Posts
Does your company have an ethics policy? Do you know what it is, and perhaps more importantly, does your company and its employees understand and follow it?
Recently, I became aware of a situation at a company who prides themselves on having a very strict policy about receiving gifts, at least on paper, and it played out pretty much like this:
A Sales Rep with Company A calls a Buyer at company B and invites him to attend a trade show in New York over the weekend. "It will be fun, and we'll get to know each other better" says the Rep; my wife will be there and we'll do the town after the trade show. We'll pick up all of your expenses so it will just be a huge benefit for your company says the Sales Rep.
The Buyer asks to think about the offer for a bit. "Yes" he says to himself, "this could be a fun trip, spending the weekend in NY with this guy and his wife, and it's not like my company is out any money". "The trade show, however, will be a drag. No one here was planning to attend it in the first place, but if I show up, the trip is business, right?" "Maybe I can bring my wife since he is bringing his?"
The Buyer is getting more and more excited about the upcoming trip, convincing himself that this is a good idea, and the more excited he gets, the more he starts talking about it at work, until, of course, his boss finds out and asks how this trip stands up to Company B's ethics policy.
After a bit of thought, the Buyer says, "well, you know, it is a trade show and it's not like our company is out any money". "True" says the boss, "but don't you think our company would have made arrangements to attend this trade show if we had thought is was worth attending, and why are your wives attending?". In a few short words, the trip fell apart.
Conducting business in an ethical vacuum is easy because one can always find excuses for why you are doing the right thing. Conducting business ethically, with no outside influences impacting decision making is much harder.
Where along the ethical line does your company find itself?
I once commented on LinkedIn about the question: What it would take for you to change job?
ReplyDeleteI thought it would be interesting to post my LinkedIn comment on this blog because your question “Are you ethics for sale?” can also be understood as if I would “compromise my ethical values to remain in a company who does not have an ethical behaviour”. My answer is NO. At no cost will I stay in a company where Top Management does not set the tone at the top on this issue.
Here is what I had written and I hope we can launch an interesting debate also:
“The question of ethics in a work place can become a big debate. What may be unethical for me may not be for another person. What may be common sense for me may not be for someone else. Says who, that others' beliefs and values must be the same as mine? We all have developed our own set of values and beliefs based on how we were raised, the environment we grew in, constant life and work experiences, etc. There are so many factors that come into play with the development of values and beliefs.
In general, human beings are driven by greed and power to attain their objectives both professionally and in personal life. In my opinion, there are 2 ways to attain these objectives: the ethical and unethical way.
For me personally, ethical behaviour in a work place is quite important. What is also important is that the company actually really practices its core values. Many companies have great core values listed on the front page of their website but don’t live up to them. Honesty and Integrity are often mentioned in companies’ corporate core values statements. These are just “bla bla bla” words and I am not even sure they fully understand the meaning of these. I am just making a generalisation here. There are of course companies who live up to their statements but there are many who don’t.
Ethics –corporate values – corporate culture - code of conduct, etc, they have to come from the Top management because they set the tone in a company. You can have as many super core values, super ethics programmes, super HR benefits, etc, but if the TOP MANAGEMENT is not setting the example and setting the tone down to its people, then you can be assured that this company will be dysfunctional.
You often witness the state of the corporate culture during lunch time or when you are at the coffee machine during your break. Some employees are just a herd of scared sheep complaining during lunch time that they are so miserable and can't stand working there anymore, but yet they are following the leaders and say "bahh bahhh bahhh" behind them. Bad corporate culture creates a complaining culture during lunch time. It just becomes a vicious cycle and the only ones who can stop this are the Top Management people by setting clear boundaries and messages, and showing an exemplary behaviour.
So to answer your question: What would it take to change work? Horrible corporate culture and highly unethical business practice and treatment of employees; in brief a company that does not live up to its core values (of course there are no perfect companies and working environments but when I would feel it would cross my boundaries of ethics then I think it would be time for me to leave)
There are of course other issues that would make someone change work. For example, lack of leadership, lack of decision-making skills, lack of vision and strategy, lack of interest in employees, lack of career development opportunities. I think the list can be long!”
Vanessa Oberson