News of the Worlds Phone-hacking Scandal - Case Study Example

Case study on News of the World’s Phone-hacking Scandal Introduction In 2003, the British police become aware of criminal activities by a private detective, Steve Whittamore. Whittamore was supplying British newspapers with private information he got by bribing public officials including the police. Whittamore’s clients included the biggest newspapers in Britain. The most notable of them was News of the World. The investigations into the issue and possible prosecution took a snail pace until in 2005 when it became clear to the metropolitan police that Clive Goodman a correspondent at News of the World had accessed information from the mobile phones of Prince Harry and William. Goodman was receiving this information from another private detective, Glenn Mulcare who was on News of the World payroll. News International headquarters was raided and a great deal of evidence confiscated. Despite the police having massive evidence, little was done to make the culprits face the law. What followed then was well negotiated cover ups by News International to ensure that Goodman and Mulcare don’t expose the phone hacking activities by News international (Manne, 2012). Having successfully covered up the phone hacking activities by paying its former detectives, News internationals had thought the story was over only for guardian journalist Nick Davies to expose the News International cover up in July 2009 (House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 2012). Once again there was renewed interest into the phone hacking scandal and News International was at the center of the storm again. This time round the victims of phone hacking were revealed and many of them being celebrities and politicians filed a series of lawsuits against the criminal activities by News international. The journalist allegedly got support from their seniors (Ellison, 2011). In the face of cutthroat competition businesses in today’s world are faced with an ethical dilemma whether to act responsibly or cross the line to break the law with impunity to survive and make profits (Crittenden, Crittenden & Pitt, 2011). This paper will seek to analyze the News of the World phone-hacking scandal in relation to ethics and leadership concepts in management. Some of the business social responsibility issues that came out of the News of the World scandal will be discussed under the appropriate subheadings. Ethical responsibility A company should stay within the law by respecting the privacy of the people as its is not only a legal obligation but also a social obligation to respect other peoples private lives by not going around exposing private affairs in public (Certo, 2011). It is unethical but at the end of the day the News papers do it over and over again with impunity perhaps due to the wide networks they have within the political clout and the law enforcement bodies such as; the police who may themselves be subjects of blackmail by the News houses who may have some dirty secrets too about the police (Ellison, 2011). In this particular case, News World International does not care about the ethical side of the phone hackings they make for as long as they have it their way pin getting the stories they are looking for. In the process of hacking, people’s private lives are exposed resulting into damaged public lives (Manne, 2012). The company is very much corrupt and the management doesn’t give a guide to its employees on following the law and respecting the values that society demands from every citizen. This is evidenced by the fact that the British police were either reluctant to pursue the issue or too much involved in the shady deals to pursue justice in this particular case in which they are involved. Hacking however took a more uncontrollable twist when criminals used their tricks to acquire ‘valuable’ information that they were selling to media houses such as News of the World (Ellison, 2011). It is only the threat of terrorism that makes the phone hacking incident too much of an issue to the Scotland Yard. Top make the case even worse some politicians were involved and the matter just got worse after the parliament ordered an inquiry into the issue (Manne, 2012). The company lacks a strong organizational culture. It lacks values for which it stands for. It might also be argued that the company paid little regard to the values that they claimed to follow. Some employees didn’t even know the illegality of the phone hacking activities they engaged in; pointing to the great rot in values there was in the company. In an organization where the employees don’t get to practice the values of the profession they are in, then the management is directly liable of misleading its workforce and eventually the company will crumble since there is no organizational culture that defines the conduct and behavior of people working in the organization and for the organization (Hond, & Bakker, 2007; Hasnas, 2013). Smallman. McDonald & Mueller (2010) contend that moral principles and ethics should guide the conduct of companies’ heads and especially in a noble profession such as journalism. It should be upheld and communicated to the subordinates by the management of any company, but in this case nobody cares about the moral principles for as long as a story is told about somebody of public interest no matter the source of the story or the methods used to get the story. Legal responsibility Although phone hacking is illegal in Britain, journalist use it a lot to get private information about key public figures in the society so that they can have selling stories (Ellison, 