Is eBay an Ethical Company?

Perhaps providing some background into eBay as a company could bring to light some aspects of the cyberstalking scandal. Were the actions of Wenig, Wymer, and the Global Security and Resilience team representative of eBay as a company, or is eBay an ethical company whose reputation was tarnished by a few unethical employees?

As for most businesses, the company website can give one an idea of how ethical a company really is. From first glance at eBay's website, it appears that eBay is a rather ethical company. On the "Company Information" webpage, it is clear to see that eBay is widely recognized for their socially-responsible business practices:

"Recognized in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for Responsible Business"
"Rated by Fatherly as one of the Best Places To Work for Dads"
"Rated by Forbes in the Top 10% of the World's Best Employers"
"Leaders in corporate transparency on climate action Climate A List"
"#8 on Indeed's list of Best Places to Work"
"100% score for 13 years in a row Corporate Equality Index LGBTQ+ Workplace Equality"
"Named by Newsweek as one of America's Most Responsible Companies"
"Silicon Valley Business Journal Corporate Philanthropy Award

Are these misleading? It is hard to believe that a company with the title as one of the "World's Best Employers" would have their security department harass and stalk two members of the press. Even more confounding, in 2011, eBay was recognized as one of the world's "Most Ethical Companies" by the Ethisphere Institute.

While all of these credentials are impressive, we must look at these claims with healthy skepticism because a company would only show the world their best self on their website. Indeed, having their awards granted to them by other organizations makes them credible. However, we do not know the criteria used or the bad things going on within the company that are not on their website. I found some things in the company website that did not align with what I found in my research. For example, on eBay's website it says that the company is one of the world's best employers. However, in a New York Times interview with Veronica Zea, she said that working for eBay was a horrifying experience: "Once, a guard pulled all the analysts' personal possessions out of their lockers and dumped them in trash bags, to teach them that they could not expect privacy at work. This was followed by a clip about locker discipline from the Vietnam film 'Full Metal Jacket.'" Also, "Paul Florence, the chief executive of Concentric Advisors, the staffing agency that placed Ms. Zea at eBay [said that] 'It felt like eBay was breaking the analysts down psychologically- making them doubt themselves, isolating them, turning them against each other." Indeed, James Baugh did create a hostile work environment for the Global Security and Resilience team, as he made violent comments, showed them violent movie clips and laughed at them, claimed he worked for the FBI, and committed violent acts occasionally. Therefore, when he ordered Zea to participate in the scandal, she was probably too scared to object, as violence against her would have been a very likely possibility. With this, can one blame eBay as a company for the actions of the team? Perhaps it was mainly Baugh? Either way, Florence had a point when he claimed that eBay isolated the team.However, it sounds like the security team developed stronger bonds with each other as a result of this, as they called themselves a "family," and they worked together on the mission. Regardless, eBay should have known this was going on an do something to stop it.

eBay focuses its corporate social responsibility efforts into four key areas: economic opportunity, sustainability, diversity, and trust/ethics. The company's website has an entire webpage dedicated to ethics, and it has links to other company webpages that delve deeper into what eBay is doing to address certain ethical issues, such as data protection, accessibility, and intellectual property. On this page, eBay also displays the 12 organizations whom they have sustainability partnerships with.

The "Ethics & Compliance" section of eBay's website is quite impressive. eBay has a "Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, Human Rights Policy Statement, and Supplier Code of Business Conduct & Ethics." The most recent Code of Business Conduct and Ethics, published on April 28, 2021, is a model code of ethics. It is only 64 pages long, which is pretty short for a formal code. It is well-organized, broken up into six key sections, all laid out clearly in the table of contents. Each of the sections is short and direct. In fact, each is no longer than a page the size of a slide in a PowerPoint slideshow. One could easily read the entire document in 2-3 hours. There is also frequent mention of business ethics officers, which is a great sign that there are ways for employees to resolve ethical issues.

In addition to a model code of ethics, eBay also has five core values:

1. We believe people are basically good.

2. We believe everyone has something to contribute.

3. We believe that an honest, open trading environment can bring out the best in people.

4. We recognize and respect everyone as a unique individual.

5. We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated.

Below is a YouTube video where Devin Wenig himself discusses these five core values in greater depth.

