Supervisors, managers and corporate executives are customarily held to a higher standard from that which we demand from common employees. This is to be anticipated since the upper echelon of corporate America is expected to be knowledgeable with all of the company's rules, be a capable leader and to set daily examples for the workers.
Unfortunately, the majority of our corporate leaders fail to live up to these expectations and which brings up questions concerning the corporate environments ethical concerns. In response to the question of "Do I think ethics classes would reduce corporate wrong doing", the answer is an enthusiastic no. I really do not foresee that any ethic classes are able to redeem the corporations from their wrong doing in any way, shape or form. If one were to consider a philosophy known as corporate social responsibility we would eventually discover that the program is actually nothing less than a series of eye candy intended to align their corporate activities with the expectations obtained from the stakeholders. It is in effect a large public relations program.
When a university student finds that he can not calculate simple advanced mathematical problems the university will assign that student to remedial math classes. Similarly at the public servant level, states are taking a similar stance. They are forcing state officials to take curative ethics courses. With this growing popularity of ethics classes several years ago, I signed up for an ethics training course, compliments of the state of California. The course was established by the California State Attorney's office to satisfy the 2005 state law which required such training for all state and local public officials.
The California law, AB 1234 makes it mandatory that the official complete this course within six months of being hired. They have also established requirement to take a refresher course at two-year intervals.
Assuming that similar courses would be established for the corporate leadership, I would have to say that the program would be a failure if not properly managed. First off, as is noticeable with AB 1234, one can not dictate the proper ethics which should be followed. This is something that must be nurtured and developed by the individual himself. Then we encounter the age-old inquiry of how one goes about judging what is actually ethical? When examples are presented concerning this uncertainty of ethics we discover that sporadically the message is clear while at other times it emerges as foggy or undefined. It is not always easy to see the demarcation lines of this.
David Robinson and Chris Garratt in their book "Introducing Ethics" argued that the constant erosion of morals has resulted in a society drained of its values. However, in a time magazine article entitled "Summer of Mistrust" the magazine reported that 72 percent of American's polled feared that public issues concerning ethics were not isolated examples but rather the norm in company's efforts to deceive the people. Adding to this malcontent we discover the American people are utterly sick of the openly unethical dealings which they read in their daily newspaper. To this I too must agree.
I would have to declare that the most common cause as to why ethics fails would be that mankind generally does those actions which are most convenient. By it's very definition an ethical dilemma is defined as an unpleasant choice which relates to a moral principle. It is usually much simpler to do that which is easy to accomplish as opposed to what could be construed as right and proper when confronted by such confusing issues. I feel human beings are prone towards failing personal ethics conditions.
In today's competitive business world CEOs and business leaders do that which is necessary to win. Most people hate being a loser and this is especially noticeable in a business environment. We discover business leaders who are confronted with either winning or being ethical. We have all heard the old saying which relates to how the good guy always finishes last and those that want to win believe that by embracing ethics they would greatly limit their options and opportunities for succeed.
Often people consider morals and ethics as similar peas in different pods however there is a basic fundamental difference. Morals are the fabric where ones personal character is defined whereas ethics presents the actual social system where ones morals can be applied. To phrase it in a slightly different manner, ethics develops from standards of behavior which is expected within society.
A typical example involving ethics and morals would be during a criminal trial the defense attorney may believe that his personal moral code is contradictory to committing murder as the offender has done however the attorneys ethics advises him that his accused client must be defended faithfully even when he knows the party involved is guilty as charged. His ethics demands this defense even in sight of the fact that if freed of this crime the offender would likely commit additional offenses. We see in this case where the legal ethics overrides the personal morals in order to uphold justice.
Fortunately, we are seeing an increased interest in evaluating ethical business practices however as with the California ethics course it can not be peddled as a mandatory course and expected results. It is essentially a new era of understanding for the business leaders where most of the glamour has been removed. Changes in corporate strategies often reveal that clients want key corporate executives who not only can make the company money but also are willing to take a stand on tough ethical decisions which involve integrity and moral values.
My personal philosophy towards ethics is that I do want to be an ethical person as do my fellow human beings. This would indicate that yes perhaps in the future ethics classes may help to a degree towards correcting unethical corporate behavior however we must always remember ethics is never a political issue, a social issue or a business issue. It is purely a personal issue.
Copyright @2012 - Joseph Parish
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