Mba402 Code Of Conduct In Assessment Answer

Introduction

Common wealth Bank of Australia is the leading provider of integrated services in the financial sector. They are in inclusive of premium banking, business banking, retail and institutional banking, superannuation insurance, and share broking products and services. The company is governed by the code of conduct that defines how relationships within the company are protected and established (British Psychological Society, 1991).

Our Principles

All the company directors, employees and customers of the company are expected at all times to respect and operate under the following principles

1. Discrimination is against the company laws and regulations despite the nature of discrimination. All cases of discriminations are punishable by suspensions or termination.


Any form of exploitation by either the employees or the customers are against the company code of conduct
Corruption within the company between the company employees and the customers is highly forbidden with immediate termination of the involved parties.
Dishonest and fraudulent behaviours are not in accordance with the company or in connection to any company policies.
Whistleblowers are protected by the company and are respected for the sacrifices for the company’s operations.
Enforcement of the company principles is expected by all the company stakeholders and the company employees.

Discrimination

Discrimination is defined as the unjust or the prejudicial treatment of different categories of people in our case the company which is just to both the employees, the customers and the shareholders. Commonwealth company has categorized the different forms of discriminations that go against the company policies in to several categories: sex discrimination, Age discrimination and Race discrimination (CASH, P et al., 2014).

Age discrimination

According to the definition of discrimination under common wealth Bank of Australia age discrimination s the unjust treatment of a customer or employee due to their age. The company operates on fair grounds that no one should be discriminated due to their age. The company values all its employees and respects their efforts disregarding their ages or age different. The cod of conduct emphasis on equal treatment of all the employees in the company since their presence within the company and their contributions are irreplaceable (Van Wee, B., 2015). The company takes age discrimination offenses seriously with strict repercussions for the violators of the principles. 

Customer age discrimination case is also highlighted where all the commonwealth customers are to be treated equally despite the age difference (White, B.J. and Montgomery, B.R., 1980). Any report of discrimination within the company is a violation of the company code of conduct which is also highly forbidden. Customers play such a huge role in the company’s growth and have seen the company grow tremendously over the years

Sex Discrimination

Common wealth bank of Australia operates in a gender equal environment with a fair treatment to all the employees despite the gender difference. Sex discrimination which is also referred to as gender discrimination is defined as the unfair treatment of the other person-based on their gender difference. The company respects both the male and female gender as well as the respective sex orientation of the employees. The company takes seriously gender associated cases. Employees are expected to respect their workmates both male and female (Kolk, A. and Van Tulder, R., 2002). The company offer fair and equal opportunities to both the male and the female gender with an equal salary pay for both genders. Common wealth bank does not offer favors in regards to an employee’s gender and incase of such incidences the involved victim is required to receive compensation and the involved victimizing body charged. Promotions within the company are not based on gender related frameworks but on an honest qualification certification basis. Cases of sex discrimination within the company operations are also highly punishable.

Customer gender discrimination is also not allowed within the company, it is against the code of conduct requirement as it defines a fair customer treatment platform. Common wealth ban offering services to its customers means the company attends to all sex undiscriminatively (Vogel, D., 2010).

Race discrimination

This is another form of discrimination that within the company is defined as the unfair treatment of others based on their skin color. The company takes the offense extremely serious since race discrimination is one of the leading challenges in the world. The company having grown into different parts of the world has absorbed people from all races and any case associated with racial discrimination is punishable by immediate termination this applies to all levels of operations in the company. The company also protects customers interest and strictly protects the customers from any race discrimination by the company employees. It is the duty of the employees in the company to ensure the customers’ interests are meet despite their race. 

Exploitation

According the company definition of exploitation, this is the act of treating someone unfairly with selfish motives that lead to personal gains within the company. This applies to all the company shareholders and the employees. It does not exclude the management team but is inclusive of all level employees in the company. The company has formulated different forms of exploitation that are covered in the company.

