Business Ethics Must Be Presented, Preserved and Promoted

Business ethics are an almost daily topic in the news, in business schools, in the workplace and in our homes. I pay close attention to business ethics and what is written about them in my daily life as a strategic thinking, planning and business coach. I am still astounded at the remarks of major corporations a few years ago when they said they “waived or suspended” the ethics code or requirements. I am still at a total loss at how anyone can “suspend or waive” ethics.
While I may not be able to explain the suspension or waiving of ethics, I do hope to provide some solid advice on what business and other organizations need to do today to present, preserve and promote ethics in their organizations. Here are ten action items I would recommend:

1. Present ethical behavior as a requirement, not an option. Major business corporations are standing trial, literally and figuratively, for very strong violations of ethics. Acting unethically means that eventually you will be caught. Today is a very opportune time to take advantage of the current business environment to present ethical behavior as a requirement, not an option.

2. Present ethics in all daily interactions with internal and external stakeholders. Unfortunately too many people perceive that ethics only need to be presented to “bad” companies that need to reform. Well, my experience indicates just the opposite. Companies with strong track records of ethical, responsible behavior have the most to gain from a well thought out system to assure the cultivating of ethical corporate culture. Every action by every employee in an ethical culture will reinforce and further the company’s positive reputation.

3. Present the desired ethical behavior in an ethics code of conduct. Ethical conduct of each employee must become a habit of every minute of every hour of every day. No exceptions, no waivers and no suspensions of the ethics code!

4. Preserve ethics to let everyone know ethics is here to stay. While there may be “newcomers” to embracing ethics in business, ethical and responsible conduct have always been the standard at many companies. Even when ethical conduct may fail to improve the bottom line as strongly as desired, the alternative of operating unethically is not a viable option. This commitment will preserve and extend the reputation that has been earned through consistent ethical conduct over time.

5. Preserve an ethical culture that serves as a foundation. If you are not put to a test, then it is easy to say you act ethically. However, what do you do when you are faced with the tough ethical decisions? A very positive affirmation that your ethics program is a success is when there is an embedded culture where people will make the right choices, even when those choices are difficult, inconvenient, or adverse to the short-term interests of the individual or company.

6. Preserve an ethical culture that perpetuates ethics. Consistent compliance with a strong code of ethical conduct will be a major stimulus to having ethics become self-perpetuating. A reversal of behaviors will also occur in that those who speak out against unethical behavior will be the majority, instead of the majority being those who simply ignore and do nothing when they observe unethical behavior. A true ethical culture will evolve into a self-regulating basis on a peer-to-peer level.

7. Promote ethics and their benefits. Too many companies will always look at the cost of something, without looking at the benefits. The same goes for ethics. Too many companies sadly will only look at embracing and enforcing a code of ethics in terms of what it costs, rather than the benefits it will gain. Ethical behavior and a culture of ethics will result in many benefits, including: improved employee relations, enhanced worker productivity, positive morale and an enhanced company image.

8. Promote ethics from the top. If you read Greek history and mythology, you may have come across a well-known Greek saying that a fish rots from the head. In today’s business world, the saying is applicable. The message, spoken and unspoken, from the top is critical to reinforcing positive, responsible, ethical conduct. If top executives and top executive management say one thing but do another, the message of ethical behavior gets very confusing. Top executives need to use their positions in the company to insist on and promote ethical conduct. The top executives must “walk the talk” and hold themselves to the same high standards of ethics they expect of others and demonstrate those high standards in everything they say and do.

9. Promote a company culture where ethics is for everybody. Ethics is not just reserved for your management. It is for everyone, every day. Everyone in your company needs to be trained and persuaded to act ethically. No exceptions!

10. Present, preserve and promote ethics by rewarding ethical behavior. Develop a compensation system that provides a component of benefits and rewards for ethical behavior integrated with performance-based incentives. People who consistently demonstrate they are driven by ethical behavior need to be recognized and celebrated. There must be a clear connection between ethical conduct and potential career advancement. The consequences of a person’s unethical behavior need to be discussed immediately and be accompanied by an alteration to their career advancement within the company.

“Business Ethics Must Be Presented, Preserved and Promoted” By: J. Glen

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4 Challenges of ‘Teaching’ Business Ethics

The perpetual drone of news stories describing corporate scandals has lead to criticisms that business schools aren’t doing enough to teach ethics. This criticism is not surprising when you look at the self-interested microeconomic decision-making models we teach based on the rational choice tautology of marginal costs and marginal benefits. Yet, ultimately business is not physics. It cannot be explained with mechanical-mathematical models alone. Business is a social science that includes the values/ethics of individuals in the decision-making process and the actions businesses take. To teach ethics we have to know how these individual values are formed. However, reviewing the theories of value formation leads to one significant concern for those who wish to include ethics education in the business curriculum: Can ethics be ‘taught’ or only ‘learned’?

Challenge 1: Inherent Values and Cognition

The Kohlbergian perspective of values development suggests we have certain inherent values that develop with age. Unfortunately this development happens at a very early age and is largely dependent on, and limited by, the individual’s inherent cognitive ability to self-construct categories of ethics (like justice, duty, rights, and social order) and to determine which concepts of ethics are more developed (and therefore better) than others. Kohlberg’s individuals would infrequently be able to reach the level of a highly ethical person and would be more concerned with the macro-ethical formal structure of society (laws, roles, institutions, and general practices) than with treating individuals well and being empathetic. Ethical development would be more of an intrinsic process and not necessarily influenced directly (but perhaps indirectly) by others. In other words it is ‘learned’, but not necessarily ‘taught’.

Challenge 2: Unconscious Schemas

The Neo-Kohlbergian school asserts that most individuals don’t engage in abstract, philosophical thought prior to making a decision. Instead they automatically develop “schemas” that exist in the individual’s head or long team memory and are presumed to structure and guide an individual’s ethical thinking. These schemas are learned and developed over time, but through a largely unconscious process. The good news is others can influence these schemas, but not necessarily consciously.

Challenge 3: Selective Learning

Social learning theory provides more hope that business ethics can be taught. In this theory of values development we learn by observing role models throughout life and use conscious, cognitive processes to determine the values we adopt. The challenge, however, is that observational learning results in selectively and conditionally manifesting the characteristics of the model. In other words, if a university ethics professor is attempting to model ethical behavior through his or her lessons, students will sort through the information and determine which ethical characteristics (if any) they will adopt.

Challenge 4: It’s Voluntary

The problem is we can teach ethics, ethical decision-making, and ethical leadership, but we cannot force learning. Learning ethics under all three theories (and engaging in ethical behavior) has a significant voluntary component. Social learning theory provides the greatest evidence that ethical development is a conscious and ongoing process; yet individuals selectively and conditionally choose the characteristics of the model they wish to adopt, they do not simply parrot ethical behavior. Through the attentional process they determine what information they will pay attention to and extract, whether from role models or professors. An individual might actually choose to adopt the less ethical characteristics of one model rather than higher-level ethics being exhibited by a second model. Self-produced motivational processes are impacted by existing values and previous values formation. These preexisting values can also impact how an individual will transfer observations into ethical rules. In other words, while we can teach, previous learning will impact what an individual pays attention to, adopts, and utilizes. An individual’s existing schemas, learned values, and biases are always present and processing the information being taught to them.

A Final Thought

Teaching ethics is a lot more challenging than simply adding an ethics class to business programs. To ‘teach’ ethics is not enough. We need to convince business people as well as business students, it is in their best interest to learn a

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