Analysis of National Australia Bank's Code of Conduct and Ethics

This report analyzes the National Australia Bank's (NAB) Code of Conduct, focusing on ethics, governance, and sustainability. It examines key aspects such as discrimination, exploitation, corruption, dishonest and fraudulent behavior, whistleblower protection, and enforcement. The report highlights the importance of ethical principles, transparency, and accountability within the organization. It provides examples of how the code addresses issues like workplace discrimination, employee misconduct, and financial crimes such as money laundering and fraud. The report emphasizes the role of the code in preventing unethical practices, protecting employees, and ensuring the NAB operates with integrity and in accordance with the law. It also discusses the enforcement mechanisms and the importance of whistleblower protection in maintaining a responsible and ethical work environment. The conclusion stresses the significance of the Code of Conduct in shaping the relationship between the company and its employees, and in upholding ethical standards.

Running Head: Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability Code of Conduct
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National Australia Bank.
Governance, Ethics, and Sustainability Code of Conduct
5/2/2019

Code of Conduct 1
Introduction
Ethics and governance are required in every organization to ensure the proper transparency,
accountability, stability, rule of the law and empowerment. Ethics and governance are the rules
and the policies, which directs and controls the corporation. Ethics are the set of principles which
helps in determining which activities are right and which actions are wrong (Wright and
Rwabizambug, 2016).
Code of conduct of the National Australia Bank will be explained which provides the staff the
clear standard about their jobs. Code of the conduct is the ethical principles which are required in
the workplace so that honesty, integrity and unbiased in the NAB can be maintained (Klioueva,
et al., 2015). The report will explain the certain code of conduct such as the exploitation,
discrimination, corruption, enforcement, whistleblower protection, etc. in regards to the National
Australian Bank.

Code of Conduct 2
National Australian Bank
It is the fourth major company in Australia, which provides the financial services to the
customers. The company was originated in 1982 and has the headquarter in Melbourne,
Australia. However, in the present era, the company was facing huge problems so they decided
to follow the policies of the code of conduct (Thomson and Jain, 2016). The company was
facing a problem in internet banking, as their balances were not properly displaying. They are
facing a major issue with the widespread system outages. Another problem was seen with the
mobile app as it was affecting the debit and credit balances. The code of conduct of the NAB’s
outlines the ethical conduct and the standards of the responsibility, which drive the right things.
Discrimination
Discrimination can be defined as to make the distinction in any activity. Discrimination can be
referred to as to make the treatment of the individual or the group in an unfair way. There should
be no discrimination based on age, color, religion, gender, disability (Friedberg, 2014).
Every person in the NAB’s should be treated with equality and there should be no discrimination
based on the characteristics such as the race, gender, act, etc. If any person discriminates any
person and does not act equally with the customers or the employees then they may be
eliminated from, the company and the fines can be imposed on them.
At the workplace of the NAB's one employee's Tony was discriminated by the team of the
employees as they were making the fun and teasing the one employee. Tony was teased with
feminine characteristics (Hill, 2012). Another employee Wialliam also teased Tony by saying
that the shirt he is wearing is the gay shirt today. As Tony knows that, everyone was just joking
but the one employee Jane was not satisfied with his or her offensive comments and offends the
employees that to behave in such manner is not acceptable in the workplace. As per the Code of
the Conduct, the employees have to apologies the Tony and they were warned that such behavior
will not accept further and harsh actions will be engaged against them. Code of conduct
maintains enthusiasm in the workplace.

Code of Conduct 3
Exploitation
Any kind of the ill-treatment, misused language, taking the advantage and benefit from the work,
or any action or the fact which treats the employees or the customers unfairly is treated as
exploitation. Exploitation in the workplace is against the rules and principles and it is not
acceptable. If any employee gets misbehaved with another employee then, he may be suspected
or penalized with the high amount (Enofe, et al., 2015).
In the company NAB, one employee David consumed a lot of alcohol and behaves
inappropriately with another employee Joanne. At the workplace, he tried to grab Joanne and try
to kiss her. Joanne has a complaint against him that she was being harassed at the workplace. As
per the policy of the Discrimination and the Harassment, the employment of David was
terminated. Although he acts misbehaved in the company organized the function but that
function only so this misconduct happens in the official terms only (Beyea, 2011). The code of
conduct specifies that it is the responsibility of the leader of the company to ensure that alcohol
is not served at the maximum level.
Code of conduct clearly states that there should be no exploitation of the employees in a sexual
manner. NAB’s employees involved in the money laundering services, which exploits the
customers. Code of conduct helps the company in preventing certain criminal activities such as
the money laundering and many other implicit activities.
Corruption
It is the criminal activity, which involves in the bribery. Corruption has a huge effect on the
character of the company. Corruption is against the ethical values and justice and it threatens the
economic development of the company. There were many employees in the company who
involves in fraudulent activity such as the bribery, nepotism, embezzlement, etc. Corruption is an
illegal activity, which, issues the public power for their personal gain.
As per the code of conduct of NAB’s corrupted activity is not accepted in the workplace and it is
considered as the criminal act. Any corrupted activity is the dishonest act, which causes financial
loss to the company (Lin, et al., 2016). The policies and the standards are set for the Anti-
Bribery and Corruption, which states that it is the responsibility of the employee to comply with
the supervisory and lawful requirements in relation to the corruption and bribery (Rose, 2015).

