Tweet

The Business of Ethics and The Ethics of Business

Written by: Glenn Ebersole

Article Overview: In 2002 the corporate world in the United States was rocked with scandals. Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Citi Group, HCA, Tyco and others were headline news in print and the lead story on the television news because of business ethics failures. This caused me to reemphasize and stress to each of my clients then and now, the importance of business ethics and to challenge each of my clients to integrate their core values into their policies, practices and decision making. And I recommend that they rededicate themselves to conducting business to the highest ethical standards.

The Business of Ethics and The Ethics of Business

The Business of Ethics and The Ethics of Business
By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group™

In 2002 the corporate world in the United States was rocked with scandals. Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Citi Group, HCA, Tyco and others were headline news in print and the lead story on the television news because of business ethics failures. This caused me to reemphasize and stress to each of my clients then and now, the importance of business ethics and to challenge each of my clients to integrate their core values into their policies, practices and decision making. And I recommend that they rededicate themselves to conducting business to the highest ethical standards.

A 2005 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) was released by the Ethics Resource Center on October12, 2005. Some of the key findings include:

52% of employees observed at least one type of misconduct in the workplace
in the past year, with 36% of these observing at least 2 or more violations.

69% of employees report their organizations implement ethics training, up
14 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.

65% of employees indicated their organizations have a place they can seek
ethics advice.

55% of employees who observed misconduct at work reported it to
management, down 10 percentage points from the 2003 NBES.

Five of six elements of a formal ethics and compliance program measured by NBES have increased over time with the presence of written standards of ethical business conduct up 19 percentage points since 2004.

The NBES defines misconduct as any behavior that violates the law or organizational ethics standards. The two most common types of misconduct observed by employees are abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees and lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public.

Types of misconduct most observed by employees include:
21% observed abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees.
19% observed lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public.
8% observed a situation that places employee interests over organizational interests.
16% observed violations of safety regulations.
16% observed misreporting of actual time worked.
12% observed discrimination on the basis of race, color, gender, age or similar categories.
11% observed stealing or theft.
9% observed sexual harassment.

Note: For the full news release on the NBES go to: www.ethics.org/nbes/nbes2005/release.html

At the close of 2005 I am still asking the question - How can a company “SUSPEND” the company's ethics code? How can an individual businessperson in conducting business or an elected or appointed government official, at the local, state or federal level, waive ethics in their governance activities? And what can be done to respond to this dysfunctional and unacceptable behavior?

Here are five things I believe we need to assure will happen.

1. Business and government need to seriously look at strengthening their ethics programs and demonstrate a commitment to integrity in the way they perform their business and governance activities.

2. Companies and organizations must build ethical values and goals into the Vision and Mission Statements of their strategic plans and make sure the managers and employees understand the importance of these values and ethical standards.

3. Ethics should be integrated into everything the organization and individual does.

4. Organizations should reward ethical behavior and penalize unethical behavior. Everyone needs to be held accountable for his or her actions.

5. Any new ethical issue should be addressed immediately and a definite plan established to deal with the issue.

How does your company or organization address ethics? I would be interested in hearing from you. If you would like to share how your company addresses the subject of ethics, please submit your thoughts to me by going to our contact form on my web site at www.prdoctor4u.com

Related Articles
  We Have an Ethical Dilemma!
  Business Ethics Lesson From An Unlikely Individual
  “Building An Environment of Ethical Behavior. Ten Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach ”
  Decisions Decisions Decisions
  “Business Ethics – What’s Happening Where We Work?”

Article Tags:



Related Forum Posts
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Exclusive: Interview with Results - Hi Forum Members, I'm helping start up a Business Coaching and Consulting company here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (a Subsidiary of RSC Business in Los Angeles). As a Research and Development Intern I am required to practice my listening and interview skills by surveying Small and Medium Businesses on thier Business. This Survey is designed by RSC Business to also assist the Business being interviewed more insight into their own business. I am looking to interview about 30 businesses across North America over the span of 3 months. At the end of these interviews I will be publishing a report of the results and they will be made available for free to the Interviewees. The Report data will include responses from a minimum of 100 interviews. I would like to extend this opportunity to members of the Forum. If you would like to have this short 20-30 minute interview conducted on your Business and you reside in North America please send me an email or PM. Please contact me at andy[at]jvprosperity[dot]com to arrange our interview and to get free access to the results when they are published.
Re: HOw to market a B2B consulting company - [quote="zohahunt77":428owzbi]Hi, I was wondering if anyone can tell me the difference between B2B and B2C. I don’t know about b2b marketing but I have done marketing so know things about it. I will suggest you to take online services which will spread your business all over web network. Online marketing is the best way to market any business.[/quote:428owzbi] B2B = Business to Business - You are marketing to other businesses. B2C = Business to Consumer - You are marketing to consumers.
English teachers learn Japanese as Interns - Yasunori, what about the many students that leave N. America to teach English in Japan. They may want to learn Japanese (maybe Business Japanese is a bit different) and the Japanese Business Culture.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Unspoken Yet Important Rules for Book Proposals

Are You My Mentor

E Mail Marketing Campaigns

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.