(Part 2 of an ongoing series)
As a stakeholder in an organization, how are you impacted by a business ethics dilemma? As a business ethics motivational speaker, business ethics consultant and book author, I am obviously interested in the topic.
Stakeholders probably include you
Who is a stakeholder and how do business ethics dilemmas impact them? The stakeholders in a company of course include the investors, company sales representatives, management of all departments, those who distribute or wholesale the products and services, the customers, those in the community, the greater industry, and supervisors up to the CEO.
Unethical behaviors within an organization are never contained to that organization. The behaviors sully even those organizations with sterling reputations. Recent scandals involving Big Pharma or automotive, banking or healthcare bear out this contention. Bad players dirtied their entire industries.
Unless the organization actively strives to be ethical in its practices, there is a high likelihood that stakeholders will be at-risk, even those without a perceived stake. Take, for example, a firm that has received fines for polluting the local waterways. The community becomes a victim of a decision made, perhaps, by one unethical player in a manufacturing department.
As a business ethics motivational speaker and business ethics consultant I will assure you that every unethical “stone” thrown in the industry pond by an organization will create ripples quite far from the center.
A foundational book
Marilyn Manning and Patricia Haddock in their 1990 book on office management, summarized important and inciteful foundational issues on ethics that are relevant to every organization and its stakeholders. Please note, the italics are my comments:
- Express your corporate qualities and ensure every one of your workers understand them. Does your organization have a code of ethical behavior, and most important, is it reinforced through training and periodic follow-up? Is the code equally enforceable to everyone in the organization?
- Ensure your promises are never broken. Act with trustworthiness and anticipate workers also, partners to do as such too. Therefore, if there is a breech in policy and it is reported, who safeguards the whistleblower. Is there a harsh penalty for divulging the person who has made the complaint?
- Express your appreciation. Exhibits of appreciation reinforce the ethical establishment of your office and support moral conduct from others. Is positive ethical behavior acknowledged with positive feedback? Do others take credit for the ethical behavior of an employee? If so, there are serious ethical flaws within the organization.
- Make others effective. Managers must be dedicated to giving employees the tools with which to flourish in an ethical environment. Ethical behavior is ethically encouraged.
- Settle on behavior that ensure the entirety of your choices mirrors your ethical guidelines and qualities. If the CEO is found to violate an ethical policy e.g., sexual harassment, that is disdained throughout the organization, the policies in place are no more than window dressing.
To address the issue of business ethics dilemmas and how it impacts stakeholders, organizations must make a concerted effort to ensure that the entire organization is held to a serious and reinforceable standard. The important issue remains one of how policy is reinforced and the penalties for a violation of policy.
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