Personal Ethical Principles

- or - how to survive in business with your values intact

• Spend some time now to establish your own personal ethical principles.
  What is it that makes the difference between right and wrong for you?
  How do you determine priorities in a conflict situation?
  Decide on it now, refine it, develop it. When you need to apply it, there won't be time to create it.


• You are the only person responsible for your actions.
  No boss, no company, no friend can make your decisions, and no degree of coercion removes this responsibility.


• Practice integrity between your personal value set and the one you exercise at work.
  If there is a conflict, it indicates a problem. Resolve it.


• Compromise is always with us.
  The world is NOT black and white.
  Decisions are always tradeoffs.
  Your personal principles have to guide you on how much compromise is acceptable.


• Practice honesty in everything.
  If you can't get through a day without bending the truth, there is a conflict between your values and those of the organization that you may want to resolve.
  If small things are not ethical, it is only a matter of degree until larger things are also affected.


• Full disclosure is an effective rule of thumb.
  If it won't bear the light of the morning headlines, then don't do it, don't say it, don't write it.
  Even if you get away with it this time, you become someone different in doing it, and who you are guides what you do.


• If it isn't recorded on the books, written down, officially noted -- odds are high there is something wrong.


• Consider all of the constituencies affected by a decision.
  Include employees, customers, shareholders, society, other species, the planet.
  The broader the perspective is, the better the decision.


• Consider the long-term impacts of a decision, the direction of value trends into the future.


• Look for the high road whenever possible.
  Where is the ethical argument taking our values?
  This is a powerful argument, a persuasive factor, a guiding beacon on what the future will say about today's decisions.

Somewhat more personal

• No Absolutes
  Nothing is absolute, ever. We are always growing, learning, changing.


• It's My Problem
  I am the only one responsible for my decisions, so my judgment is the only ultimate measure I can use.


• Define Goodness
  Goodness is whatever works best to enhance human, both individual and group, growth and freedom.


• PAST
  Value tradition, as expressed in culture and religion, because it offers the wisdom of the ages, things that have worked which we abandon at our peril.
  It teaches longer range values, and principles that are not locally subjective.


• PRESENT
  Regard laws as the indicators of the minimum basic tenets of our culture, not as our ideal goals.


• FUTURE
  Pay attention to developing values that move in the direction of greater growth, freedom -- they may become tomorrow's laws.


• Trust
  Truth and full disclosure seems fundamental to human discourse and the existence of any values.
  It is the required foundation for any viable economic system, and any democratic government.


• Value Life
  Treat all life with dignity and respect – life is a priceless and rare commodity, every living thing has a fundamental value.


• Respect Rights
  We create rights to recognize basic minimums, protect minorities, little people: speech, ownership, political participation, and (eventually) economic participation. This "diversity" keeps us growing and honest.


• Justice is our society's rules of fairness, interdependence, ultimate motivator of free humans in our culture. This was wild-eyed idealism at one time in our history, but it is becoming our dominant theme.


• Altruism
  The gift of self to and for others should be our ultimate goal - the current far out idealism!
  I am persuaded that the carpenter from Nazareth was right. Unless a man die to himself, he cannot enter the kingdom, cannot survive as a species. This seems a fundamental requirement for the ultimate survival of our species.

Corporate Ethics Program

or - how to keep your company out of the paper and court.

• Establish a written code of ethics.
  Spend some time on it. Keep it broad and general, but include all of the potential areas of risk appropriate to your business. If it isn't written down, it does not exist. And if it isn't mentioned weekly, it isn't important.

  Major components:

  • Affirmative action policy, for women, minorities, handicapped.
  • Send a clear message to all to avoid even the appearance of impropriety.
  • All transactions for value must be recorded on the company books in a manner open to review and audit.
  • Include a dimension of concern for all stakeholders:
    -customers
    -suppliers
    -shareholders
    -employees
    -larger community, regulators.


• Create a board of ethical review at the highest level of the company. Give them the charge to oversee the code of ethics, to revise it, and deal with any and all 'ethical' issues related to it. Give them authority over the audit report related to the code.


• Publicize the code -- make sure every employee has a copy, and understands that it is serious. Use conformance to the code as a regular part of meetings, proposals, mailings.


• Educate the employees on the code on a regular basis. Provide some formal training in the major areas where there might be question -- affirmative action, sexual harassment, unfair pricing -- whatever is appropriate to your business.


• Enforce the code -- if it is violated, deal with the violation as a disciplinary matter.


• Audit for compliance to the code.


• Foster an open and continuous 'values' discussion - shared, expressed values that fairness and honesty generate the best business decisions and relationships is the primary guard against unethical behavior. Knowledge that something is unethical or forbidden or will be punished only works if supported by this underlying conviction and shared value.


• Create an 'open line' for whistle blowers to confidentially raise a concern to corporate management without running any risk. Listen to them, investigate their concerns, and never violate the confidentiality.


• Foster an atmosphere of openness and full disclosure. If it will not bear the light of day, don't do it, don't say it, don't write it down.


• Regularly solicit input from employees, customers, suppliers, partners. Use a formal survey and open line to make certain that all stakeholders are heard. Have management visit with staff 2 and 3 levels down, with suppliers, and customers.


• Create an employee bill of rights, including privacy, right to a hearing, and other values that treat employees at least as well as the company treats customers.


• Develop product and service quality measures, feedback, with a continuous improvement mechanism.


• Encourage corporate and employee participation in the community. Create a formal program to support this.


• Create a board of social responsibility to evaluate how the company should participate in its communities, and to regularly review programs, funding, sponsorship. Perform a regular social audit and report it to this board.


• Create an ethical disaster recovery plan -- and regularly review it with the board of ethical review.


• Give staff development and training a high value, regular budget, make it part of the business plan, and review results to plan.


• Try to hire honest people -- this is something that is difficult to teach and change --
  and fire the dishonest ones!

Future Trends

• Right of economic participation
  The American Catholic bishops argue that the basic right to participate in the economic reality will become as fundamental as the basic right of political freedom and participation. Our society could not function without this political right -- will we find that it cannot function without equivalent access to economic freedom?


• Rights of employees
  Many companies are discovering that they need mature, participating adults in the work place as much as society needs them in the political and economic arena. Will we develop rights to involvement in decisions affecting one's work life, freedom of information, responsible decision making? Will mental or psychological abuse be as roundly condemned in the future as sexual harassment is today?


• Rights of children
  Will children be accorded the respect due to intelligent participants in their own world? Will we consider protecting them from physical and mental abuse just as we protect adults?


• Rights of animals
  Will the full participation of all living things to the extent of their ability be recognized in the future? Will human kind recognize that it is but one link in a chain of awareness and intelligence that stretches far below us, and may stretch far above us?

Finally -- good luck. It's a complicated and challenging world out there. Make them all wise decisions. You folk are in charge from here on out!

Created on ... 2006.08.01
Last Updated on 2007.12.13