Wells F. is the President of a small bank that has one branch. He decides that to increase sales and profits, all branch employees should increase cross-selling. Cross-selling involves selling other banking products to customers who already have a product (for example, selling personal loans and credit cards to customers with checking accounts.) Wells sets very aggressive cross-selling goals for each branch employee. He does not give employees the freedom to make their own decisions, expects them to follow his orders, and tells them to “do whatever it takes” to increase cross-selling.

To meet the cross-selling targets, branch employees reluctantly begin to engage in numerous types of unethical behaviors. These include signing up customers for new products without telling them, and telling them that they need separate checking accounts for different types of expenditures (e.g., separate accounts for rent, groceries, and emergencies.) The branch employees often use these tactics on the most vulnerable customers (e.g., the elderly, people with poor English skills.)

Using utilitarian, rights, and virtue ethical frameworks, explain why the employees’ behaviors are unethical?