I recently presented the latest business ethics research at a Human Resources Conference. The Global survey results were shocking. Ethics is critical for all businesses to retain customers and employees; think Wells Fargo, Harry Weinstein, Enron, Nestle, and more. The new generations, Millennials and Gen Z, will measure your Ethical Agility before accepting your offer, among other items. As an organization, we should create and live with ethical agility. Also, business organization ethics are different from our personal ethics. Are they in conflict in your organization?
Personal ethics is defined by Dr. Baird, a researcher in ethics. “Personal ethics guide your behavior by providing the standards for what is right and wrong. However, in situations where your decision may impact others, it can become challenging to select a set of values on which to base your decision (Baird, 2020).” This is true when we are in organizations with different ethics than ours.
Dr. Baird states, “Business ethics is the study of appropriate business policies and practices regarding potentially controversial subjects including corporate governance, insider trading, bribery, discrimination, corporate social responsibility, and fiduciary responsibilities.”
Companies have several levels of business ethics. I look at this as Maslow’s hierarchy of ethics. Where is your company, and how do you achieve Ethical Maturity? What level is your organization? How do you improve? This is a complex business challenge. I suggest you include ethics in your mission and daily processes.
- Ethical Awareness—identify values in tension and the source of ethical conflicts.
- Ethical Identity—explore your ethical strengths and weaknesses.
- Ethical Agility—recognize how others prioritize their values and define what behaviors count for being ethical.
- Ethical Discernment—learn how to resolve ethical dilemmas effectively.
- Ethical Maturity—live into your purpose and exercise wisdom as you create communities where all can thrive
How do we know what level of Ethical Awareness organizations we have? We need to complete an assessment and openly discuss where we are on the Ethics Hierarchy. Organizations need to have an open dialogue about how they get to Ethical Maturity. This discussion will allow our businesses to understand how we deal with ethical dilemmas when our organizations face these situations. It will be essential when unexpected situations happen.
Re: Baird, C (2020) The Ethics Game. https://www.ethicsgame.com/exec/site/index.html
Sanchez (2022). Does Your Company Ethical Agility? Do You? https://www.dashrconsulting.com/