Way back in the '80s when corporate greed was both glorified and demonized, I had the good fortune to attend to a Graduate School of Business. The first required course was business ethics. Business ethics, as defined by the Cambridge dictionary, are the rules, principles, and standards for deciding what is morally right or wrong when doing business. On day 1, my classmates were in an uproar. Students felt this class was a waste of time and money. What do you think were their key objections? The anti-ethics programs students fell into two camps and maybe these are true for you as well. There was the group that felt the subject was not central to business. For these students, businesses are created solely to earn money for their investors and we're going to call that group the shareholder value group. If asked, they'd say that not-for-profits and government agencies are also created for shareholder value, the shareholders being the tax paying public in the case of government agency or the funders in the case of not-for-profits. The other group stated that ethics cannot be taught to adults and any attempt to do so is just wasted. For these students, ethics is something that one is taught by one's parents, by the culture within which we grow up, by a religious institution. I'm going to call this group the can't teach an old dog new tricks group. Each of these groups would be blind-sided in the weeks to come, as we were hammered with case after case that questioned our previously held beliefs. The shareholder value group eventually had to deal with the fact that the courts recognize that unlawful conduct stems from management and organizational practices. They base punitive damages, at least in the US, partly on whether companies proactively work to prevent that misconduct. But ethics are not really about what's legal or not. Research has shown that employees working in companies they perceive to be ethical are more engaged. A 2010 study by the Hay Group found that positive perceptions of an organization's ethical culture are associated with higher levels of engagement, and that management's commitment to ethics is particularly important for employee engagement. A 2013 study by TINYpulse and reported in Forbes Magazine, demonstrated that management transparency is the top factor when determining employee engagement. Why do you think that employees are more engaged when they perceive their managers to be transparent and ethical? Forbes says, employees think if I can believe and trust my management, I'll work harder for them. In short, the shareholder value group had to learn that if they believe shareholder value increases when employees work harder, then shareholder value increases when the company's leadership acts ethically. Moreover, they came to realize that we can live by our own personal code of values both in and outside of work. We do not have to leave our values at the door to succeed. In the Harvard Business Publishing case on the Tylenol poisonings of the 1980s, James Burke, then CEO of Johnson & Johnson said, what's right works. The cynics will tell you it doesn't, but it does. What's right works. During this module, I will introduce you to integrity strategies like Johnson & Johnson's, and how integrity strategies beat compliance strategies both ethically and in the marketplace. In short, creating a culture of ethicality is good for shareholders as well as employees and society. The can't teach an old dog new tricks group had to come to grips with the fact that we continue to learn and change throughout our lives. You obviously already know this or you would not be taking this course now. Research shows that you're doing exactly the right thing. Adults participating in learning opportunities report higher levels of well-being and mental health, whether or not the learning is driven by, or leads to higher employability or income. In the Inked Magazine article, why the adage you can't teach an old dog new tricks isn't true in business, journalist Jessica Stillman writes that this adage is absolutely wrong. Research by management consulting firm Korn Ferry show that there is no correlation between age and potential. Learning agility remains constant regardless of age. If you believe you have done the wrong thing in the past, that does not mean you cannot do the right thing now. If your company has asked you to behave unethically and you have complied, you can say no now. I used to work for a weight-loss program and I remember participants saying, well, once I'd eaten a doughnut for breakfast, I figured the whole day was lost and I just kept on eating. You don't have to think like that. Start from today, move forward in the way you wish to go. Many people contend that all ethics are relative and that every culture has not only different but opposing ethical views. I disagree. I see strong similarities, for example, between Aristotle and Confucius. For more, I recommend the paper, East Meets West: Toward a Universal Ethic of Virtue for Global Business by Daryl Cohen. For more on universal values that have stood the test of time and have been found in cultures throughout the world, read Stephen Covey's The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. One difficult thing about ethics is they rarely have one right answer, and frequently they have wrong answers, but rarely are there specifically and obviously right answers. Why learn about ethics? Why learn about ethical decision-making? Because it will flex our brain muscles. It's going to strengthen our understanding, our awareness, our comprehension of issues, and our ability to devise options. The more mentally flexible we can become, the better equipped we are to handle challenges when they arise. We don't send our military out onto the battlefield never haven't handled the weapon, we have them trained not only in how to shoot the weapon, but also in taking it apart and putting it back together until they can do it blindfolded. But we send people to face major ethical questions with no foundation, never mind practice in considering these questions. We can't be paralyzed by the lack of clear answers. Inaction can be as unethical as wrong action. Nor can we throw up our hands and select responses to challenges by throwing darts at a list and choosing the winning option. Often when people argue questions that have an ethical component, they argue from their opinion, and that opinion is often based solely on their own life experience or something they read recently online. We have centuries of philosophers who have given intensive thought to ethics. Confucius, Martin Luther King, Aristotle, Maimonides, Jesus, Mohammed, the Buddha, the Akan moralists of Ghana, Taoist philosophers. Every culture and every language has someone who has left behind their valuable, useful ideas on how to reason through ethical questions. So we do not have to start from zero on every issue. This module is going to offer just a small slice of ethical reasoning. I recommend you read and learn further so you can discuss an ethical challenge from the position of an educated reason framework rather than spouting off the latest opinion. This is a very broad topic that includes adhering to laws as well as to our own and our organization's values. It includes more inclusion, anti-racism, the environment, our employees' well-being, artificial intelligence, CRISPR and other technologies, trade secrets, and industrial espionage, it's broad. Consider these lessons an appetizer, not a main course in ethics.
