Read the case and answer

An Ethical Dilemma

Ethics is a critical component when interacting with customers. Companies that have good ethical practices will retain and grow their customer base while those that operate unethically may be putting their customers and their firms at risk.

Instructions: Read the following case and identify all the situations in the case that you feel are not acceptable (either ethically or morally) and briefly explain why you feel the situation is not acceptable. This is not an essay, you can number the situations you identify in the order they appear in the case, outline in a few sentences what the problem is then in one or two sentences explain why this is a problem. Please list as many as you can find and please remember to look at this from a Canadian perspective as, in some countries, a few of the practices outlined in the case may be acceptable.

Example: Let's say Judy was late leaving her house for work so she drove as fast as she could, often exceeding the speed limit, then when she arrived there were no parking spaces left so she parked in the plaza across the street that has signs posted everywhere indicating that the parking spaces are for customers only and that all other vehicles will be tagged and towed. Answer: 1) Judy is driving above the speed limit to get to work. This is dangerous to other vehicles and pedestrians and could result in Judy being given a speeding ticket and, more importantly, she could cause damage to property and injure or kill another person should she lose control of her vehicle. 2) Judy is parking in an area she is not authorized to park in. This reduces the spaces available for people shopping at the plaza and also sets a bad example for the staff of Judy's Branch which may lead to other staff members choosing to park at the plaza. Judy could also be given a ticket and her car could be towed off the lot to a compound which would be expensive for her.

Case - An ethical Dilemma

Judy is the Assistant Manager at the local bank and she is taking her Canadian Securities Course part time in the evenings in hopes of becoming a Stock Broker. John is a Stock Broker who works in the same branch as Judy and has been helping her with the material she is learning and teaching her about his job. Today they are reviewing the file of Charles Halderman, who deals with John but does not maintain accounts in Judy's Branch. "Charles owns a travel agency" explains John. "Whenever I need a good deal on a trip I contact him and whenever I have a stock tip I pass it on to him. As you can see by the file, I review his portfolio each year and sell the lowest performing stocks using the funds to buy new stocks. That way he sees that I am doing something for him and I make some money doing it. I need to make money to cover my expenses. Last week I paid for a prospective new customer to fly to Las Vegas for the weekend at the casino. I sure hope he will bring his account to me soon" said John.

Judy is amazed at how complex John's job is. She wants to show her appreciation for John's help so she takes some money out of her head teller's cash drawer and buys her and John a coffee. When Judy returns she opens a letter addressed to her and discovers that she has been named as a beneficiary in one of her deceased customer's will and she will soon receive a cheque for $10,000. This is great news so she opens the computer on her desk and takes a few minutes to place a bid through her e-bay account on the diamond necklace she has been keeping an eye on. While she is on-line she answers a few personal e-mails and updates her Face Book profile. With that completed she can now continue working on a brochure outlining why her customers should bank at her branch. Recently her branch lost several customers to another bank down the street and Judy wants to ensure that her customers know how bad the service is in the other

bank and that the people who work at that bank can't be trusted.

It is noon at the Branch and Mrs. Ariel, the branch's wealthiest customer has arrived. Once a year Judy takes Mrs. Ariel out to lunch at the local fish and chip shop to thank her for all her business (Judy uses the bank's credit card to pay for the lunch). The last time they went out they spent most of the meal discussing how poorly Mrs. Ariel's 23 year old daughter manages her money. Judy told Mrs. Ariel that the branch was considering closing her daughter's account due to the number of NSF cheques her daughter had written. This prompted Mrs. Ariel to have a discussion with her daughter and the situation has now improved.

When Judy returned from lunch there was a phone message on her voice mail from the Crown Attorney's office asking her to fax to them copies of the last three monthly statements for the account of Arthur Bridges. Judy printed the statements off her computer and faxed them as requested. The next message on her phone notified her that the person cleaning the branch each evening would be retiring next month. Judy had been hoping this would happen as she felt the bank was paying too much for the cleaning contract and her uncle is in the cleaning business. She know she will charge less as he has twin 13 year old girls who do most of the cleaning for him and he only pays them $5 per hour each. This will be a great opportunity for the bank to save money.

After taking care of her voice mail Judy begins preparations for tomorrow's customer appreciation day. The bank will be serving coffee and cookies to the customers and Judy recently ordered a supply of pens with the bank's phone number engraved on them which she will be giving out to the customers. With the preparations ready and the bank now closed Judy calls the staff together for their weekly meeting. Today Judy will be giving her head teller Grace an award for selling the bank's gold service charge plans. Judy has asked Grace to explain how she is able to sell the plan to every customer,young and old, by automatically adding it to their account after they complete their transaction. Judy must also remind her team that their individual "Ethics and Privacy" annual test is now six months past due and should be completed as soon as possible.