Create ethical workplaces in 3 simple steps

My friend Linda’s boys are mobsters – lemonade stand racketeers. You see, the boys started a muffin selling business to support a local charity, but the tasty temptations were too much to resist. Soon, inventory shrinkage proved to be a fatal challenge for the business, as muffins disappeared before they could be sold. The baked goods caper became a teachable moment – Linda held the boys accountable, taught them about consequences, and made them understand the ethical responsibilities that come with business ownership.

In business, we sometimes hear that it is “complex and getting more so”, “risky and unpredictable”, or simply “hard”. The implication is that it is difficult to act ethically in business. It is not difficult – as long as leaders looking to create ethical business cultures take a few simple actions.   

What are we talking about here?

Today’s business and corporate work is most effectively conducted in teams. Coworkers structured in teams have interdependent actions leading to expected results. Individuals with different responsibilities and objectives, working across global time zones while balancing outside obligations, results in a VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) environment.

Business ethics are moral principles that guide professional behavior. Despite complexities and ambiguities in the business environment – or perhaps because of them – ethical behavior must permeate all business decisions and actions. Every individual has moral and ethical obligations. Those individual obligations extend to the team and the business. Therefore, ethical and moral principles that bind individuals continue to bind the team. Ethical actions may not always be easy to conduct, but they are definitely simple to identify, even in a purportedly VUCA world. There are no shortcuts. Ethics matter, always.

Principles of ethical behavior are learned early on for Linda’s boys. Indeed, true ethical behavior is not driven by law or policy. FCPA Compliance, Codes of Conduct, Sarbanes-Oxley – all these things can serve as reminders lest we find ourselves in questionable positions. Ethics is much more profound. In a 2017 Forbes piece, Bruce Weinstein refers to 5 principles of ethics:

1)     Do no harm

2)     Make things better

3)     Respect others

4)     Be fair

5)     Care

These five principles are easy to understand and can drive our individual expectations and attitudes. However, leaders have a high threshold of responsibility. It is not enough to pontificate philosophically about being respectful and caring. Business leaders are people of action. We are responsible for forming the culture of organizations and creating ethical business environments, always.

So what’s the action plan?

Thankfully, creating an ethical business environment is not complex. Even an 11 year old can do it, in fact. Here are three specific actions that create the psychological safety that your associates need for absolute certainty that their work environment is ethically driven:

Leaders must model, support and advocate ethical behavior.

• Clearly, modeling ethical behavior is the minimum requirement. Leaders must be seen acting in an unquestionably ethical manner, always.
• Next, leaders must provide affirmative support to their associates when they exhibit such behavior. There are few things more rewarding for an associate than acknowledgement from leadership and offers to help.
• That is not enough. Leaders must also be seen and heard talking about what ethical behavior looks like, sounds like and feels like. They must advocate for such behavior. Leaders need to frequently assert that business has the same moral obligations as the individual. Leaders need to vocalize that as a team, we act ethically because individuals must act ethically; and there is no morally acceptable way for a group to authorize an individual to act unethically. 

Have you ever walked to an office printer to see a document with Personally Identifiable Information (PII)? A leader exhibits ethical behavior by simply taking that document to its proper owner, and following the process for corrective action. Simple. Further, if an employee protects that document, a good supportive leader will acknowledge and recognize that positive action. Easy. Lastly, a leader can be seen talking about the ethical need to correctly process and protect PII. These powerful examples of ethical behavior create a psychologically safe environment for associates to act ethically. 

Responsible baked goods management isn’t specifically found in elementary school academic literature, but the lessons are as important for 11 year old entrepreneurs turned muffin mafioso as they are for adult professionals. Manage your business, teams and muffin inventory responsibly – take action today. Do these three simple things: model, support and talk about ethical behavior. This will assure your associates that they can safely act in ethical ways regardless of the VUCA environment. They will know that ethics matter to the leadership and their organization, always.

Through various international brand management and operational roles, Nelson H. Aquino has worked with subsidiaries, licensees, distributors, retailers and vendors. His career has been directing brands and processes that build businesses in all but one continent. He’s looking forward to finding a way to grow brands in Antarctica, though penguins make very tough consumers.

References:

Why is ethics important to business? (2014, Nov 25). Retrieved from https://blogs.accaglobal.com on August 30, 2018.

Weinstein, C. (2017, Oct 31). What’s the difference between ethics and business ethics.  Forbes.com.

Delizonna, L. (Aug 24, 2017). High-performing teams need psychological safety. Here’s how to create it. Harvard Business Review.

Bennett, N., LeMoire, G.J. (2014, Jan-Feb). What VUCA really means for you. Harvard Business Review.