Ethics in business. Is there such a thing? I struggle with this thought and yet why should I? I've held leadership positions in two large health care systems and also in the private sector. I strive to do a good job in a faltering economy in a faltering State. Is our desire to rise to the top of the corporate ladder stunted by our values? We see and hear things daily. If asked to fix the outcome of an election at work, would you? Values or a little lie. Which should take precedent? I want to leave a legacy, not a scandal. Do ethics become generational? What do you think?
Mariann
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8 comments:
Wow, this is a topic so large an entire course is devoted to it so the answer can't be easy or cut and dry. The first question we need to ask is "Define Ethics". Are they universal? Global? National? Business Type? Company Specific? Personal? How far can they be bent before they are broken?
My personal feeling is all the above should be tempered by a persons personal beliefs. We run into serious trouble when an individual's scruples are outside of the norm.
Perhaps a better question to ask is "Does absolute power corrupt absolutely?" If it does, than even personal ethics can become compromised.
Margaret
I am extremely interested in this topic, and was actually going to post about it. I believe that "Ethics" boils down to what is right and what is wrong. Will what we are about to do harm the system, or benefit it, and be within the established code of conduct?
I do not believe that it should always be left to the individual, because that would only cause confusion and chaos.
It seems that we hear mostly about those who have 'harmed' the system with their unethical behavior because it is more sensational.
I did a survey regarding this topic earlier in my academic career, and the results showed that most are concerned about the subject, but it seemed the higher the position, the more bending of the rules occurred.
This topic will always be with us, and it deserves constant attention within organizations to be sure that employees are always acting within the established parameters.
John
Excellent topic, and one that is a huge, tricky topic. It is a tricky topic because organizations have so many layers or departments with dynamic personalities. Each person making up departments have different views of what is ethical and what isn’t. Another factor is ethical decisions are made by people with varying degrees of power, with different decision-making capabilities. A couple of semesters ago I took an Ethics class and in the book Ethics And The Conduct Of Business, by John Boatright, says ”Identifying the appropriate level for a decision is important, because an ethical problem may have no solution on the level at which it is approached.”
Once we identify the level, or part of the organization the ethical question arises it is imperative that we identify if the situation is a blatant, ethical wrongdoing or a difference of opinion. I recently had a situation arise where I questioned the ethical decision made by a management team I work with. It was a situation where I was asked to complete a task already finished where both the management team and myself knew the outcome. I felt it was unethical to redo a task where the results were known, and the management team felt it was a matter of completing the task with more level variables. They felt that the results would be fairer to a larger pool of employees. The part of doing the task over bothered me and still does to an extent because it felt like new rules were being created until the correct result were reached.
After mulling over this situation I realize that this isn’t as big ethically as I thought because I realize both groups, the management team and myself were trying to accommodate the department with the best outcome, for the good of the department, in different ways. I really believe that all parties involved weren’t trying to harm the group ethically; rather they were trying to reach an outcome that would allow for higher motivation to exist.
To conclude I think my own situation is an example of an ethical dilemma created because of a difference of an opinion between to groups in an organization with varying degrees of decision-making capabilities. It was a situation that as the author John Boatright suggests had no solution on the level that it was approached at.
Chris
Ethics. I've never been in an ethics class, but I don’t know that you should have to be to make good, ethical decisions as a leader. But I do have a question...
Are ethics circumstantial? In other words, times are good, there are good jobs to be had and you can stand by your ethics, morals, and personal integrity feeling pretty confident that you can always get another job if it came to leaving your company because of an unethical situation... Is that true when the economy is in a down curve, there are no jobs out there, and you have a huge mortgage, 3 kids in college, and you're 10 years away from retirement... what happens to your ethics then? I'd like to think we would stand up for what we believe in no matter what the times are like. But I have seen leaders make unethical decisions (big and small) because at the end of the day... what choice did they have?
-Joe Pelle
It always comes down to the gray area decisions doesn't it? Sometimes as leaders we are placed into a no win position, hoping that choice a, is the least harmful choice. We love the situations where we can choose the win, the good outcome, the team building, the greatness that we as leaders crave to be associated with.
I think it is the outcome of the
decision that is thought of first when people choose to take the unethical choice. Their personal "stuff" (for lack of a better word), may drive the decision to make the least best choice, at least as we see it.
It is in this personal gray area stuff; that leaders can loose their vision, ethics and values. I am a firm believer that people do not go out and intend to do harm, or make unethical decisions; it is this stuff in the middle, and the fear of the outcome/need of their perceived "right" outcome that propels people into these choices that become the "unethical choice" when viewed by the public, but by the person viewed as the one that secured their personal need or outcome.
Jana
If you exceed the speed limit, is that unethical behavior? If you let your 20 year old have a beer with you in your house, is that unethical behavior? If you make a copy of your personal doctor bill on the company's machine, is that unethical? Certainly all are against the rules. Would we agree that done in excess, all three examples would be abusive? Is a chronic copier corrupt?
It's a good thing I'm not sitting on a judicial bench. I see so much grey.
The only absolute in my mind is the malicious intent to harm another person - physically, emotionally, financially - is truly unethical. Guess I live by the golden rule -- Jan H.
I believe we first need to define ethics including right and wrong....are ethics and morals confused with professional integrity...or are they all one in the same? My guess is that you will get different responses from every individual asked.
I have always worked on the assumption that people do not intentionally wish to do bad things. The challlenge is that leaders can at time be placed between a rock and a hard place...as has been touched in several of the other posts, leaders can be "directed" into doing something they may not believe in...it may compromise their personal and prefessional integrity, but is it ethically wrong?
Making intentional decisions in the interest of self promotion at the expense of others should likely be unethical, but is in the eye of the beholder?
We are looking at standards by which human actions can be judged right or wrong, but who is deciding what the standards are?
At times it is very clear cut (most would agree that embezzling or intentional defamation for instance is wrong by every standard), but most of the time life does not fall into something that is that black and white.
We can only hope that at the end of the day, more leaders are making the right decision and not the wrong one. There will always be leaders with less than admiral standards of conduct, but I have to believe they are largely outnumbered by the leaders who lead with integrity, moral values, and principles.
Melissa
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