There Are Benefits to Being an Ethical Organization

   by Daniel Swartzman, J.D., M.P.H.
   Assoc. Professor, UIC School of Public Health

   As we discussed in earlier articles, reaping benefits is not the point of building an ethical organization. However, there are
   benefits that can ensue. 

For instance, going through the rather involved and sometimes ticklish process of doing a Values Identification Audit will provide at least nine such benefits. (See Figure 1.)

Some of these benefits are internal (Bounding, Scoping, Understanding, Remembering).  They educate the organization and its members about its ethical culture and the demands it expects to face.  Some of the benefits work externally to the organization (Explaining, Defending), explaining to your stakeholders what to expect of the organization and defending why it does what it does.

Other benefits increase the functionality of the organization’s ethical culture (Deciding, Strengthening, Maintaining).  For instance, “erosion” is a common problem that will threaten any organization’s moral performance.  You may have done an excellent VIDA, and you may have established a thorough and robust ethical culture, but it will be tested over time by a constant stream of decisions that present moral choices.  The first time you take a very small step over an ethical line that you have established does not feel very significant.  You are just being “realistic” or “expedient.”  (Don’t kid yourself; you will be stepping over lines all the time.  Welcome to the world of being a grown-up.)  And, since you already made that first step, the next step won’t feel so significant.  Nor will the next, nor the one after that.  Pretty soon, you can find yourself quite far away from the core values that you established earlier on.

This potential for “erosion,” as identified by Jack Gilbert in a presentation given to MHA students, is a constant temptation.  Being very clear where you started, and asking yourself a series of very tough questions early on, and then sharing these with your internal and external communities will help you evaluate how many steps away is “too many.”  As Gilbert says, building an ethical culture is not a one-time thing; it is a commitment across time, maybe even across generations.

That culture, if established and nurtured, will provide other benefits as well.  You can expect a much better level of group cohesion, since you have provided your managers and staff a central core of values around which they can knit their sense of solidarity.  People working for, and with, an organization that they believe is committed to “doing Good” are much less likely to feel alienated from the organization in tough times.  They will be much less cynical, and much more responsive to calls for joint sacrifice, or just some old-fashioned hard work.  There will be less internal conflict in an organization that builds an ethical culture.  Not that conflict can be avoided, but it can definitely be minimized, or addressed more easily by managers who have earned the respect of their staff and co-workers.

An organization that is seen to be committed to moral substance is certainly going to command greater respect and interest in the marketplace.  You won’t have to spend all of that time and energy planning for how to deal with the community’s ill-will after you get caught in a significant ethical compromise.   And if some “realistic” decision you make turns bad (since nobody is perfect), you have a foundation of goodwill that makes an apology a great deal more believable.

One of the biggest benefits that the head of an organization that builds an ethical culture can anticipate is “leadership.”  We know our leaders and their character by the moral choices that they make.  You will be known and respected for the culture that you built and the stream of decisions that you have made within that culture.  People will follow you because they believe you stand for something.  And isn’t there way too little of that around these days?

© Daniel Swartzman 2010

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