2011). News World engaged in illegal activities by engaging private detectives to dig out private lives of individuals. And even though the records of private detectives such as Whittamore were in question, this did not matter to the company for as long as it got the stories it is looking for. The criminals have made it their profession to use phone hacking and bribery of authorities to gain access to ‘hot’ information which they sell to the news firms at a hefty price (Ellison, 2011). Everybody is guaranteed of their privacy unless one is involved in criminal activities and the state might want to get access to the private information for the common good of the society. All the same the state still has to go through the due procedure of going to the courts to compel the individual or communication companies to release the information. Gaining access without authority to somebody’s private information is illegal under the British laws and if there is compelling evidence that somebody has engaged in such an activity then criminal proceedings can be instituted by the victims of the hacking (House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, 2012). The journalists involved in this case of News International are quite aware of the implication of their activities but are under pressure to come up with these stories from their immediate bosses at work. It is an accepted crime for as long one is not caught (Manne, 2012). Eventually this leaves one with guilt since there is no guideline from the company’s core values that define just how much one can go in getting stories for the paper. Journalists have to use their creativity to please their managers. The police too seem to be involved in the mess and maybe it is the reason why they are reluctant to pursue the issue. Watson, a member of the British House of Commons is quoted as saying the timidity of two senior officers John Yates and Andy Hayman maybe explained by their infidelity. This is what News international used to intimidate anybody who sought to bring the media giant down. It brings to the fore another issue of businesses colluding with authorities to deny public of their right in terms of ethical and responsible conduct by the businesses who operate in the society. The authorities are bought by large amounts of money so that the deals can go through and the businesses get a way with it. Beyond profit making and providing employment businesses have a responsibility of operating within the law as far as corporate social responsibility is concerned (Manne, 2012). Economic responsibility Beyond making profits, a company should consider the implication of its activities n relation to ethics and societal norms in the society in which they operate (Simon, Powers, & Gunneman, 1972). The law expects a company to be totally responsible of its activities to ensure they stay within the accepted conduct in relation to ethics (Certo, 2011).The News papers industry is very competitive in Britain just like in my countries around the World (Manne, 2012). According to Weick (1993) Companies in such an industry have to engage in unconventional ways of staying ahead of the competition. This raises the issue of ethics and norms is professions such as journalism which are supposed to uphold the best values of the society since the society relies on the media to bring out the hidden evil in the society. Perhaps due to lack of supply in stories worth reading, the companies have to engage the services of the so called private detectives to dig into the lives of individuals in the society to hit headlines with the stories. At News International, there is just a motive to write the selling stories and have as many readers as possible to attract advertisers and make profits. But the business should not be run from this narrow perspective. It is important that businesses realize that their actions have impact on the lives of people around them and as such restrain themselves when they realize whatever they are doing is harmful to others and may put the organization at a risk of facing the law and losing trust with the society it is operating in (Certo, 2011). News International accuses the Guardian of commercial rivalry when the Guardian renewed public’s interests in the hacking case by running a story on the big cover up the 2005 hacking scandal ended in (Manne, 2012). This attests to the cut throat competition that exists in this industry; companies will do anything to tell a story the others are not telling. While doing this they mostly forget there is a limit to what they engage in as per the laws of the land. But clearly the company’s leadership has failed to offer much needed leadership to identify the ethical issue intensity in terms of satisfying all the stakeholders involved. The company engages in bribery and intimidation to cover up the rot at the company concerning hackings into people’s private lives (Ellison, 2011). This point yet again to the culture of impunity which is very much used by high profile criminals like the editors and managers in this case to get away with crimes they commit. By acting unethically the leadership at the News World management put the company in the harms way. According to Ellison (2011) the raid by metropolitan police which also involved the Scotland Yard also led to the discovery of more than 2000 phone numbers meaning the scale of phone hacking was up-scaled from a last resort trick tot the main occupation of some individuals within the company. News World eventually admits to the cover ups and its involvement in hacking people’s private information. Finally the company did yield in to pressure