As CNN Money stated “Everyone hates paying banking fees, imagine paying fees on a ghost account that you didn’t even sign up for” and that’s exactly what happened to Wells Fargo customers. Federal Regulators released information that Wells Fargo employees had created millions of unauthorized bank and credit card accounts and employees went as far as to create fake emails and fake bank pin numbers.

When John Strumpf, the CEO of Wells Fargo, was asked about the unethical and shady business practices he shifted the blame onto low level Wells Fargo employees instead of taking responsibility. However, I believe Strumpf and the board of directors are responsible as they had created the corporate culture and the atmosphere for the unethical practices that took place at Wells Fargo.

Wells Fargo forced unrealistic daily quotas on opening new accounts and on selling extra services, such as overdraft protection, and employees that were short of their quota were forced to stay overtime or work weekends to meet their goal. If employees failed to meet their quotas they were threatened with unemployment. When it was evident that unethical practices were taking place the managers protected employees that were fraudulently opening accounts and punished those who did not participate by firing them.

(Image source: CNN Money)

Instead of motivating employees by setting “SMART” (specific, measurable, attainable, result-oriented and time-bound) goals, by making quotas attainable, they chose to threaten employees instead.  Its plainly obvious to me that Wells Fargo created a corporate culture where employees were expected to create unauthorized accounts in order to meet unrealistic daily quotas and continue to create unauthorized accounts or face the consequences of unemployment.

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