50 Activities for Promoting Ethics within the Organization

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Part D:

Ethical Management

Introduction

: Nan DeMars

The Manager’s Responsibility for the Ethical Office

Robert MacGregor, former president of the Minnesota Center for Corporate

Responsibility, told me once he has the same discussion with every assistant he

has ever hired. On the first day of the job, he tells them: “I’m going to be going

l00 miles per hour. You will be going l20 miles per hour to stay ahead of me. In

my haste to get a job done by deadline, if I ever appear to be cutting corners or

sliding into unethical practices in any regard, I WANT you to stop me. It is YOUR

responsibility to keep me on the ethical track. In other words, I want you to be my

ethical monitor.”

That’s my dream! If every manager would have that conversation with every

employee he or she supervises, we would be well underway to establishing and

maintaining The Ethical Office.

The Ethical Office is a culture that fosters mutual respect, trust, and honest

communication among co-workers, customers, and vendors. The concept is

becoming another means for achieving competitive advantage, as companies

increasingly see the link between healthy profits and ethical cultures.

As a result, organizations today are:

•

Writing extensive codes of ethics/conduct

•

Expanding employee handbooks for guidelines

•

Incorporating ethics training (with discussions of reality-based case

studies)

•

Creating ethics hotlines (often anonymous)

•

Hiring ethics directors

•

Establishing ethics departments or appointing a human resource

representative “point person” whom employees can approach with ethical

dilemmas

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This aggressive approach to championing The Ethical Workplace is paying off in

the following high dividends:

•

Productivity – Ethical employees outperform all others. They sell more

products, receive fewer service calls, and post superior profit margins. The

“personality” of an ethical office is healthy, energized, forward-looking,

confident, creative, and resourceful. It’s a real “can-do” place to work because

people are not confused about what is expected of them, nor are they stressed

to distraction.

•

Accountability – With a clear understanding of what is expected of them,

employees take responsibility and feel accountable for their personal behavior

and performance, regardless of their position. They take responsibility to

resolve ethical dilemmas. They place high value on personal integrity.

•

Communication –Employees want to talk about ethical dilemmas as they

arise. The manager who encourages this open communication will enjoy

earlier resolution of problems and less confusion (two cost-saving

advantages).

•

Confidentiality – Information is power, and the unethical office has zero

confidentiality. Managers should emphasize the importance of erring on the

safe side and treating everything as confidential unless told otherwise.

Instilling this respect for the confidential office will result in buttoned-up

information about deadlines, prices, budgets, performance reviews, and

product services. Everyone wins here.

•

Stability – Employees stay in an ethical atmosphere, and that is cost-saving

in itself. The unethical office results in a revolving door in the human resource

department. And the costs associated with the departure of disgruntled

employees along with the resulting hiring of new employees are always high.

•

Predictability –The Ethical Office avoids being blindsided by surprises such

as harassment lawsuits and compromised security. In an ethical culture,

employees address ethical dilemmas as they surface and nip them in the bud

before they get out of hand.

Employees want to do the right thing—and they also want to trust the people they

work with every day. It is the manager’s responsibility to create the safe atmos-

phere of an Ethical Workplace for their employees. The rewards will be over-

whelming.

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Submitted by: Nan DeMars

Executary Services

7424 Cahill Road

Minneapolis, Minnesota 55439

Phone: [phone]

Fax: [phone]

E-mail: [e-mail]

Web site: www.office-ethics.com

Nan DeMars is an office ethics trainer/consultant and author of You Want Me To Do What?

(Simon & Schuster). She conducts training throughout the United States and in foreign countries.

In addition, she is president of Executary Services, a seminar/search/office ethics consultant firm

in Minneapolis.