As a corporate ethics motivational speaker, corporate ethics consultant and ethics book author, having practiced my craft for more than 25-years, I have seen a great many changes to the “ethical workplace.”
Business ethics was once an afterthought, relegated to part-time ethics and compliance officers. The “wisdom” at the start of it all was to satisfy governance or frankly, to keep customers happy. After most annual ethical reviews (generally a silly video or HR droning from a workbook) all ethical thoughts were pushed aside in an “Do as I say, not as I do” posturing.
Fast forward to the pandemic, and many organizations lived through the ethical catastrophe of leaving employees and managers on their own. The past few years have proven miserable for the economy, inflation or supply-chain issues. However, as an ethics motivational speaker and ethics consultant and author, I note the levels of fraud, safety violations, inclusion abuses, sexual abuse and corporate rationalization have not abated – and in many cases, gotten worse.
The result of these business ethics and corporate social responsibility manipulations have resulted in billions of dollars of penalties, jail sentences, terminations and bankruptcies. Ethics is no longer a joke, but an imperative. It is a choice.
Creating an Ethics Program for a new era. 8 Key Components
The following list of key components is easily expanded, not contracted from this point. As an ethics keynote speaker, I routinely expand upon these important factors.
- Is your organization all-in or simply talking a good game? Corporate ethics is a buy-in by everyone. No one is above it. The CEO or a board member must comply to the same set of rules as the new intern or contract help. Further, is there a published code of ethics? What happens if a senior vice president of sales or vendor violates it?
- What mechanism is in place to protect the whistle-blower and what is the penalty for leaking a complaint? Further, what happens to anyone in the organization who engages in retribution? Is this policy stated?
- Ethical failures generally occur (or tend to occur) in certain areas. Who monitors that risk on a continuing basis? Is there an effort to train more aggressively?
- Who has been appointed as the head of ethical compliance – and who monitors that person as well? Unless there is oversite, bias tends to creep into any organization.
- Social media can be used for good, or it can turn ugly quickly, even if posts are inadvertent. What are the guidelines for personal social media usage? The past few years have seen a plethora of HIPAA violations, hateful rants, bullying and other unethical behaviors from company representatives to “friends and followers.” No, this is not a first amendment “right.”
- Who is monitoring organizational behavior? An organization is free to publish an entire list of “can’t do’s,” but if no one is monitoring, what is the purpose? Action is not passive.
- Ethical behavior extends to environmental impact. If a company touts its green record at one end, and is a major polluter overseas, what is gained?
- Inclusion also extends to every aspect of ethical behavior. If an executive or lower-level worker has harassed, bullied or abused anyone what was done about it?
Creating an Ethics Program for a new era. 8 Key Components
The key difference between then and now, the old era of cursory ethics training – and now, are ethical expectations and corporate social responsibility. It is now mandatory, not leisure pastime to create an ethical culture.
Ethics training with strong reinforcement, is a key to greater corporate health. As a business ethics motivational speaker, my passion is to encourage and nurture than sense of health.
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