Ethical Decision-Making in Indigenous Financial Services: QSuper Case Study

Abstract

This case study details how and why integrating storytelling, empathy, and inclusive practice shifted QSuper, a large Australian finance organisation, from minimal awareness to moral awareness then moral capability in the delivery of services to Indigenous customers. During the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation, and Financial Services Industry, QSuper were recognised for their exemplary service with Indigenous customers (Hayne, Interim report: Royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry, Volume 1. Commonwealth of Australia, 2018; Transcript of Proceedings, 13 August, Commonwealth of Australia, 2018). This position was in stark contrast to the inaccessible service offerings of other financial organisations where some used predatory practices to sell unethical financial products to Indigenous Australians (Hayne, Interim report: Royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry, Volume 1. Commonwealth of Australia, 2018; Hayne, Final report: Royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry, Volume 1. Commonwealth of Australia, 2019a). Storytelling garned from visiting customers in remote communities and other meaningful activities involving inclusive practice to facilitate ethical decision-making in finance is different to standard functionalist finance approaches (Schinckus, Int Rev Financ Anal 40:103–106, 2015). Two empathetic questions asked within QSuper complementing the storytelling, were: “What is the right thing to do by the customer?” and “How would I feel if this were my mother?” Exploration into the lived reality of moral capacity is important based on the Commission finding many of the 490,000 finance staff do not know how to provide ethical services to vulnerable customers, in particular remote Indigenous customers (Australian Bureau of Statistics. Labour force, Australia, detailed. ABS. Retrieved from https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia-detailed/latest-release, 2021; Hayne, Final report: Royal commission into misconduct in the banking, superannuation and financial services industry, Volume 1. Commonwealth of Australia, 2019a). Furthermore, there is minimal literature on the role of Indigenous storytelling to heighten moral awareness in the finance industry which was found to lead to better ethical outcomes.

Moral values and social skills of pupils with mild intellectual disability: Does indigenous language storytelling and gender play any role

“…The examination of the influence of storytelling on moral awareness and ethical decisionmaking has been investigated in several fields, such as religious instruction (Mpofu, 2021), financial industries (Al-Hawamleh, 2019), and the integration of ethical and spiritual principles in professional settings (Burns et al, 2022). These studies highlight the diverse impact of storytelling on the formation of morals, ethical considerations, and decision-making processes.…”

To do or not to do? A typology of ethical dilemmas in services (TEDS)

“…McAuliffe and Chenoweth (2008) developed the Inclusive Model of Ethical Decision to help social workers face ethical dilemmas involving vulnerable consumers. Burns et al. (2023) suggested incorporating story-telling, empathy, and inclusive practices to improve moral awareness and aptitude in financial services.…”

“…However, all the EDMs above are general and treat all ethical challenges uniformly, disregarding differences in ethical situations and sector idiosyncrasies. Therefore, recognizing the particularities of services, researchers have proposed EDMs in services (Burns et al. , 2023; Pratt and Tolkach, 2023).…”

“…Moreover, several EDMs use the terms ethical issues, problems, and dilemmas as meaning the same (Burns et al. , 2023; Pratt and Tolkach, 2023).…”

“…However, all the EDMs above are general and treat all ethical challenges uniformly, disregarding differences in ethical situations and sector idiosyncrasies. Therefore, recognizing the particularities of services, researchers have proposed EDMs in services (Burns et al, 2023;Pratt and Tolkach, 2023). While these EDMs are valuable, the relevance or explanatory capacity of the theoretical and empirical studies may be scrutinized due to inconsistent nomenclatures and findings.…”