Code of Conduct 4
Every employee must be aware of the unusual activity of the customers to ensure that bribery
and corruption should be minimized.
Corruption also creates conflicts with the morals and ethics. Code of conduct helps the NAB in
dealing with the activities involved in the bribery and corruption (Chen, et al., 2015). The first
the code is drafted then it is implemented and then it is enforced in the company. Corruption
activities in the bank not only affect the company but also affects the functioning of the nation’s
so the code of conduct has framed the policies who reduce corruption.
Dishonest and Fraudulent Behavior
Any activity or the behavior is considered as the fraudulent or the dishonest when the interest of
the one person has affected the interest of another person. It is the criminal activity in the
working place, which includes imprisonment. In the working place, the employees of the NAB
deal with the market-abusing manner with the customers is not acceptable. Any activity
performed by the employee for the personal gain and it causes loss to another person is the
dishonest and the fraudulent activity (Rahman and Anwar, 2014).
Code of the conduct states that if the employees are engaged in the deceiving act and mislead the
allegations that it is considered as the fraudulent act and it is not acceptable. The fraudulent
actions are the dishonest actions in which employee’s theft the data, money or property and
conceal the data falsely. The code of conduct has outlined the Anti-Fraud standards in which the
employees have to act honestly to prevent fraud activities (Njenga, 2013).
In the company, one of the employees Olivia has prevented the fraud by noticing that the name
and signature provided to the customers are not matched with the credit card. Later on, when the
investigation has revealed it was found that the customers were using the number of accounts to
prevent taxation. As per the policies, Olivia was alert in recognizing the fraud and her team
rewarded her (Enofe, et al., 2015).

Code of Conduct 5
Whistle-blower Protections
In the working place of the NAB's many activities are involved which are unethical, illegal, and
not accurate so whistleblower is the one who perceives or disclosures any kind of such
information either publically or privately. Whistleblower protection act was launched in 1989,
which is the federal law reports the activity, which is violating the rules, regulations and the laws
of the company or the code of conduct.
Whistleblower program gives the protection and the support to the employees when they report
the misconduct of any illegal activities. NAB does not tolerate the threats of the reprisals so the
code of conduct has developed this legal protection act which defends the employees from the
violation and unethical activities (Yeoh, 2014). According to the act of the whistleblower and
program, the person should blow the whistle when they found any criminal activity.
As per the code of conduct, if the person is avail by the unethical activities and illegal things
happening in the NAB and still eh is not blowing the whistle than he is also considered as the
unethical and illegal person. If the person is not informing the company about the wrong things
that he is also considered as wrong as strict, actions are taken against him or his employment can
also be terminated (Brilmayer, 2010). The whistleblower programs help in evaluating the fraud,
corruption, harassment, etc. and tries to prevent them and make the working culture and
environment of the NAB ethically and legally.
In the company NAB many employees are engaged in the activities of the evaluating the
information of the customers, making the false transfers in the accounts misuse the resources of
the NAB, so to safeguard such public interest the whistleblower program is effective (Leifer,
2014). Whistleblower protection also helps the NAB in maintain integrity and accountability.
The person who blows the whistle is rewarded by the company and the employees who are
involved in the illegal and the criminal activities are terminated from the company and highly
penalties are imposed on them.
Enforcement
As per the code of conduct Enforcement law is essential in the company as it helps the NAB in
acting with an organized manner (Tyler, et al., 2015). If any rules, regulations and the principles
set by the code of conduct is not accepted by the employees of the Nab than they will be

Code of Conduct 6
rehabilitee, punished, and deterred to violate the rules and the norms of the code of conduct. The
enforcement law is also concerned with the punishment and the prevention of crimes in the
working environment.
In the company NAB, the enforcement law is made on the security interest and the recovery of
the debt laws. There were many customers in the company who didn’t pay their interest and the
principal amount on the maturity period so the laws are enforced to recover the debt. When the
NAB grants any loan to its customers the security is taken. So as per the code of conduct, the law
is enforced for the security interest for the welfare of the company. Code of conduct helps the
company in maintains the ethical framework and decreases the misconduct in the organization.

Code of Conduct 7
Conclusion
It has been analyzed that ethics and governance are very essential in the company as they set the
ethical framework. Code of conduct is the rules which outline the social norms and provides the
standard for effective working. Code of conduct helps in maintaining the relationship between
the company and the employees. Code of conduct of the NAB is outlined which clearly states
that any activity performed in the company should be prevented from the fraudulent and the
corrupted activity. Any activity in the NAB should not be involved in the misconduct, illegal
things, unethical works as it is against the code of conduct and it is not acceptable in the
company.
In this report, the major focused has been put on the certain code of conduct, which was clearly
explained such as the law of enforcement, corruption and fraudulently acts. Every person in the
As per the code of the conduct, if the employees are engaged in the deceiving act and mislead the
allegations that it is considered as the fraudulent act and it is not acceptable. Code of the conduct
is the ethical values which are required in the workplace so that honesty, integrity and unbiased
in the NAB can be maintained.

Code of Conduct 8
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Code of Conduct 9
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