when Rupert Murdoch admits that the company has been mismanaged. The fall of the company eventually ends up hurting the same stakeholders who made profits from the profession , meaning business have to strike a balance between pleasing all the stakeholders involved in their business activities and not just the shareholders alone. The reaction from the society is that of anger and resentment towards the News papers leading to low profitability due to low advertisement income (Manne, 2012). Responsibility towards doing good to the society Phone hacking essentially means somebody digging into other people’s private life which is criminal in nature since one gains access to confidential information that could jeopardize the security of the concerned individual or damage their reputation in regards to their profession or status (Ellison, 2011). The leadership at News of the World condones this approach to working and therefore don’t show mutual respect and trust when they put their employees to such a situation when they know very well they not guiding the employees to be socially responsible to the society and stay true to the values they want to protect. The news firms choose not to involve their journalists directly since they know the criminality of the activity and will thus not allow their professionals to engage in it directly. But by all means they know the source of their information but go ahead to break the law with impunity perhaps due to the massive financial backing they have that would compromise efforts to get the culprits brought to law and also due to the powerful networks they have within the government. The News World case took an even terrible course when the company engaged in cover ups to hide its criminal activities which were later exposed. What followed was a series of aggrieved individuals suing the company and finally ruining its reputation as credible news source (Ellison, 2011). The editors and senior managers at News of the World either did not know where their journalist were getting their information or were simply encouraging the vice considering the widespread reading of their Newspapers that would follow (Ellison, 2011). The latter seems to be best explanation to the behavior of the leaders at News World. It is not possible for an editor not to know the source of the information being used in their newspapers. They have misled their journalist to go against the same moral principles that are demanded by this noble profession. It is highly unethical for journalists to intrude into the private lives of people for the sake of exposing it not for common good but for selfish interests of the news houses (Ellison, 2011). The leaders fail to show leadership by condoning such behavior in their company. According to Bazerman & Tenbrunsel (2011) this may be a pointer to the end justifies the means approach adopted by many business to survive and make profits in competitive industries which require equally unethical means to stay ahead of the competition, at least this is the view with the management at News of the World. The leadership blames the phone hackings to the activities of rogue journalists but this was just a cover up to sacrifice some journalists who were compensated behind the limelight to keep their mouths shut about the hacking scandal. This shows the leadership here does not stay true to their promises to the professional bodies, members of the public and even to the employees themselves. Conclusion Beyond an obligation towards making profit for shareholders and sustainability of a business, a business has another obligation towards respecting and respecting societal values and norms. A business does not exist in isolation; any actions it takes must have a negative or positive impact in the society. It is imperative that a business conducts its activities in a manner that is ethical and in consistent with the expectations of the public and regulatory authorities. News World reacts to competition by employing unorthodox ways of getting the stories it wants to write in order to sell more than its competitors. The company engages private detectives who break the law to get private information which is sold to the company. The company is aware of this but purchases the information any way. This tells of how the leadership has failed to inspire an ethical organizational culture in the company but encouraged the end justifies the means conduct among its employees. The management is clearly out of touch with its responsibilities and can therefore allows journalists to put the organization into a route that may result into possible legal actions. The company fails the society and eventually its shareholders through poor leadership in the company. References Bazerman, M.H., & Tenbrunsel, A.E. 2011. Ethical Breakdowns, Harvard Business Review, (89)4, pp.58-65 Certo, S. 2011, Modern Management: Concepts and Skills, Pearson Education Crittenden, V.L, Crittenden, W.F., & Pitt, L.F. 2011. Implementing global corporate citizenship: An integrated business framework, Business Horizons, 54, pp.445-455 Ellison, S., 2011. The Dark Arts. The vanity fair, [online] June. Available at: http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/06/rupert-murdoch-news-of-the-world-201106 [Accessed 8 May 2013] Hasnas, J. 2013. Whither Stakeholder Theory? A Guide for the Perplexed Revisited, Journal of Business Ethics, 112, pp.47-57 Hond,F., & Bakker, F. 2007. Managing corporate responsibility in action: Talking, doing and measuring, Ashgate publishing House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee. 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