by Berlin Asong

Created on: July 22, 2011   Last Updated: July 27, 2011

Previous high-profile spectacles like the Enron scandal (2001), Madoff's ponzi scheme (2008), global financial collapse (2008-2009), and BP oil spill (2010) have entered the case portfolio of management studies. The News of the World (NotW) phone hacking scandal would be no exception. Recently, I took stock of unfolding catalogue of events engulfing News Corporation and its now defunct Sunday tabloid—NotW, and classified into three inextricably thematic management lessons.

Ethics

Unquestionably, the boiling pot of the phone hacking scandal sits on whether it is right or wrong for journalists or a media organisation to hack into private conversations of ordinary people, celebrities and politicians. Back in 2001 and 2003, it was believed NotW's phone hacking were limited within celebrity circles. But as we now know, the privacies of ordinary members of the public like the Dowler family and victims of the London 7/7 bombing were invaded in the name of journalistic scoop.

Mindful the exact scale of NotW’s phone-hacking are yet to be made public, one must ask if hacking speaks much about the corporate ethics of News Corporation, the parent company of NotW, Dow Jones, 20th Century Fox, Fox Broadcasting Company and The Australian. Or is phone-hacking a reflection of NotW’s ethical standards or a microcosm of UK's journalistic practices? Should the alleged bribery of Metropolitan police officials by NotW turn out true, surely the effects would be damning not only on News Corporation but also on the Metropolitan Police establishment, considered the finest police force in Europe by its supporters.

Or is hacking an acceptable practice of good investigative journalism? Almost all dictionaries define hacking as unauthorised access into a target. By this definition it is likely that scoops, though not all, are obtained through hacking—whether through paid sources or high-end zoom cameras. What's the difference between paying a confidant to reveal details about the exact reasons behind the marriage breakup of Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony, and hacking into private conversations of a grieving family?

A piece of information obtained about Miss A without her permission could be viewed as hacking and unethical, regardless if authorisation was granted by a third-party. That is the view held by the public towards News Corp's NotW. What if phone hacking was sanctioned by the State, Scotland Yard or FBI to uncover a possible motive of murder by a member

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