Business 1110 - News Article Review: Unethical Activities at RBC

This assignment reviews a news article discussing unethical practices at the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and other Canadian banks, focusing on the pressure exerted on employees to meet sales targets through potentially deceptive means. The article highlights issues like bullying, shaming, and threats, leading to employees tricking, upselling, and even lying to customers. The assignment identifies major problems such as unrealistic sales goals and the resulting unethical behaviors. It connects these issues to the concepts of ethical theory, specifically deontology, and organizational culture, suggesting that a shift in organizational culture is needed to promote ethical conduct. The assignment also examines the impact of these practices on customers and the need for government intervention. References from the assignment brief are also included.

Running head: UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AT RBC
UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AT RBC
Name of Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AT RBC
Article Title: “We are all doing it': Employees at Canada's 5 big banks speak
out about pressure to dupe customers.”
Author: Erica Johnson
Accessed:
Retrieved from: https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/banks-upselling-go-public-
1.4023575
Summary of article
The article discusses about the major issues being faced at Royal bank of Canada and
also the other Canadian banks in relation to pressuring its employees for conducting unethical
activities. The news article also discusses about the actions that will be undertaken in order to
overcome these issues being faced with the banks that is the parliamentary investigation. The
paper discusses in details the practices carried out by the employers of the bank against the
employees for the purpose of pressuring the employees to meet their sales target. These practices
majorly including- bullying, shaming and unnecessary threats of pay cuts and even firing.
Major issues faced by the Royal Bank of Canada
Some of the major issues faced by the Royal bank of Canada or the banking industry of
Canada at large are that the employees are being pressurized to fool the customers and to sell
financial products and services to the customers. According to the employees of five major banks
of Canada the sales pressure is so high that they are being motivated to carry out unethical
practices on the customers (Bal 2018). The employees feel pressurized to trick, upsell and even

2UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AT RBC
lie to the customers for the purpose of meeting their unrealistic sales targets. According to the
financial adviser of Scotiabank management is only concerned with the numbers and they do not
think about how the same is made. According to the Teller of royal bank of Canada the banks
tried to increase the limits of their visa cards or open up an option for credit even when the
customers did not want the same (www.cbc.ca., 2020). It was revealed in front of Go public that
the staff were under pressure to sell goods and services to the customers and as a result they were
breaking laws. Bullying and shaming is carried out against the employees of the banking sector
including the Royal bank of Canada for the purpose of selling the products and services of the
banking companies and to meet the sales targets. The financial planner of RBC was threatened to
meet her targets if she did not want a pay cut and lose her job at the organization. A
parliamentary inquiry is going to be done into these practices of the banks including the Royal
bank of Canada. Therefore the federal government has decided to step up in order to carry out in
depth investigation to understand the entire situation.
Two concepts related to the case study
The two main concepts related to this case study is that of ethical theory and practices
and that of organizational culture (Pietersen, 2017). The organizational culture needs of the
Canadian banks needs to be changed and such a culture should be brought where the employees
will not be motivated to carry out unethical practices for the purpose of meeting their objectives
and the same can only be changed with the help of organizational leaders (Ebert et al., 2011).
The ethical theory of deontology is applicable in this case study. According to the theory
organizations have a responsibility and duty towards others (Darwell, 2008).

3UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES AT RBC
References
Bal, S. S. (2018). Banking on Identity: Constructing a Canadian Banking Identity One Branch at
a Time. Journal of Historical Sociology, 31(2), 196-212.
Darwell, S. (2008). Deontology.
Ebert, R. J., Griffin, R. W., Starke, F. A., & Dracopoulos, G. (2011). Business essentials. NJ:
Prentice Hall.
Pietersen, C. (2017). Organizational culture: a foundational perspective. African Journal of
Economic and Management Studies.
www.cbc.ca. (2020). 'We are all doing it': Employees at Canada's 5 big banks speak out about
pressure to dupe customers | CBC News. Retrieved 1 February 2020, from
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/banks-upselling-go-public-1.4023575