Read the case study below and answer the questions which follow:
JPMORGAN: Should Management be Held Accountable for the Actions
of Individual Employees?
‘
Thursday, Mar. 21, 2013. Friday, the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held
hearings on JPMorgan’s $6.2 billion trading debacle from earlier this year. According to
the 307-page Senate report released Thursday, traders in JPMorgan’s chief investment
office hid underperforming derivatives; routinely exceeded bank mandated risk limits;
and manipulated the valuation of unprofitable investments to minimize losses. In
addition, the report found that JPMorgan used intimidation and deception to mislead
regulators.
Executives, including the person who managed the London operation, passed the buck down to
lower level employees, claiming that attempts to reduce risky investments were undermined by
individual traders undervaluing existing positions to minimize losses. Regulators at the Office of
the Controller of the Currency were also criticized for not identifying the losses sooner, as well as
for not being aware of JPMorgan’s $156 billion high-risk derivatives portfolio. How should blame
be allocated for the mishap? Do senior executives get a free pass for actions of subordinates
hidden from them? Or does the buck stop at the top? Should the boss always bear the ultimate
blame?’
Questions
1.3 Identify the elements of moral judgement and explain each one with an example.
(18)
1.4 Explain where people get their values (the individual’s concepts of the relative worth,
utility or importance of ideas) from, since values and ethics are very closely related and
will impact on how one behaves. (12)
