Ethics - Assignment
Considering the stated scenario it has been observed that James prioritises income based on commission, sales output and his own success considering associated ethical and agency based conducts. Considering standards of customer service, his way of approach to selective customers with limited communication with clients, rigid sales strategies, presenting limited details of property details, pointing towards lack of transparency which do not support ethical working culture. Moreover exploitation of junior employees resulted in degrading workplace culture and approach. As an individual in
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As an individual being genuine and sincere, legally and ethically takes charge of making sure that the associate agency should operate with all sorts of “the Real Estate and Business Agents Act 1978 (REBA Act)”, and working code of conduct. This practice will ensure that all employees work with honesty and responsibility as to offer fair deals to their clients and meet their interest with great deals. Thus behaviour of James disregards these duties of works and ensures arrival of uncertain risk at compliances, trust, and well being of staff and the agency as well (REBA_Code_of_Conduc (2019), Legislation.wa.gov.au, (2000)) .
In any kind of business success gained on financial respect is always considered to be an important factor, but it cannot be justified or compared to regard of work ethics or to any non-compliance behavior at the workplace. Being ethical and a leader needs all sorts of ethical approaches that combine agency and work culture values, legal norms and expectations of society. But in this case Jame’s behavior may result in:
- Breaches of the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), such as misleading conduct
- Degradation of workplace culture considering working standards
- Considering consumer protection law , Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) (CCA), may arise the issues of penalty or claims from customer’s side (Bant and Paterson, 2019).
- Erosion of client trust and long-term reputational harm
It can be stated that high performance levels should be encouraged and accompanied with honesty and integrity. As without these factors it is not possible to maintain short term profits without any reputational risks and legal consequences (consumer.vic.gov.au (2019)).
3.Policy/Procedure Issues:
- Agency’s Code of Conduct.
- Customer service protocols such as standardised communication and truthful advertising protocols.
- Workplace and Human Resource management based rules and policies.
Legislative Issues:
- REBA Act and Code of Conduct obligations to act fairly, honestly and in good faith.
- Privacy Act 1988 (if personal data is mishandled during communication practices).
- Fair Work Act 2009 — workplace bullying and misuse of junior staff (com, 2025).
- Australian Consumer Law — overquoting or underquoting can constitute misleading conduct (gov.au, 2024).
- Legislative risks: Due to any misinterpretation breach of contract may arise in accordance to ACL. While it fails to me, clients expectations that are being documented and agreed can create a scene of breach considering REBA Act breach. Issues of penalties from different agencies like ASIC, DMIRS, and ACCC in case any misconduct happened and proven by legislative authority considering terms and conditions of the dealing agreement.
- Customer risks: Arising issues of distrust and negative experiences in service, misinformation leading to potential financial risks and increase in complaint number and legal claims or issues (wa.gov.au, 2025).
- Team and staff risks: Give rise to an unstable and toxic working atmosphere, dissatisfaction may rise to burnouts among the junior employees, and breakup in collaboration and team relations.
- Reputational risks: Brand image may get hampered with unethical image of employee conduct, loss of loyalty from buyers end, and negative impact over media and associated regulatory bodies (wa.gov.au, 2025).
Here my way of conduction will use the method that would focus on respect and values based coaching in order to manage the behaviour of James within his working culture. I would start by rewarding his sales performance but explaining that ethical behaviour and adherence is not a subject of bargain. I would mention the issues of aggressive communication, deceptive advertising, and taking advantage of junior staff and discuss the ways in which these practices should be corrected as they violate the provisions of the REBA Act, agency policies and the Code of Conduct of the workplace (Legislation.wa.gov.au, (2000)).
I will encourage James to introduce his point of view, trying to find out about his reasons and problems. We would jointly work to come up with useful solutions such as the sales coaching, ethics based marketing, and clarity of conditions. IU will incorporate the behavioral KPIs to have proper checks on the behaviors.
Considering non-negotiable aspects I would like to include honesty, respect, and integrity towards associated clients. All meetings will be documented in papers to support evidence. All these approaches will initiate in balancing working culture, team work management and will give long term success with stability (wa.gov.au, 2025).
Ethics - Case Study
1.Considering the legislation for Ethical approach, can be described with the help of Residential Tenancies Act 1987 (WA), under 2019 amendment, related to Family and Domestic Violence (Martin, 2021). These enacted laws enable a tenant going through FDV to terminate their term of tenancy without any penalty applied, with gathered evidence against all sorts of their sufferings. This makes them request for security or abolishing perpetrator’s participation from agreements they agreed to.
Focusing on ethical points of view, this approach will adjust with the principles of dignity, trust, fairness, and safeguard mainly for individuals having vulnerable behaviors. This cannot be mitigated but financial support rather than a legislative approach. This points out that logic and empathy are required to be prioritised using the correct decision-making approach.