Employee to employee exploitation

This is the first level of exploitation which involves two employees within the same level of operation in the company. Under no circumstance is any employee allowed to take advantage of the other employee by either allocating them duties that they are supposed to handle. This form of exploitation found in departmental level is highly prohibited. The employees are expected to meet their duties without imposing control or these duties to others.

Manger to employee exploitation

This is the other level of exploitation which is highly prohibited in the company. The managers falling under the management level of the company are not supposed to take advantage of the employees beneath them. The company offers managerial position to employees with the leadership skill and qualifications which does not advocate for the misuse of one’s power. In case of such cases the company is expected to immediate withdraw power from the manager involved in the act since they do not have the leadership quality expected of a manager (Christodoulou, J., 2016). The company operates on a fair treatment bases where all the employees are highly respected and expected to meet their responsibilities without taking advantage of any one in the company.

company asset and employee exploitation

This is the level of exploitation that involves the use of company asset for personal gain. Common wealth has assts all over the country in different offices and location but the property is to be used for the company requirements only (Green, S. and Workman, K., 2015). This should be the key understanding for all the company employees and the misuse of the company assets and property for personal gain by the company employees is highly prohibited. 

Corruption

Corruption is a topic covered in different context but as per Commonwealth bank of Australia the perfect definition for the term corruption is the dishonest conduct of those in power by the practice of receiving bribery so that they may offer different gains benefits or services to others below them within the company or the customers. The workers of commonwealth bank of AU should be aware of the company’s position regarding corruption. The company significantly disapproves such acts and are punishable by immediate termination of an employee’s work agreement (Green, S. and Workman, K., 2015). The company does not take any excuses regarding corruption with all forms of corruptions manned by the company. The aims of corruption may be due to different reasons such as promotions or other favors in the company but in case of such situations the involved parties and immediately laid off since such a culture is not tolerated in the company. Employees also involved with corruption cases concerning the customers are also immediately terminated from service since this is unethical and goes agonies the company’s terms of operations both between the employee and the company and the customers relations with the company. All these are highly condemned by the company. A corrupt culture results the loss of the company’s trustworthiness and this has been the most respected trait of the company to the customers (Green, S. and Workman, K., 2015). The company also takes this as the appropriate way to bring up a rotten culture within the company hence needs to be rooted out before it even gets off the ground. Corruption is one of the greatest offences in the company that is not at all contained in the company. Common wealth believes on operating in a fair and corrupt free environment and has been integrated into the company’s culture for years and not changing any time some. Operating in the financial industry has led to the sensitive measures in relation to corruption in the country (Sethi, S., 2016).

The company employees should not:

• By no chance should they offer or receive any bribes from fellow employees or the customers. The bribes may be offered for different reasons such as personal promotions in the company, added services to their standard level. Also, from customers bribes in order to get there serve time accelerated or other unlawful needs.
• Also, the employees should not receive gifts, hospitality or any form of entertainment in breach of the company policies. The company categorizes this as a different form of bribe but does not change its status from a bribe and its repercussions still remain the same.
• Commonwealth bank employees on the other hand should as well not give gifts or entertainment iso as to receive any form of favors that are in breach of the company policies, these are as well perceived as corruptions just of a different status but the outcome remains the same as well.    

Dishonest and fraudulent behaviours.

All the commonwealth Bank employees are expected to be honest in all their dealings and operations. The company advocated for accountability for all the employees which is expected them while they operate in one of the most sensitive industries in the country, where the company is expected to deliver honestly to its customers. For this to be achieved the company does not take lightly any Dishonest and fraudulent behaviours from its employees. Having to operate on the trust of t customers, it is expected of the company employees to respect these acts. Despite the situations that an employee is faced by, honesty is the number one requirement to get through the predicament if any. Having to interact with different people and operations within the company setup, the employees are deemed to find themselves in compromising situations but the company does not condone any form of fraudulent behaviours from them. Every employee of the company signs honesty agreement formats the start of their working relation with the company and a breach of this means a breach of the working terms with the company and allows the company to terminate the relationship with the employee immediately (Egels-Zandén, N. and Lindholm, H., 2015).