It is great that eBay has core values, and they are a pretty solid guideline for employee behavior. However, some of the wording raises question. "People are basically good." "We encourage you..." This is pretty wishy-washy for a corporation's core values. It is like saying you should behave ethically. Oh, but there are a few exceptions. If taken literally, one can find ways to get around having these core values used against them. If one treats someone poorly and their opponent uses value number five as their argument, they are out of luck because eBay encourages you to treat others fairly; you don't have to treat others fairly. Also, I did not find these core values on eBay's website besides the first one mentioned briefly in their Code of Business Conduct and Ethics. While they are probably somewhere on the company's website, as they are important, I believe that they should be easier to find. Thus, it is a bit of a red flag that they are not displayed more prominently.

Without a doubt did the employees involved in the scandal violate eBay's core principles. For example, Wymer "genuinely believed [the Steiners and Fidomaster] are acting out of malice," and "have seemingly dedicated their lives to erroneously trashing us." So much for people being basically good.

Another critical piece of information to look at when evaluating a company's ethics is their mission and vision statement. As with the core values, the mission and vision statement were not easy to find on eBay's website, if they were even on there at all. The mission and vision statements I found were on a third-party website. As of 2018, eBay's mission statement is as follows: "At eBay, our mission is to provide a global online marketplace where practically anyone can trade practically anything, enabling economic opportunity around the world." As of 2018, eBay's vision statement is as follows: "Our vision for commerce is one that is enabled by people, powered by technology, and open to everyone." Ethicists would be concerned about these statements because they do not mention ethics or sustainability. Nevertheless, I believe that eBay's mission and vision statements are excellent, as they are simple and clearly state what the company is all about. In fact, even though it is not explicit, ethics are hinted at in the mission and vision statements, as they emphasize equality, a fundamental ethical principle. This is shown through the use of "practically anyone," and "practically anything." Even though eBay's mission and vision statements do not include the word "ethical," they are founded on the principles of equality and equal opportunity.

It is still unclear whether eBay is an ethical company or not. Perhaps eBay is ethical in some ways and needs improvement in others. The company's website makes it appear that eBay is an ethical company. eBay has a lot of outside organizations praise them for their corporate social responsibility, which means that eBay must be pretty ethical. However, some parts of the case do not align well with what eBay has on its website, which makes me question how true eBay's claims are. Perhaps the corruption in top management made eBay a more unethical company at the time of the scandal, and then the company became more ethical with changes in management.

I believe that the employees themselves were more responsible for the scandal than eBay as a company. However, eBay should have had better internal controls and stopped them in the act. Unfortunately, the employees were acting in the company's name, but their actions were more influenced by their own emotions than the company itself. It appears that Wenig's animosity towards Ms. Steiner was fueled by pride, as she often personally attacked him on her blog. Check out this blog post that Ina Steiner comments on a quote Mr.Wenig tweeted in honor of Theodore Roosevelt. She also commented on his hefty compensation. Baugh was simply a violent and aggressive man, who probably participated in the crime for the fun of it, as he would often laugh at the situation, such as when David Steiner got an undercover cop outside of his house and when he and Veronica Zea were hiding in an airport hotel room watching a clip from "Old School." As for Veronica Zea and probably the other analysts, they were probably acting out of fear of Baugh, Wenig, and Wymer. They probably feared losing their jobs or being hurt. David Streitfeld of the New York Times could not have put it any better: "Publicly, Mr.Wenig celebrated eBay's five community values- among them, 'People are basically good,' and 'We encourage you to treat others the way you want to be treated.' But together he and Mr.Wymer worked to forge a more combative eBay, one that drew less inspiration from the Golden Rule and more from 'The Sopranos.'" A company can establish core values, but having employees follow them is another beast.

In April 2020, Jamie Iannone became eBay's new CEO. On June 29, 2020 he published an updated Code of Business Conduct & Ethics, probably in response to the scandal. Again in April of 2021, eBay released another 2021 version of their Code of Business Conduct & Ethics, showing that eBay is serious about ethics, despite what a few employees made it seem.