Psychologists
tell us that trust is the single most valuable quality in any relationship.
Trust in each other, trust that those who supervise us have our
best interests at heart, trust from those whom we supervise that
we hold their best interests at heart, trust that whatever decisions
are at any level made are ethically correct. When trust collapses,
so does everything else-investment in a market, credibility of a
product, effectiveness of an individual, sustainability in a marriage
and momentum in a political career.
Trust is sustained and nourished by ethically correct choices made
every day, choices that express core values of honesty, integrity,
fairness and the willingness to put a higher good above our own.
Businesses of all sizes are becoming increasingly aware of the need
to develop ethics programs that truly guide employees in translating
corporate ethics into everyday actions.
Workable Ethics Programs Take Work
Studies show that those companies with effective ethics programs
are also the most prosperous. As we saw in the last article, ethical
choices aren't always between what is clearly right or clearly wrong.
By ourselves, we don't always know what the best decision is or
what to do when we're faced with an ethical problem. Support from
a good ethics program means we're not alone.
Good ethics programs work at every level, and every level needs
to share the work in creating them. A successful corporate ethics
program involves much more than posting a company's mission and
values statements near every workstation. It requires asking, listening
to the answers, writing a workable program and making help available
whenever it's needed.
The following six steps will help your company develop
an ethics program that works:
Interview
Visualize your company as a pyramid with its mission and values
as the base, its code of ethics in the middle and business actions
at the top. This pyramid represents your company's culture. Keeping
your mission, values and actions clearly in mind, interview everyone
from the boardroom to the basement about the ethical decisions they
make in their jobs. Provide examples of ethical dilemmas and ask
people which course of action they would choose and why.
Write
Skip the high-sounding euphemisms and stay off the soapbox. Using
simple, clear language, write a code for business conduct that provides
specific guidelines for every kind of ethical decision mentioned
in your interviews. Include questions people can ask themselves
for situations that may nit have arisen in your interviews. Three
good questions are, "Is the decision I'm about to make legal?"
"Will it harm anyone?" "How would I feel if this
action was reported on the six o'clock news?"
Educate
Once you've written the program, hold trainings that everyone in
your company, the CEO included, must attend. Be sure that everyone
reads and understands the information in the code. Don't worry about
sounding as though you've mounted a pulpit-teaching business ethics
doesn't need to be preachy. Use your imagination to come up with
role-playing mini-dramas that entertain as they instruct.
Take a tip from Lockheed Martin, which designed an ethics training
game called Gray Matters that presents employees with real life
business dilemmas. The game requires players to choose one of several
possible courses of action and provides instant feedback by scoring
responses and explaining which choice was correct and why.
Monitor
Make sure that business decisions conform to your written code.
Form an ethics committee made up of people from every company level,
facilitated by your CEO. This committee should meet at least quarterly
and be available for emergency meetings if necessary.
If possible, rotate committee membership so that every employee
has an opportunity to participate and serve. If possible, have a
committee member from each department who will be available to help
co-workers find the right answers to ethical questions or concerns.
If your company is too large for a rotating committee, consider
hiring an outside ethics firm such as Ethicspoint.com to support
your in-house committee, or hire a professional ethics manager.
Support and Protect
Use resources to support ethical behaviors and support those who
behave ethically. Make sure that supervisors and management team
members make themselves approachable and available to every employee
that needs help in making an ethical decision. Protect employees
who report an unethical situation from retaliation.
Cultivate Company Culture
Remember that company culture determines decisions, decisions determine
actions and actions determine success and failure. Do everything
in your power to cultivate a company culture that puts ethics first.
home services
portfolio bottom
line contact
