Business Ethics
by Vic Wiens
Hewlett Packard has been held up for years as an example of high ethical business standards and practices. And rightfully so. As a result many people were shocked when HP appeared on the front page of newspapers recently for unethical board room practices.
Maintaining high ethical standards is hard in any business or non-profit organization. The pressures of goal achievement and at times of survival, result in the temptation to resort to unethical behaviours. This is not a new phenomenon.
What is a new phenomenon in our culture is the broad acceptance of unethical behaviour "if you can get away with it." As our society moves increasingly from a belief in absolute moral standards we can expect a new level of unethical behaviour. That is because our view of ethics may not match the next person's view of ethics. This has major implications for establishing ethical standards for your business or non-profit organization.
While the law determines some of the ethical parameters for us, we should be careful not to think that we are behaving ethically just because we are within the law. Given the lack of a clear broadly accepted standard of ethics from outside of our businesses and organizations, we must clearly set them from within.
Who sets the ethical standards in your business or non-profit organization? To make it work, it must come from "the top". In reality, "the top" is not as easy to define as organizational charts would have us believe. Let's face it, there are people whose influence is much greater than any chart would suggest. On the other hand, some people on the top of the organizational chart do not have a significant degree of influence.
How is your influence? The articles on this website have been written to help you maximize your impact at whatever level you find yourself in your organizational chart. You can have a significant ethical influence or your business or non-profit organization regardless of where you are on the organizational chart. Often this informal influence also results in people moving up the organizational chart over time.
What is your influence? Have you taken the time to clarify your own ethical standards? Are your standards relevant to the faith you espouse? As our society loses its ethical standards, you will significantly increase your influence if you can articulate the basis for your carefully developed ethical standards.
