Under Pressure: Wells Fargo, Misconduct, Leadership and Culture

Consistent with our mission to bring timely and relevant research to the business ethics community, Ethical Systems has just published a new electronic resource: Under Pressure: Wells Fargo, Misconduct, Leadership and Culture [updated May 2018 to include a new Executive Summary and further details about the case].

This case study, created by Bharathy Premachandra, our 2017 Bryan Turner Intern in Business Ethics, with Azish Filabi, Executive Director of Ethical Systems, spotlights the lessons learned from the recent scandal at Wells Fargo around false accounts, inflated sales targets and misguided directives from bank executives.

Under Pressure takes a candid look at the factors contributing to the scandal that wound up costing the bank hundreds of millions in fines, a shakeup in leadership, and on-going  bad press that deeply tarnished their reputation and standing. By viewing actions through an ethical culture and leadership model, the case study examines the formal and informal systems that likely motivated the scandal, and includes perspectives on how an ethical culture could identify, or mitigate, some early warning signals.

We urge you to read this in-depth case study and share it with your network. In particular, we think this could serve as a good teaching tool for professional responsibility and business ethics classes.

We welcome your feedback and look forward to hearing how you are drawing lessons from this content.

Read and download Under Pressure: Wells Fargo, Misconduct, Leadership and Culture.

 

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