Agents and property managers: This will serve with a new standard of communication with ethics. RThus will ensure an ethical leadership approach with effective means of legislative structure.
2.Although these wrong doings do not directly harm clients, rather the actions of the agent falsifying listings and contracts are unethical and against the law. Creating fake contractual agreements on personal benefit is unethical, weak to trust and interferes with honesty of the field of real estate. Thus integrate effective behavior within organizational structure
By Code of Conduct, agents must always be truthful, fair and professional (Rule 5). False and misleading statements are specifically warned against in rule 12. In addition, that kind of behaviour is probably in violation of the REBA act 1978, and may be attributed to fraud entirely irrespective of harm inflicted under the criminal code (classic.austlii.edu.au (2015)).
Also, by making a fool of a finance company with forged documents, the agent has undermined fiduciary obligations, put at risk the reputation of the profession and abused agency resources. Regardless of all legislative regulation, an ethical leadership is the practice where an individual is required to do the right thing even when not under any observation, not doing unethical practice for avoiding harm by maintaining integrity and trust.
3.According to rule 9 of Code of conduct states that associated agents should not use client’s confidential information for any unethical practice. This rule is provided with respect towards trust and privacy considered as the two pillars of ethics at the workplace, which should be carried out with utmost respect and integrity (Legislation.nsw.gov.au, (2024)).
Protective roles of the agents are being stated by rule 13, where it is stated that agents are required to act with interest towards all associated principles for all times, prioritizing clients perspectives over their own interest.
Altogether these rules make the leaders aware of their role, where they are not just bound with transaction methods, rather they must involve transparency at work and integrity.
Ethics - Knowledge Questions
This is an outcome that makes both the parties satisfied with their expected desires, not a one-sided approach (Chingodza, 2023). Mainly concentrates on win-win scopes rather than winning considering other’s requirements.Encourages building trust, supports long-term support and ensures compliances toward working relations.
In rare cases it happens. But requires mutual understanding and flexibility in norms as to agreeing on the same point. Here in this case exploring different requirements is the main point in negotiation, not being rigid for one's own interest. Without the ability to adapt and compromise, bad communication may result in blockage.
A. Helps shift focus from personal demands to collective benefit (Cave and Dredge, 2021).
Focus on shared goals (e.g., quick sale, fair price).
- Clarifies what really matters to each party.
- Ask open-ended questions to uncover underlying motivations.
B.
- Keeps discussion productive and interest-focused, not ego-driven.
- Avoid “I must have X”; instead ask “What do we need to achieve?”
4.
A. Need to have proper checks on details of the selected property, research over parties who shows interests and research over market data or condition
Need to have clear vision of client's interest and own aim
B.
- Listening to all communicating facts and share perspective wisely
- Build trust on table through communicative power and show respectful behavior towards clients
- Discuss all sorts of offers as well as return offers associated with deals
- Search for trade-offs that meet both party’s needs.
- Document in papers one the agreement is decided
- Provide clarity, commitment and compliances towards the deal decided
- Hard tactic in real estate:
- Anchoring – presenting an extreme price early to control expectations (Guo, Li and Liu, 2022).
- In order to set a psychological benchmark and influence the negotiation range.
- Can intimidate or confuse less experienced parties, harming trust.
- Utilization of price anchoring with transparency and explaining reasoning to align with client interests, not ego in dealing.
- Internal (HR): Different internal policies ensure guidance in solving conflict, maintain workplace respect, and maintain communication standards within workplace culture.
External (customer): This concentrated process enables in maintaining consistency in managing complaints by upholding professional behaviour within organizational frameworks (Reddrick, 2023).
7.
A
- The seller wants the highest price, the buyer wants the lowest.
- Agents must mediate based on interests, not demands.
B.
- A landlord refuses pet requests despite tenant complaints for months.
- Conflict escalates due to unresolved ongoing disagreement.
C.
- Competing sales agents withhold information to sabotage each other’s deals.
- Damages team dynamics and breaches Code of Conduct
Reference List
- Makrides, A., Vrontis, D. and Christofi, M., 2020. The gold rush of digital marketing: assessing prospects of building brand awareness overseas. Business Perspectives and Research, 8(1), pp.4-20. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Demetris-Vrontis/publication/335094470_The_Gold_Rush_of_Digital_Marketing_Assessing_Prospects_of_Building_ Brand_Awareness_Overseas/links/602e4d08299bf1cc26d2b724/The-Gold-Rush-of-Digital-Marketing-Assessing-Prospects-of-Building-Brand-Awareness-Overseas.pdf?_sg%5B0%5D=started_experiment_milestone&origin=journalDetail
- Sechele, G., Rabedzwa, G., Nongayo, S. and Thango, B., 2024. Systematic Review on SEO and Digital Marketing Strategies for Enhancing Retail SMEs' Performance. https://www.preprints.org/frontend/manuscript/8d8f48c6aa3c0eb44714157e08c45c3d/download_pub
