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Purveyor, Fine Asian Porn
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Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: San Francisco Bay Area
Posts: 38,323
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Outsource Ethics Instruction
According to Joan Ryan, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, companies are hiring firms to offer on-line ethics classes and engaging consultants to produce huge ethics manuals that Ryan says "often read like tax codes, complete with loopholes and fine print." It's not helping. Worst of all, the desire of such companies often isn't to make their businesses more ethical. Ryan states, "It's about evading punishment. Under federal guidelines, companies that have ethics programs are eligible for reduced fines if convicted of wrongdoing."
Perform an Ethical Flea Dip
Another approach is to "treat" ethical offenders when caught. Management consultant Frank J. Navran calls that an "ethical flea dip."12 The problem with this approach is that it is as effective as a flea dip when a dog's environment isn't changed. The fleas come right back. If the environment- the systems and goals-of an organization encourage and reward unethical behavior, then merely addressing individual employees' actions will not improve the situation.
Rely on the Law
Some companies have given up entirely on trying to figure out what's ethical and are instead using what's legal as their standard for decision making. The result is moral bankruptcy. When Kevin Rollins, president of the Dell Computer Corporation, was asked about the role of ethics in business, he paraphrased Russian dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who said, "I've lived my life in a society where there was no rule of law. And that's a terrible existence. But a society where the rule of law is the only standard of ethical behavior is equally bad."
Rollins asserts, "Solzhenitsyn said that if the United States only aspires to a legal standard of moral excellence, we will have missed the point. Man can do better. I thought that was a nice comment on the ethics of companies that say, 'Well, legally, it was just fine.'We believe you have to aspire to something higher than what's legal. Is what you're doing right?"
THIS TIME IT'S PERSONAL
One of our problems is that ethics is never a business issue or a social issue or a political issue. It is always a personal issue. People say they want integrity. But at the same time, ironically, studies indicate that the majority of people don't always act with the kind of integrity they request from others.
Among college students, 84 percent believe the United States is experiencing a business crisis, and 77 percent believe CEOs should be held responsible for it. However, 59 percent of those same students admit to having cheated on a test. In the workplace, 43 percent of people admit to having engaged in at least one unethical act in the last year, and 75 percent have observed such an act and done nothing about it.
The same person who cheats on his taxes or steals office supplies wants honesty and integrity from the corporation whose stock he buys, the politician he votes for, and the client he deals with in his own business.
It's easy to discuss ethics and even easier to be disgusted with people who fail the ethics test-especially when we have been violated by the wrongdoing of others. It's harder to make ethical choices in our own lives. When we are faced with unpleasant choices, what are we going to do? In the 1980s, former President Ronald Reagan quipped that when it comes to the economy, it's a recession when your neighbor loses his job, but it's a depression when you lose yours! Ethics is similar. It's always harder when I'm the one having to make the choice.
THE SAME PERSON WHO CHEATS ON HIS TAXES OR STEALS OFFICE SUPPLIES WANTS HONESTY AND INTEGRITY FROM THE CORPORATION WHOSE STOCK HE BUYS, THE POLITICIAN HE VOTES FOR, AND THE CLIENT HE DEALS WITH IN HIS OWN BUSINESS.
I want to be ethical, and I believe that you do too. Furthermore, I know it really is possible to do what's right and succeed in business. In fact, according to the Ethics Resource Center in Washington, D.C., companies that are dedicated to doing the right thing, have a written commitment to social responsibility, and act on it consistently are more profitable than those who don't.
James Burke, chairman of Johnson and Johnson, says, "If you invested $30,000 in a composite of the Dow Jones thirty years ago, it would be worth $134,000 today. If you had put that $30,000 into these [socially and ethically responsible] firms-$2,000 into each of the fifteen [in the study]-it would now be worth over $1 million."
COMPANIES THAT ARE DEDICATED TO DOING THE RIGHT THING, HAVE A WRITTEN COMMITMENT TO SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, AND ACT ON IT CONSISTENTLY ARE MORE PROFITABLE THAN THOSE WHO DON'T.
If you embrace ethical behavior, will it automatically make you rich and successful? Of course not. Can it pave the way for you to become successful? Absolutely! Ethics + Competence is a winning equation. In contrast, people who continually attempt to test the edge of ethics inevitably go over that edge. Shortcuts never pay off in the long run. It may be possible to fool people for a season, but in the long haul, their deeds will catch up with them because the truth does come out.
In the short term, behaving ethically may look like a loss (just as one can temporarily appear to win by being unethical). However, in the long term, people always lose when they live without ethics. Have you ever met anyone who lived a life of shortcuts, deception, and cheating who finished well? King Solomon of ancient Israel, reputed to be the wisest man who ever lived, said it this way:
The ways of right-living people glow with light; the longer they live, the brighter they shine. But the road of wrongdoing gets darker and darker- travelers can't see a thing; they fall flat on their faces.
U.S. representative and educational rights advocate Jabez L. M. Curry observed, "A state to prosper must be built on foundations of a moral character, and this character is the principal element of its strength, and the only guaranty of its permanence and prosperity."
The same can be said of a business. Or of a family. Or of any endeavor you wish to see thrive and endure. However, that foundation cannot be built by the organization as a whole. It must be built beginning with each individual. And it must be done in the face of continuous pressure to perform at the expense of doing the right thing.
Let's go back to basics.
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