During the heyday of the subprime lending boom circa 2003, Coleen Colombo had just begun

her job as a senior underwriter at BNC. This small office she worked in was part of a larger

umbrella group whose coffers funded over a billion dollars in loans every month. Initially, she

had great success and received rave reviews. Managers would often rate her job performance

as “exceeds expectations”. However, only two years into the job she would be exposed to the

dark underbelly of the mortgage business. Facing mounting pressure to accept bribe money to

approve sketchy loans, she lodged a formal complaint. Her actions were met with hostility,

threats and sexual harassment. Ultimately, she would discover herself caught up in a

corporate-wide system of corruption fighting for her job and dignity.

Finding of Fact #1

Coleen Colombo’s co-workers are acting in an unethical manner due to the corrupt culture at

BNC.

A wholesaler within the company is submitting loans to Colombo with inaccurate information

including occupations, salaries, and property values. He has even attempted to bribe her in

order to get his loans approved. The vice president is even neglecting to hear her case.

Recommendation #1

“The importance of having an ethical culture in organizations cannot be underestimated.

Employees in organizations with a weak ethical culture reported a much higher level of

observing at least one type of misconduct (theft, lying, etc.) than employees in an organization

with a strong ethical culture…” (Hellriegel, 37)

In order to achieve this new way of thinking, we need to create a new attitude in the work

environment. What is one way that BNC could have accomplished this? The studies show that,

“...leaders need to behave by example to set an ethical culture throughout the whole

organization.” (Hellriegel, 37) BNC seemed to be rotten to the core. From the local office

workers all the way up to the VP of operations, their actions were completely self-serving and

unethical. They demonstrated this through the use of the hedonistic principle. (The male

wholesaler just wanted to get paid and didn’t care that he was turning in falsified documents.)

The VP demonstrated the might-equals-right principle when he reduced Colombo to tears. I

believe there was hope for BNC, though. If the organization would have installed a team of high

integrity managers who led by example, they might not have been plagued with these

problems.

Finding of Fact #2

Coleen Colombo is facing aggression in the workplace. She is receiving reports that co-workers

want her job to be terminated. Since she is now seen as a whistleblower, and her behavior

could blow the lid off of BNC and expose everyone.

“Workplace aggression includes behaviors that are intended to have the effect of harming a

person within or directly related to the organization or the organization itself.” (Hellriegel, 239)

There are three categories for which one might group workplace aggression: Hostility,

obstructionism, and overt aggression. Coleen Colombo seemed to be the victim of hostility in

this case. Hostility is defined as, “abusive verbal or symbolic behavior such as the ‘silent

treatment.” (Hellriegel, 239) Retribution bias also seems to be at play here. Instead of

preserving the friendship that the co-worker may have developed with Colombo, the person is

willing to throw it away with an act of revenge. The co-worker might have felt disrespected

that Colombo complained. The book goes on to say that most people who are committing

retribution bias justify their retaliation in some way. They see it as a rational behavior. The

revenge, “is seen as more reasonable than maintaining a relationship.” (Hellriegel, 240)

Recommendation #2

Colombo doesn’t know who the aggressor is since that person is not named in the article.

However, in my personal experience I have seen similar workplace aggression and have

countered it. A coworker of mine occasionally made nasty comments to me outside of work

because he thought that I was tattling on other workers. He incorrectly believed that I was

reporting to management people who were abusing their Internet privileges.

Before all of this came between us, we would hang out together after work with 10-15 people

from the organization. Afterward the incident, we didn’t really speak in each other’s company.

The book sums up his attitude well. “Retaliation is seen by aggressive individuals as more

reasonable than forgiveness.” (Hellriegel, 240) I eventually opened up a clear line of

communication and this allowed him to tell me what he was feeling. I let him know that I

understood if he felt disrespected or betrayed.

Finding of Fact #3

Coleen Colombo is the victim of sexual harassment at the hands of a male coworker.

By rubbing up against her body, he is causing her to become fearful and uncomfortable.

While harassment generally concerns itself with an “aversion toward an individual because of

that person’s race, skin color, religion, gender, national origin, age or disability.” (Hellriegel, 52)

Sexual harassment “generally refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors,

and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature.” (Hellriegel, 52)

Coleen Colombo suffered that sexual harassment because she blew the whistle on the man

who was trying to bribe her. He had created a hostile environment for her to work in. “A

hostile work environment occurs when an employee is subjected to comments of a sexual

nature, offensive sexual materials, or unwelcome physical contact as a regular part of the work

environment.” (Hellriegel, 52) The book doesn’t mention how many times or how often the

harassment was happening. Generally, one incident does not constitute a hostile work

environment unless it is especially egregious. However, it more-than-likely happened over a

period of time if the women felt like “...he was the pimp and we were his prostitutes.”

(Hellriegel, 250)

Recommendation #3

Every office, no matter what the size should have a clearly-defined policy on sexual harassment.

Included in that policy should be 5 things: Definition of sexual harassment, a prohibition

statement, description of the complaint procedure, disciplinary measures for perpetrators, and

a declaration of protection from retaliation.

What should a person in Coleen’s place do to avoid this harassment altogether? Be firm with

the aggressor from the start by denouncing his sexual advancements. Additionally, she could

write him a letter and keep a copy for herself. She should log every incidence. Always tell a

superior with sufficient power what just happened. Make sure all complaints to management

are in writing, not just verbal. Follow the policies set in place by the employer. A person may

also choose to file a report with the EEO commission.

I have personal experience with this issue dating back to 1995. I was working at St. Louis Bread

Company as a sandwich maker. I had a very nice team leader who treated me well and I

enjoyed working with him. After several months, he started making totally inappropriate

offbeat comments to me. I didn’t feel threatened by his physical behavior. He never took it

that far. His harassment was mostly limited to leering and gesturing. Nevertheless, he was

creating a hostile work environment by definition. I didn’t know how to handle the situation

back then and it honestly caused a bit of discomfort. Since he was a friend, I eventually

confronted him and let him know that I didn’t appreciate his behavior and I don’t want to deal

with this at work. I also explained that I had a girlfriend. The fact that I was firm, frank and

earnest made it very clear to him that I wasn’t interested. He soon ceased with the unwanted

advances and our relationship at work returned to a proper “work relationship”. It goes to

show that sexual harassment can come in all shapes and sizes.

References
Hellriegel, D., & Slocum, J. W., Jr. (2011). Organizational Behavior (13th ed.). Mason, Ohio: Cengage Learning.