Whistle Blowing

Sherry Hunt was the vice-president at Citigroup mortgage unit. Citigroup is ranked as the third largest bank in the United States. They employ approximately 263,000 employees with assets at $1.94 trillion. As the third largest bank they're responsible for approximately 3.5% of all home loans. In 2004, Hunt was responsible for approximately 65 underwriters under her position as vice-president.

Their duties were to prevent risky investments and fraud against Citigroup. Their mortgage unit is separated into six sections. Section 1 buys loans from brokers and outside vendors. Section 2 use underwriters who examine and approve loans. Section 3 is the quality control unit who look for fraudulent activity. Section 4A investigates fraud. If there is any case of fraud Citi is to report their investigation to Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Housing Administration. Section 4B is used to reaffirm quality control or dispute their findings. Lastly, section 5, sells loans to the general public approved by Citi and backed by the FHA. These sections work cohesively to ensure quality loans through a checks and balances system.

However, Sherry Hunt, disputes Citi's loyalty to the general public. On an individual level, Hunt battled the loyalty between her and her employer, moral obligations to the public and her financial responsibility owed to her family that maybe disrupted from whistle blowing.

Citi has built their loan process on a system of checks and balances to ensure compliance with federal mandates. Hunts' work attitude changed tremendously when she realized headquarters did not respond to her concerns of fraud. She now has a negative view of her employer (affect). She also has a negative cognition of her employer. Citi's greed to produce more loans superseded loyalty to the general public. In return she decided to go against Citigroup and sue them civilly (behavior).

On a group level, Hunt felt out of place after she blew the whistle on her employer. She went against the social norms within the group. The norms or mentality of the employees was to push as many loans as possible. Approved loans at Citigroup gave employees rewards based on the number of approved loans. Even executive officers received incentives for high loan approvals. Hunt stated their company was processing too many loans to check for any misrepresentations (production). It became sociably acceptable within the organization to cut corners in regards