The 5 Biggest Business Ethics Mistakes You Can Easily Avoid

Hardly a day seems to pass without some international corporation taking up newspaper column inches for unethical business practices. Whether it’s Volkswagen’s emission-fixing scandal or drinks giant Coca-Cola sponsoring misleading weight-loss research, it appears that even the world’s top companies aren’t above making bad decisions and taking unethical risks. In fact, when global businesses are found out to be behaving improperly or illegally, they not only run the risk of sullying their company and its reputation, they also send out the signal that this is how business is done.

Here are the 5 biggest business ethics mistakes you can easily avoid.

However, for any company or employee standing at the crossroads between ‘doing the right thing’ or engaging in some dirty-dealing, it’s important to realize that the crooked road doesn’t need to be taken to succeed in business.

Many of us are fully aware of the opportunities that exist for us to behave unethically, but just as clearly there are some business ethics mistakes that we can easily avoid. Here are five to consider:

Don’t assume ‘business as usual’ is ‘business that’s ethical’

Just because a dodgy business practice may be overlooked in your industry, or accepted as the norm, doesn’t mean that it’s ethical. If you are aware that the behaviour is improper, don’t put your values to one side with the excuse of ‘well, everyone else was doing it’. In any case, even if you are happy to by-pass your principles, remember that if or when you’re caught it’ll be you and not ‘everyone else’ who’ll pay the price for your misconduct.

Always declare conflicts of interest

Whether you’re the CEO or an employee, your behavior – perceived or otherwise – reflects back on your company. This is certainly true of a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest can range from being married to the printer to whom your company sends a lot of business, to sitting on the board of a bank that agrees on a loan to your enterprise. Regardless of whether it seems harmless or not it’s best to declare the conflict’s presence and take appropriate action to lessen any negative effect it may have. Otherwise, you or your company may be perceived as being less than objective or honest in this and, perhaps, all other matters of business.

Create a paper trail

It’s always a good idea to create a ‘paper trail’ of all key correspondence and issues when working on significant or sensitive projects. This paper trail should consist of emails, messages, proof of package deliveries, and further documentation that can clearly point to all actions and any concerns you highlighted about the project during its development and delivery.

Think of a ‘third way’

What if you find yourself in a situation where your boss or a colleague asks you to do something that you deem unethical? You may feel cornered, believing your job is in jeopardy if you say ‘no’. However, saying ‘yes’ may go against all your principles and put you on the wrong side of the law to boot! In this position, it may be necessary to think of a ‘third way’. By this, I mean that rather than giving a direct ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, try instead to think of an alternative way where you can reach the same results without behaving improperly.

Think all legal advice is ethical advice? Think again

It may come to it that you need to seek legal advice. However, don’t be duped into thinking that whatever advice you receive is a blueprint for the action you need to take. For when it comes to such advice, the main job of any legal department is to point out the legal – not the ethical – consequences of your or your company’s behaviors. For example, the poor risk controls that a large majority of banks had in place prior to the 2008 great recession were certainly not proper, but for the most part neither were they unlawful – and any of the bank’s legal departments would tell you so. So, once you have legal advice, use it only as part of the information you need to make an ethical decision. ‘I was just following orders’, doesn’t quite cut it anymore!

Simple Yes! Challenging – most certainly!

Making ethical choices isn’t always easy. But what is far more difficult is making unethical choices that you then have to deal and live with the consequences of. Simple as they may seem…the advice above can be a lifesaver when choices – ethical choices – may be in doubt. Every choice has a consequence and making ethical choices will, in the long run, always prove to be the best bet.

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