Whistleblowers

The company highly values the Whistleblowers in the company and ensure that they are highly appreciated. They are the different parties who inform the company’s administration on activities that are illegally operated in the company. The identity of the Whistleblowers is highly important for their protection and the company encourages Whistleblowers to come forward so as to ensure that the company runs smoothly (Jenkins, R. and Unies, N., 2001). The company has a protection program to secure the Whistleblowers in the company which involves a number of steps: 

Information reporting: this step involves the passing of the information to the involved body that is the administration sector of the company.

Validation of the information: this sector involves the investigation stage where the information from the Whistleblowers is verified for its legitimacy and the minute this is clarified the Whistleblowers is first protected from any exposure or identity disclosure (Leipziger, D., 2017).

Right measure: the stage involves acting on the provided information and incase it affects the company’s operations then the necessary steps taken, a rewarding program for the Whistleblowers is also put in place although this is also personal and securely carried out to maintained Whistleblower’s identity

Enforcement

The company enforces all it a law and polices indiscriminately and a breach of any policy Commonwealth of Australia takes the appropriate measure in relation to the breach by the commonwealth employees. The enforcement is entitled to follow the specific steps or procedure set in relation to the different policies that govern the company (Soltani, B. and Maupetit, C., 2015). In case of a deviation of the set enforcement policy, then the employees are in position to demand for there rights as per the company’s policies (McCabe, D.L., Trevino, L.K. and Butterfield, K.D., 1996).   

References

British Psychological Society, 1991. Code of conduct, ethical principles & guidelines. The Society.

CASH, P., REIMBURSEMENT, E., ORDERS, P., PURCHASES, I. and PURCHASES, E., 2014. code of conduct.

Christodoulou, J., 2016, April. Code of conduct. In Safety and Reliability (Vol. 36, No. 2, pp. 124-128). Taylor & Francis.

Cuomo, F., Mallin, C. and Zattoni, A., 2016. Corporate governance codes: A review and research agenda. Corporate governance: an international review, 24(3), pp.222-241.

Egels-Zandén, N. and Lindholm, H., 2015. Do codes of conduct improve worker rights in supply chains? A study of Fair Wear Foundation. Journal of Cleaner Production, 107, pp.31-40.

Green, S. and Workman, K., 2015. Code of conduct. Policy Statement. 3 (2), pp. 14-18

Jenkins, R. and Unies, N., 2001. Corporate codes of conduct: Self-regulation in a global economy.

Kolk, A. and Van Tulder, R., 2002. The effectiveness of self-regulation:: Corporate codes of conduct and child labour. European Management Journal, 20(3), pp.260-271.

Leipziger, D., 2017. The corporate responsibility code book. Routledge.

McCabe, D.L., Trevino, L.K. and Butterfield, K.D., 1996. The influence of collegiate and corporate codes of conduct on ethics-related behavior in the workplace. Business Ethics Quarterly, pp.461-476.

Sethi, S., 2016. Globalization and self-regulation: The crucial role that corporate codes of conduct play in global business. Springer. 21 (3), pp. 114-178

Soltani, B. and Maupetit, C., 2015. Importance of core values of ethics, integrity and accountability in the European corporate governance codes. Journal of Management & Governance, 19(2), pp.259-284.

Van Wee, B., 2015. Towards a code of conduct for clients of research?. 2 (3), pp. 10-17

Vogel, D., 2010. The private regulation of global corporate conduct: Achievements and limitations. Business & Society, 49(1), pp.68-87.

White, B.J. and Montgomery, B.R., 1980. Corporate codes of conduct. California management review, 23(2), pp.80-87.