Factors Influencing Behavior (Comparable to Independent Variables)
These are the organizational and social pressures that lead to unethical practices:
Organizational Pressure and Sales Targets: Constant pressure from managers to
meet high sales goals.
+1
Inadequate Training: Superficial or insufficient training that often encourages
skipping ethical guidance.
+2
Hierarchical Environment: A culture where employees mimic the behavior of
senior staff and managers to maintain social order or avoid being excluded.
+3
Incentive Systems: Rewarding only the achievement of sales results rather than
ethical conduct.
+2
Market Domination: A retail banking market in Brazil controlled by a few
institutions, which limits consumer choice and increases institutional power.
+1
Resulting Outcomes (Comparable to Dependent Variables)
These are the behaviors and justifications observed among the bank employees:
Unethical Sales Practices: Recommending products that benefit the bank's profit
over the customer's needs (e.g., selling capitalization bonds with low returns).
+4
Moral Reasoning Levels: The stage at which employees justify their actions, based
on Kohlberg's Cognitive Moral Development Theory:
+1
o Preconventional (Stage 2): Acting out of self-interest to reach targets and
keep their jobs.
+2
o Conventional (Stages 3 & 4): Seeking approval from peers or following the
"unwritten rules" set by authorities.
+2
Consumer Responsibilization (Blaming the Customer): Using the "it's not my
fault" discourse to shift responsibility onto the customer for not reading contracts or
managing money better.
+2
"Give-and-Take" Relationships: Using trust and "favors" as a tool to persuade
customers to buy products they may not need
To relate the findings of the study to the concepts of formal, content, and relational ethics,
you can structure your discussion around how the bank's actual environment either supports
or contradicts these frameworks.
Here is how the study’s results serve as a supporting discussion for each:
1. Formal Ethics: The Gap Between Rules and Reality
Formal ethics refers to the official codes of conduct, written rules, and compliance documents
established by an organization.
The Disconnect: The study highlights a major gap between "paper ethics" and "floor
reality." While banks have formal codes, employees often ignore them to meet sales
targets.
Supporting Point: You can argue that formal ethics are ineffective when
the incentive structure (bonuses and job security) rewards the opposite of what the
code dictates. The paper mentions that employees view formal training as a "box-
ticking" exercise, often skipping through materials to get back to sales.
2. Content Ethics: What is Actually Being Sold
Content ethics focuses on the substance of the products and the information provided—
ensuring that the "content" of the deal is fair and transparent.
The Disconnect: The research shows that bank employees often push products with
poor returns (like certain capitalization bonds) because they carry high profit margins
for the bank.
Supporting Point: Use the study’s finding on "Consumer
Responsibilization" here. Employees justify selling poor "content" by claiming it is
the customer's job to be financially literate. This shifts the ethical burden of the
product's quality away from the seller and onto the buyer, undermining the core
principles of content ethics.
3. Relational Ethics: The Misuse of Trust
Relational ethics looks at the quality of the relationship between the professional and the
client, emphasizing care, mutual respect, and long-term trust.
The Disconnect: The study describes a "give-and-take" or "mercantile" approach to
relationships. Employees may perform small favors or build rapport not out of
genuine care, but as a strategic tool to make the customer feel "indebted," making
them more likely to agree to a sale later.
Supporting Point: This research provides a "dark side" perspective to relational
ethics. It shows that in a high-pressure sales environment, the relationship
becomes instrumental (a means to an end) rather than intrinsic(valuable for its own
sake).