Importance of Ethics in the Workplace

Enron, Tyco, Krispy Kreme, and even Martha Stewart have had their share of ethical dilemmas and troubles. With the seemingly downward spiral of ethics in the United States, many people have begun to re-evaluate the definition and limitations of ethics, especially within the workplace. Stories of ethical problems and ethics surround people in everyday situations. Here, we will examine two case studies one of which is a story of wrongful conduct and the other is a story of serving best interest. In today's society, everyone is entitled to a rags-to-riches story and wealth beyond their wildest dreams, but is it worth the cost of overlooking and ignoring the importance of ethics?

Two popular unethical practices in today's workplace involve fraud and deceit. According to the Miniature Guide to Understanding the Foundations of Ethical Reasoning, "The proper role of ethical reasoning is to highlight acts of two kinds: Those which enhance the well-being of othersÐ'--that warrant our praiseÐ'--and those that harm or diminish the well-being of othersÐ'--and thus warrant our criticism." It goes on to say, "For any action to be unethical, it must inherently deny another person or creature some inalienable right." It refers to fraud and deceit as being unethical in-and-of themselves and defines each; "Fraud: The intentional deception that causes someone to give up property or some right." "Deceit: Representing something as true which one knows to be false in order to gain a selfish end harmful to another." (Paul & Elder 2003)

Monica's first job after transferring to Charleston, South Carolina was with a mortgage company. After four separate interviews over a period of four weeks, she believed this company was a reputable company to work for considering its extensive interviewing process. Monica started training as a loan processor not long after she started with the company. The training experience was very in-depth but mostly "hands-on". As she trained with each of the six processors with the company, she quickly realized that each person had a different procedure he or she followed for processing mortgage loans. After three months of training, Monica began to pick up the procedures and began working on her own, processing loans for a team of twenty loan officers and two team managers.

For the first three months, as Monica was consumed in training, she never noticed any unethical, deceitful or fraudulent behavior from anyone. Once she began working on her own, she realized this unethical behavior had been present since her first day of training. Monica, being a loan processor, was responsible for the specific loan from application to closing. The loan officer was responsible for taking the application and pulling a credit report. From there, the processor would make sure that the loan was closed in a timely manner "by doing whatever it took".

On numerous occasions, there were mortgagors that could not qualify for mortgage loans on their own. Monica's direct supervisor would alter various file information to make it look as though the mortgagor was a perfect candidate for a specific loan program. The information that was altered included: income documents such as W-2's, pay stubs, verification of employment, verification of deposit and source of funds, death certificates, etc. Monica's manager would do anything to earn the commission from a loan by altering any bit of information needed to complete the transaction. On one occasion, Monica's manager handed her a White-Out correction tape and a payment history and instructed her to "fix it the BEST way that you know how". Monica then stacked the file together and submitted it to the Lender with a payment history reflecting the correct information; twice 30 days late and once 90 days late. This information would have been enough to disqualify the mortgagor or qualify them for a high risk, high interest rate loan.

Two days after submission, Monica's manager came to her and asked if she had accidentally sent the "wrong information" to the Lender and if she wanted to try to "fix" her mistakes, allowing his friends to get the loan to purchase their first house. Monica was speechless and shocked that he was asking her to act in an unprofessional, unethical manner by being deceitful and committing income fraud.

Al Tibbin, of the Houston FBI claims, "We've moved from corporate fraud, which was pervasive, and now we're getting indications that mortgage fraud is a big up-and-coming problem. Mortgage fraud is a variety of practices designed to profit from real estate, commonly by doing things to artificially inflate the value of a property and then selling it or borrowing based on that amount. It can also refer to buyers who provide misleading personal information to qualify for a loan that otherwise would be beyond their means. Some acts of fraud involve misrepresenting a borrower's credit history or income in order to qualify for a hefty mortgage loan. The weight of that debt means they often end up defaulting. Nearly every scam you've heard about affects lenders, because the lenders that underwrite and fund the mortgage loans are held ultimately responsible for any fraud contained in that loan."(Sarnoff, 2005, Page 1)

Believe it or not, some companies are sticking up for keeping ethics strongly practiced in the workplace. In John Roshe's Workplace Ethics: It Starts with You, he states "We can no longer tolerate this type of behavior from anyone. It not only puts the individual at risk--it also can have an adverse impact on the company as a whole." Kit Lau has a perfect example of how his office teamed up to say the same thing.

Kit was still in the Accounting Assistant I position and his co-worker, Hanna, one of the two keyers in the Accounts Payable department, decided to take on a new position. Kit then decided to move up to become a keyer and acquired Hanna's position of Accounting Assistant II. Since Kit was moving into this new role, someone had to be hired to replace his previous position as Accounting Assistant I. His coworker, Mary, the other keyer, knew of someone who needed a job and needless to say, the position was filled quickly.

Naturally, Kit was chosen to acclimate and train the new hire, Janice, in the responsibilities she would be assuming. Kit knew there were quite a bit of responsibilities that she was to take over, none of which were difficult. The AA I position's primary responsibilities were to answer & return phone calls, respond to emails, retrieve information, and file & copy documents. Additionally, she would be proof-reading others' work as a means of ensuring accuracy. Other miscellaneous