Ethical Case Study – Code of conduct of Woolworth and its violations
Abstract / Executive Summary
Following is a case study arising from a recent article in the Age May 17 , 2012.
“A SENIOR executive at the supermarket giant Woolworths sent a stream of inside information to particular companies to ensure they won nearly $40 million worth of computer contracts in return for $3.7 million in kickbacks, a court has heard. He then allegedly used a complex web of companies in the British Virgin Islands to launder the proceeds and hide the money trail. A former general manager of information services at Woolworths, David Wills, is on trial in the Downing Centre District Court on 24 charges, including fraud, money laundering and fabricating evidence to mislead a tribunal. On trial alongside him are Peter and Carroll Henderson, a husband and wife who ran a company that was allegedly awarded contracts as part of the alleged fraud. In his opening address to the jury yesterday, the Crown prosecutor Sunil de Silva said the three accused were part of a conspiracy in which Mr Wills used his position to ensure contracts for computer hardware and software were won by the Hendersons’ company, Smart Repair Terminals, or a foreign company which they acted as agents for, Azben Electronics.” Mr Wills used his position at Woolworths to influence both the awarding of contracts and the quantity of equipment,
Introduction
There are several ways in which the violation of ethical standards can be avoided. Government as well as companies have taken several steps to stop violations in terms of court proceedings and charging taxes etc. Although, these steps do not completely remove the act of ethical violations but violations have been controlled to an extent (Whitman & Mattord, 2008).
The case study is about the adherence of code of ethics of the company in any matter of the company. Within the ICT Division it is necessary for all the professional personnel that they adhere to the Code of Ethics and conduct through the need to clearly identify their types of professional relationship for involvement in different types they will be encounter throughout their IT Careers (Whitman & Mattord, 2008).
Where the ICT Professional within the ICT division of Woolworths should inherit Code OF Ethics and its governess policies need to monitor that the keys of areas are properly followed by the ICT Professionals.
This practical case study related to ethical issues will help students to observe the nature of ethical issues, revise their knowledge that they have gained in the unit and apply that knowledge practically.
The structure of the report has been designed in a simple manner that the idea and objective of the report can be fulfilled properly. The report has an abstract, introduction, main body or discussion related to case study and ethical issues and a conclusion at the end. All the steps and headings are synchronized and sequenced properly so that idea behind the issue can be explained to the potential reader.
Case study Description
In this case study, a real case has been discussed regarding unethical and fraudulent behaviour of employees of Woolworths by awarding 40 contracts to the companies by getting large amount of kickbacks against awarding those contracts (Bibby, 2012).
Employees performed several unethical practices to just awarding contracts to few companies with their powerful influence. Moreover, they tried to hide the money trail as well. They have done injustice with their jobs intentionally and also provided information to other companies which are an unfair act from every side. This kind of activity is purely unethical and damages the beauty of merit and equality. In this type of situations, several issues of inequality and partiality arise (Bibby, 2012).
Identification of Ethical Issues
- The first breach of ethical code of practices is the injustice with the job by providing secret information to a non-authorized party illegally against potential kickbacks. Was this act ethical or not?
- The second ethical issue is whether this decision helps the society and the people or not.
Identifies the stakeholders and how they may be affected
The major stakeholders of this case are employees, investors or owners, contractors, and society connected with the company directly as an end consumer etc. One thing is pretty much clear that the act of leaking secret information for the sake of getting bribery is totally unethical. All the stakeholders will be affected in terms of high price of products and then customers also have to pay the same additional price for buying products over the store (Workman & Gathegi, 2007).
The internal stakeholders may be affected due to decrease in the quality of products and low sales subsequently decrease the profit as well. The goodwill of the company will also be affected because good contractors and suppliers will be very careful while taking part in the tendering process of Woolworth (Young, 2010).
Possible actions and the consequences
There are several actions that should be taken to ensure that goodwill of the company is protected in a big way. For example, one action has already been taken by the court. Court has proceeded against responsible persons so that a proper inquiry can be done to understand the grounds of the issue (Zetter, 2010).
Some proposed actions may include the use of strong information technology system, application of strict code of ethics and evaluation of those standards from third parties from time to time, heavy penalties for ethical violations and strict trails against the victims of ethical violations. Due to this incident, the goodwill of the company will be affected in such a way that contractors will be careful while taking part in the tendering process. On the other hand, loss of sales and customers may also be possible due to contracting with low quality product suppliers (Bibby, 2012).
The benefits of leaking this information had only to contractors and few employees but the loss may have been occurred by investors, customers and society at large.
Provides the rationale for appropriate actions
The major rationale behind the strict actions is based on the policy of the company and government pertinent to ethical code of conducts.
The policy ‘Code of ethics and Conduct’ (Woolworth 2010, pp.31) is a general ‘set of principles that guide the conduct of everyone associated with the Company’. Furthermore, ‘this Code details policies, procedures and guidelines aimed at ensuring that the highest ethical standards, corporate behaviour and accountability are maintained’.
The key principles of this Code (Woolworth 2010, pp.23), for all employees to adhere to, include:
- Respect the law and act in accordance with it;
- Respect confidentiality and not misuse Group information, assets or facilities;
- Avoid real or perceived conflicts of interest;
- Contribute to our reputation as a good corporate citizen which seeks the respect of the communities and environments in which we operate;
Hire Expert Writers at Affordable Price
WhatsApp
Get Assignment Help
