Business Ethics: Analysis of Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone Practices

This essay analyzes the ethical issues within the Australian telecommunications industry, specifically focusing on the practices of Telstra, Optus, and Vodafone. The assignment highlights unethical sales tactics, where companies prioritize sales targets over customer service, leading to the sale of overpriced and unnecessary products. The essay defines ethics, explores ethical decision-making processes, and discusses the impact of these practices on both customers and employees. Furthermore, it delves into moral philosophies such as utilitarianism, Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, and the categorical imperative, providing a framework for understanding the ethical dimensions of the issues. The analysis emphasizes the importance of ethical business practices for long-term success, customer satisfaction, and the overall reputation of the companies involved. The essay uses a news article as a case study to illustrate the real-world implications of unethical behavior in the business environment, linking it to the decision-making processes of management and the influence of personal ethics.

Running head: BUSINESS ETHICS
BUSINESS ETHICS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................2
Ethics as a concept...................................................................................................2
Ethical decision making............................................................................................3
Moral philosophies....................................................................................................3
Conclusion....................................................................................................................4

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Introduction
This chosen article talks about the current ethical issues of the company Telstra,
Optus and Vodafone. This article talks about the unethical practice of the
telecommunication companies in Australia who have adopted certain questionable
selling methods and has put emphasis on sales targets rather than on quality service
for the employees. This has resulted in the employees of the telecommunication
companies like Telstra, Optus and Vodafone sell products and plans that are
unnecessarily expensive and that are unaffordable (Arboleda & Arboleda 2019). This
paper is going to talk about the ethical issues and also provide an insight about
ethics in business.
Ethics as a concept
Ethics is considered to be important in any field in order to satisfy the basic needs of
the people. In context to business ethics, they are basically formal systems or set of
some rules that people are bound to follow like punctuality, time management,
confidentiality, time management and many more (McMurrian & Matulich 2016, p.
83). Ethical codes of conduct had been introduced in organizations in order to curb
the ethical issues which affected their stakeholders (Doh, Husted & Yang 2016, p.
313). In this article it can be seen that the customers are affected because of their
unethical selling practices. Customers are considered to be the most important
stakeholders of a business. Telstra and other telecommunication companies are
trying to sell products and services by unethical selling practices to their customers
because of their own benefit as they have to meet the targets in order to save their
jobs and the company wants to generate more revenues however it is seen that the
telecommunication companies have been ignoring the needs of the customers and
are cheating them by selling overpriced products that are not worth the price. This is
an unethical practice as the customers are the ones who contribute to the earnings
of these companies and they are the ones who help organization in generating
revenues and they are cheated. This can have a negative impact on the
telecommunications and make them have a bad reputation in the market which will
eventually cause their downfall. According to scholars ethics is important especially
when the business operates in the service industry as the industry solely depends on
the satisfaction level of the customers and any kind of unethical practice that does
not cater to the customers and rather cheats them automatically paves way for the
decline in sales of the organization (Bateman & Valentine 2015, p. 134). Ethics in
business is important and from the news in this article it can clearly be seen that
there are unethical issues within the business that has affected the employees as
well because of the pressure that has been put on them by giving them unrealistic
targets which has led to this situation where the customers are getting angry.
In order to continue and operate business in an ethical manner it is important for the
management and the owner of the business to have an ethical approach. Schwartz
(2016, p. 770) opines that personal ethics highly influences in decision making. From
the news article it can clearly be assessed that the decision of making sales the
primary target and not the quality of services comes from the unethical perspective
of the management and the owners. This paves way for negativity and customer
dissatisfaction. The dissatisfaction of the customers can lead to other negative
consequences like leaving the service and also negative word of mouth which may

