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There are benefits to any organization that decides to establish a strong ethical culture, but it
will never be an excellent investment strategy.
In the philosophy of ethics, there are two ways to think about “doing the right thing.”
Sometimes you do the right thing because it returns something to you. This is usually
referred to as consequentialism, judging an action by its consequences. Sometimes
you do the right thing because you have an obligation or a duty to do so. For instance, you
are walking down the street and you see a man about to step off of the curb. You notice that
there is a car coming, and you know that he hasn’t seen the car. Would you shout a
warning? Well, of course you would. Did you do so after calculating the costs and
benefits of acting? No, you did what you believe any moral person would have a duty to do,
you shouted.
Leaders of organizations will be much happier with the results of their efforts to establish an
ethical culture if they use this duty-based approach to ethics. There are beneficial
consequences, as we will see, but that isn’t the point. Being moral is an
obligation.
We all know that being a “good person” sometimes is easy, but sometimes it is very difficult.
Will your organization adopt high standards of quality for your products or your services, even
when others are providing inferior goods at a cheaper price? Will your organization respond
to environmental realities, by buying “green products” that cost more and by assuring “green”
production systems that are never cheap? Will you establish a family friendly workplace, and
pay attention to the disparities between the highest and the lowest paid employees?
Your organization isn’t ethical simply because you do all or some of the above things. These
particular actions result from a particular ethical viewpoint. Your organization is ethical because
you, as its leader, recognize the need to face these kinds of questions openly and honestly, and
make the tough choices that are presented.
These choices will be costly. If these decisions were not costly, they wouldn’t be worth your
time to think about them and to make them. You don’t spend a lot of time thinking about
whether or not to kick the dog every morning. But whether you can justify asking people
within your organization to take furloughs so that nobody gets laid off, that’s a tough call.
Do you change suppliers because you know that your current sources are creating large amounts of
hazardous waste, while more environmentally benign, but more costly, products are
available?
A famous philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, said that the most difficult choice is not between a
particular right and a particular wrong, but the choice to choose between right and wrong at
all. That is the challenge you will face when you decide that you are going to lead an
ethical organization.
Why would you do something that wasn’t a good investment? Turns out, we do this all the
time. We will discuss that in the next article.
© Daniel Swartzman
2010
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