The Consulting Bible, 2nd Edition

Chapter 13Ethics of the Business: What's Legal Isn't Always Ethical

When Bad Things Happen to Good Consultants

Most ethical transgressions within organizations are the result of the individual doing something to help the organization and not for personal gain. Of course, you'll find the latter, but a great many people feel that as long as something is legal, it's proper. That's simply untrue.

They're called courts of law, not courts of proper conduct.

Case Studies on Ethics in Action

The Illicit iPad

My client, the president of a $600 million subsidiary, called me on a Sunday evening, apologized for the interruption, but told me he needed some urgent counseling. He was having a meeting the next morning with his vice president of sales and his vice president of human resources. The former was requesting a slap on the wrist for a district manager, and the latter wanted him fired.

It seems that a field salesperson purchased an iPad expressly because the clients in her territory frequently had to send her equipment plans to review and needed a quick turnaround. The device allowed her to rapidly respond, keep an archive of past plans, and not have to tote around a laptop.

Her district manager learned of this when she casually mentioned that she had that capability if he needed to contact her in a similar fashion. He told her that she was very innovative and shouldn't have to bear that expense, and to reimburse herself by charging a fictitious client lunch once a week until ...