, J.M. and Joseph, D.L., 2018. Workplace discrimination: A meta‐analytic
extension, critique, and future research agenda. Personnel Psychology, 71(2), pp.147-179.
Kakavand, B., Neveu, J.P. and Teimourzadeh, A., 2019. Workplace corruption: a resource
conservation perspective. Personnel Review.
Kitto, K. and Knight, S., 2019. Practical ethics for building learning analytics. British Journal of
Educational Technology, 50(6), pp.2855-2870.
Rothstein, B. and Varraich, A., 2017. Making sense of corruption. Cambridge University Press.
Schuchter, A. and Levi, M., 2016. The fraud triangle revisited. Security Journal, 29(2), pp.107-
121.
Stypinska, J. and Turek, K., 2017. Hard and soft age discrimination: the dual nature of workplace
discrimination. European journal of ageing, 14(1), pp.49-61.
Thaler, J. and Helmig, B., 2016. Do codes of conduct and ethical leadership influence public
employees’ attitudes and behaviours? An experimental analysis. Public Management Review,
18(9), pp.1365-1399.
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The Conversation, 2020. It's A New Era For Australia's Whistleblowers – In The Private Sector.
[online] The Conversation. Available at: <https://theconversation.com/its-a-new-era-for-
australias-whistleblowers-in-the-private-sector-119596> [Accessed 18 September 2020].
Vandekerckhove, W. and Phillips, A., 2019. Whistleblowing as a protracted process: A study of
UK whistleblower journeys. Journal of Business Ethics, 159(1), pp.201-219.
Warfield, B., 2012. Million Dollar Employee Fraud in Australia. Warfield & Associates.
Weyns, D., 2020. Towards a Code of Ethics for Autonomous and Self-Adaptive Systems. In
International Symposium on Engineering Adaptive and Self-Managing Systems (SEAMS’20).
AMC.
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