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make the potential customers choose other telecommunication companies that have
a positive reputation in the market and also make sure that the customer demands
and needs are met in order to satisfy them.
Ethics is often related to social responsibility and it is the responsibility of the
business to provide quality products and services to their customers who are paying
in order to avail these. If the business maintains and ensures that they perform their
responsibility with full conviction and dedication to ensure that the business is
recognized and has a positive reputation among the employees as well as the
customers. Ethical practices will ensure profits to the organization as according to
study it has been seen that most people want to associate themselves with
companies that are valued by people.
Ethical decision making
Ethical decision making is said to be the process in which an individual evaluates
and chooses among various alternatives keeping the ethical principles in mind. In
order to make positive decisions one needs to eliminate the options that are
unethical. Every individual follows different principle of ethics and thus the decision
making process of every individual may vary (Bazerman & Sezer 2016, p. 95). After
assessing and evaluating the news article on the operations and activities of the
telecommunication companies which are Telstra, Optus and Vodafone adopting
different means to sell products to their own customers that are overpriced and not
up to the mark, it can be clearly seen that this is an unethical practice which is being
practiced by the telecommunication companies which is soon going to have a
negative impact.
Ethical decision is often influenced by the personal ethics of a person and for me I
believe in being just and fair. However, every individual follows different sets up of
ethics and it is often influenced by the society, religion, family members and friends
and other people who may have an impact in their lives (Wielenberg 2016, p. 510).
Ethics is said to shape the mind of the people and helps highly influences the
decision making of an individual and in the same way this is done in the
organizations as well. According to me, if I would be in the situation my first and
foremost priority would be to make sure the customers are satisfied and the
employees are more relaxed which would help them to work efficiently and enhance
their quality of work to help satisfy the customers. I highly believe in being just and
fair and this would help me being fair and just to both the important stakeholders that
are the customers and the employees which would contribute to the success of the
business aligning with the satisfaction of the customers and the employees.
Moral philosophies
Ethics is in the study of philosophy is considered to be important and necessary in
order to satisfy the basic needs of the people like being fair, honest and many more.
Several theories have been proposed by different and eminent scholars of this field.
One of the theories is the utilitarianism theory. This theory suggests that one in order
to make any decision should consider the good as well as the bad and then make
the choice. According to utilitarians, being happy is good but suffering and being sad
is bad (Hursthouse & Crisp 2013, p. 55). However, many theorists have said that an
activity or an action can only be right if it brings positive consequences but if it brings

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negative consequences it automatically becomes bad (Lucas & Galinsky 2015, p.
544). The theory clearly states that it is wrong to do bad to others in order to benefit
themselves as every person is important. The application of this theory to some
extent makes sense as cheating customers to purchase expensive products for the
benefit of the company is ethically and morally wrong.
The other theory of ethics is Aristotelian Virtue Ethics which was proposed by
Aristotle where he believed that personal happiness is the ultimate goal of a person
that should be promoted and a person needs to learn the behaviour and the ways to
achieve personal happiness (Nielsen 2016, p. 419). If this theory is applied in the
context of the article it can be seen that telecommunication companies like Telstra,
Optus and Vodafone are trying to attain personal happiness and trying to achieve
their desired goals. However, many scholars have argued and have stated that in
order to achieve personal goals people may do something that are unethical and
may not make others happy with that but that somehow does not mean the decision
or the step taken is ethical (Barkan, Ayal & Ariely 2015, p. 159). This clearly shows
that the companies are taking unethical steps to ensure they achieve their goal that
is to generate profits.
There is another ethical theory which is the categorical imperative theory that was
proposed by Robert Johnson which states that one should act in a way that can be
made a universal law (Abraham 2018, p. 30). In the context to the article this means
that if the practice that Telstra, Optus and Vodafone are labeled as unethical and can
be punished then this can be a universal law and no other company can practice
these methods and get away without being punished.
Conclusion
Ethics is important and it has been seen in the news article that telecommunication
companies like Telstra, Vodafone and Optus are fooling and cheating their
customers in Australia to meet their sales targets and generate revenues. It has
been seen that this news has gained prominence to make customers and people
aware of the country about their unethical behaviour which has had a negative
impact on the reputation of the organization that results in poor sales of the
company.

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Reference
Abraham, K.K.A., 2018. Eclectic approach to the categorical imperative and
pleasure. OGIRISI: a New Journal of African Studies, 14(1), pp.29-59.
Arboleda, N. & Arboleda, N. (2019). Telstra, Optus, Vodafone allegedly employed
aggressive sales tactics: consumer group. [online] CRN Australia. Available at:
https://www.crn.com.au/news/telstra-optus-vodafone-allegedly-employing-
aggressive-sales-tactics-consumer-group-523045 [Accessed 7 Aug. 2019].
(Arboleda and Arboleda, 2019)
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Bateman, C. & Valentine, S., 2015. The impact of salesperson customer orientation
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Appendix
Source: https://www.crn.com.au/news/telstra-optus-vodafone-allegedly-employing-
aggressive-sales-tactics-consumer-group-523045

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