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Industry Ethics - Live by Example
December 31, 1969 |Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Imagine that you are walking down a sidewalk and see a quarter on the ground. Do you pick it up and keep it? Let’s say that a minute earlier, you saw someone standing in that very spot drop several coins, and pick some of them up. What if that person is close enough for you to get their attention? Do you keep the quarter they left or do you call out to the person who dropped it? What if that person is just out of earshot? What if it was a dollar? $100? A diamond necklace? What if you knew someone saw everything you did, but got there first? What if you knew the person that dropped the item? What if you knew that this person saw you pick the item up? What would you want or expect if you were that person?
Each of these scenarios pose ethical questions that we may face daily. Our background has a lot to do with the choices we make when we encounter situations similar to these. Some situations we face as company representatives; and those choices usually are determined by a combination of our personal background and the company’s culture. Often, we think of ethics as a simple choice between right and wrong, but in reality there is a lot more to it.
Why are corporate ethics important? While an actual dollar value cannot easily be assigned to them, they play a major role in determining if customers want to buy from you, suppliers want to sell to you and employees want to work for you. You can get away without them for a while, but eventually that will catch up with you. Ethics are a major factor in determining if your business is successful.
Personal and corporate ethics do not occur in a vacuum. Corporate cultures and ethics are established at the birth of the company - formed by founders and senior-level management. The founders and managers of a company determine its culture, often unintentionally and without much forethought. As new employees are added, the existing culture is handed down to them (good or bad). This culture also includes how employees, customers and suppliers are, or will be treated. This culture also can change or be improved upon over time; however, that change cannot simply come from an announcement and a training session. Improvement must come from the actions of top management; and this is not an instant process. On the contrary, a degradation of ethics can occur very quickly. Making the conscious effort to pass down the desired philosophy from the beginning is worth the effort.
If your company culture is to be an ethical one, the CEO must set the bar high. No one in the company can raise the bar, but anyone can lower it. To foster the highest ethical level, top management must not only say the correct things, but they also must live the proper example, ensuring employees do the same through constant education and reward. Speaking ethics makes a point, but living ethics makes the difference. This is especially true where internal stress levels are high, such as during times of missed forecasts, layoffs, mergers, periods of high growth or management changes. The way people handle stress factors (internal or external) determines the choices they make (ethical or otherwise). One bad choice or decision does not decide ethics; this occurs through several small ones. Monetary gain and fear of management’s reaction to a perceived bad decision are the two biggest drivers paving the winding road to an unethical path. A culture that nurtures honesty, integrity and respect, and supports “managing without fear” is key to establishing and maintaining positive corporate ethics.
Regardless of what you’ve seen on television, or read about in the past few years, I don’t believe companies are in business to be unethical. I don’t believe people start a company or take a job thinking, “I can be successful at this as long as I don’t get caught.” Obviously, some companies have let small, bad decisions lead to larger ones - eventually ending in disaster.
By the way, you can keep the quarter you found, but please return the $100 and the diamond necklace. Because this is an article on ethics, I must tell you that Diana Bradford, VP of operations for Soldering Technology International, was a major contributor for this article.
David Raby,president and CEO,Soldering Technology International