Imagine this: you are at work and you notice that your fellow coworker has been clocking in an extra half hour every day for months. It honestly doesn’t bother you, because you consider your coworker to be a friend. One day, your boss calls you unexpectedly to his office. He explains that there has been some discrepancy in the finances and questions whether you have any knowledge behind the issue. You sit there, stumped.
This is the type of question nearly every business ethics professor will ask his students on the first day of class. Think about it. What would you do? For me, I answered, “tell the boss the
truth,” although the majority of my class did not share the same mindset. Responses from, “If my boss knew I had known, I’d be fired,” to “It’s my friend; his business, not mine,” to “If it’s a big corporation, they make enough money. No big deal.” Even with the most basic of an example, the moral of the story revolves around the link between honesty and deception.
Perspectives commonly vary in regards to ethics, but how does this variance impact the business world?
PR WEEK
Let’s begin with the basics. Sometimes it is easier to tell a fib than it is to tell the truth. When you don’t like what someone is wearing and they ask you your opinion, it is usually okay to smile and nod along. What they don’t know won’t hurt them, right? Wrong. In the business world, deception and conniving plots may get your business from point A to point B, at first. But when you hear the words, “I have to say, I’m very disappointed,” you know the misconception behind your scheme has been revealed. Read this simple life-extracting example of how a young professional made a mistake that taught him a lesson he would never forget.
THE GUARDIAN
Business and Society: Defining the ‘Social Licence’
Aside from the basic life lesson, on the global scale, inequality is increasing at a tremendous rate. This is no longer a matter about lying on a time sheet or about the color of dress a friend is wearing. Corporate accountability is increasing in urgency. Abuse is commonplace in companies where labor is outsourced. Hate speech and gender discrimination transpires amongst the workforce on a daily basis. Large oil spills or other human-caused environmental disasters are frowned upon. The question, “Whose fault is it?” is a continuous chain of he-said-she-said blame. With driving awareness, business leaders, politicians and civil society are working towards developing global goals to meet the world’s most pressing development problems. Read more to understand how social licenses remain the core center of this ethical debate.
BUSINESS JOURNALS
Business Ethics: 3 Questions Every Business Leader Must Ask
If you recall ‘the most valuable commodity is information’ phrase from the 1987 Gordon Gekko film Wall Street, business professionals soak up data and information. From inventory turns, fixed asset turnover to discounted cash flows, business has become a numbers game. More often than not, the concept of ethics is absent from the minds of money-hungry corporate executives. Therefore, the best way to help oversee the implementation and effectiveness of a
company’s ethics and compliance program is to find answers to three pivotal questions: What is the strength of our ethical culture? How effective are the systems we are counting on to manage risks? And, what objective metrics do we rely on to monitor our compliance and ethics system performance? Read more to gain insight on seeking answers to these do-good questions.
It is hard; in the business world, there are a million decisions to consider. From making financially incenting choices, to promoting a new product, creating brand awareness and achieving maximum client retention, drawing the fine line between what is right and what is wrong is a challenge. In the day-to-day life of an employee, sometimes fibbing on achievements is the easiest route, but it is definitely not the best. When considered on the global scale, the concept of ethics is surreal. Companies have been allowed to dehumanize and disgrace business practices with little corporate accountability.
At the end of the day, developing an ethics system is even more challenging. Combining all of the necessary components to running a successful business in addition to setting standards that promote ethical operations may seem nearly impossible. But there is a way to bring accountability to your company. Take a step back and reflect on who you are and what you know. How can you help implement and bring awareness to ethical standards within your workplace?
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Julia Pizzutti is an intern for WordWrite Communications. You can find her on Twitter @julzutti93.
