Ethics as a Core Competency

Blogger "Leon" with Sox First challenges the corporate world to develop Ethics as a Core Competency for leaders. "The question remains," he writes, "who is going to do that?"

A related question is, "How?"

The answer to both lies in each of us. Every one of us is either a consumer, an employee, a manager, or at least an interested bystander. We can and should be demanding that organizations of all types - corporate for-profit and not-for-profit, small and large, publicly and privately held, union and non-union, etc. create a proactive approach to defining and practicing ethical behavior in their space.

SWiM™ (Starting With Me)believes that it must start at the individual level. Finger pointing, complaining, intellectual discussions, and the shame/blame games may heighten awareness, but they do nothing to craft practical action. Only by taking personal responsibility at whatever level we can will we see changes in the ethical culture of our organizations and our country.

Ethics Compliance Officers - a dangerous trend

DealBreaker.com is a blog site at Forbes magazine that comments on various corporate trends. A posting today by Bess Levin speaks to the dubious value of Ethics Officers to monitor ethics compliance in companies.

While the idea of an Ethics Compliance officer is not wrong in and of itself, it creates a sense that ethics is about compliance, or even about "doing." I believe it is important that people throughout the entire organizational structure understand that ethics is about "being," and that each and every one of us is responsbile for that.

Our belief at SWiM™ (Starting With Me™) is that ethics is a practical, everyday melding of our values and behavior and that we are all responsible for our corporate ethics. Boards and management ought to be accepting the challenge of creating a sense of ownership among all stakeholders for ethical corporate behavior. It would be time and energy well spent.

Instead of an Ethics Compliance Officer, bring in an ethics facilitator, empowered to move about freely among the employees, management and board raising awareness of current potential ethical issues and opportunities.

Aligning Corporate Actions with the Common Good

In a recent post by Chris McDonald of the Business Ethics blog, (http://www.businessethics.ca/blog/) the case is made that while corporations may create programs for the common good, their primary interests are for the corporate good. McDonald writes:

The real point is that corporate interests -- even the interests of well-meaning corporations full of kind-hearted people -- are not the same as the interests of any other relevant group or individual."

Over and over we either see corporations vilified for apparently ignoring the common good or praised for advancing it. But the fact remains, corporations exist to accomplish their own mission and they are accountable to the public - not just the shareholders - for that mission. And here's the key: That's okay.

Not only is it okay, it's the way it's supposed to work. Unless and until individual interests are met, the interests of the common good cannot be met. Each group, each individual, each corporation must provide for its survival and future viability to be any good to anyone else.

So, in a case like McDonald is commenting on - the confluence of Roche's drug marketing interests with the interests of the Cancer United Campaign - what's an ethical individual to do? If you are a shareholder in Roche, make your interests known. Let Roche know that you really care about and support the goals of Cancer United and want to see it advanced even at a cost to the corporation.

Corporations do not exist in a vacuum. They are legal entities accountable to some group of stakeholders. (Even closely held corporations, but that is yet another subject). It is up to us - the public - to invite corporations to share in our interests and to help them see how it is in their best interests to do so.

Be vocal. Be visible. Say to yourself this is all Starting With Me. - SWiM™

Do we really believe what we think we believe?

Continuing on the theme of "Ethics, Do They Really Exist?", I present a second possible reason that we are not publicly declaring our beliefs and behaving in a way that supports them. (Haven't been following this string? Please check out the previous posts, below).

One possible reason contributing to the apparent erosion of ethics is, perhaps, that we don't really believe what we think we believe. Recently in the Mpls/St Paul, MN area, two interesting stories have been reported.

Muslim cab drivers refuse to drive customers carrying liquor.
Christian bus driver refuses to drive bus advertising gay pride.

While these stories have numerous implications, think about what it meant for the individual cab and bus drivers. They spoke out publicly about their beliefs, even though it may have meant loss of jobs, and probably did mean persecution by fellow workers. (Both stories had a happy ending in that the employees were accommodated in their beliefs).

What about you and I? Can we even articulate deeply held beliefs? Have we thought about how they play out in behavioral terms - how they affect our work, our personal relationships, our buying patterns? Do we care enough to ACT on our beliefs? If not, they are probably not as deeply held as we would like to believe.

Where do we draw the lines in our lives? Will we refuse to buy from companies that use child labor? Will we turn down a contract selling supplies to a pro-life clinic or an abortion clinic? Will you refuse to fill a prescription for birth control pills? Obviously I have chosen volatile issues here to make a point, but the challenge still remains: Do you really believe what you think and say you believe?

We ought not complain about the deplorable state of ethics in our midst if we, ourselves haven't articulated and declared by our actions what we believe. "Starting With Me™," ethics will be authentic and visible in my life - SWiM™.