The owner of my company always says, “It’s not what you do and then talk about, it’s what you do and don’t talk about. That will come back to you tenfold.”
Because the company I work for is relatively small, our employees are aware of the owner’s strong sense of moral obligation, even though he is the last to publicize his good deeds and charitable contributions. But for many larger companies, when the owner doesn’t speak of his or her good deeds, the company’s ethics become nebulous.
Last year, Ken Starr’s report showed that President Clinton’s personal secretary, Betty Currie, told a grand jury that she helped arrange visits between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky, and helped to keep the relationship secret.
According to a recent survey by the International Association of Administrative Employees, employees often feel pressured to join in behaviors that are ethically questionable. The survey found that 83 percent of respondents had told a “little white lie” to protect a supervisor and almost 60 percent had lied about a boss’s whereabouts.
Many employees learn how to respond to ethical dilemmas in business by observing their leaders. I think it’s safe to assume that Currie had seen her boss handle various situations in a dishonest manner. Thus, when she was confronted with a situation in which she was pressured to act in a less-than-honest fashion, as the loyal employee she was, she acted in accordance to her company’s culture.
SBN talked to several local business leaders about the subject of ethics in the workplace in the story on page 7. Some of the entrepreneurs we spoke to said they would only do business with companies that shared their ethics.
But how many companies do you know of which publicize the morals upon which they do business? If their vendors don’t know, then how can those leaders expect their employees to know?
We are seeing more and more written about business ethics, maybe due in part to the questionable choices made during Clinton’s years in office. Whatever the reason, most colleges and universities which offer business degrees are now including mandatory business ethics courses as part of their curriculum.
The topic is not going to go away. Instead, it will most likely become more mainstream as companies look for ways to distinguish themselves in this ever-changing marketplace.
Perhaps now is the time to put your company’s ethics into writing, then set up a system to hold employees accountable for conducting business according to the values you have stated.
Even if you think your employees share your values, if you have not publicly stated what they are, you could be setting yourself up for a controversy that could be at best embarrassing, and at worst illegal.
Connie Swenson ([email protected]) is editor of SBN.
