Everything that we want to know about ethico-legal dilemmas, but are afraid to ask....
The other day, I happened to engage a few friends in a coffee-table conversation around legality and ethics. The question I posed to the group seemed deceptively simple :
Is everything that is legal also ethical....and vice versa?
"Illustrate with examples please", I requested.
There were volleys of opinion and emphatic statements by different individuals seated across the table. Some of the examples quoted were particularly interesting.
One strong view emerged that not everything that is legal is ethical. Spouses or blood-relatives working in the same organization or institution may not be illegal, but it could be perceived as unethical if they were deployed in the same function in the same or closely related reporting line. (It is pertinent to note here that "not illegal" can be construed as being "legal"). Another example that caught our attention involved procurement: while it may be legal to source material or services from one single vendor, the ethical standpoint may be perceived differently - which could be one of the reasons for obtaining multiple quotations from different vendors and the process of bidding with tenders (poetry unintended:-). A third example that came up was about violating confidentiality of a proprietary idea. While one may not be breaking the law as such in this situation, it is a breach of trust, an ethical principle. These situations are clearly unambiguous in terms of where we stand on legalities and ethics.
Any smart B-school student could easily create a 2X2 grid as below that would potentially map situations across the four dimensions :
Yet, some other questions continued to persist., which we struggled to get answers to :
- The vice-versa question : Is whatever that is ethical also legal? Was the answer a resounding "yes"? A silent lurking wisp of doubt lingered around the table.
- Most B-schools teach "Organizational Politics (OP)" as a subject in HR and OB courses. hence OP per se can be deemed not to be an illegal concept. However, I continue to live with this nagging doubt - is OP ethical?
- Another common situation in corporate organizations today : an employee who may be perceived to be performing below expectations may be asked to leave after repeated counseling, training and warning: clearly passing all the legal and ethical yardsticks; but do we feel "correct" about it afterwards? Why is it that in many situations like this, doubts arise on whether the right thing was done?
- In some countries, the "non-compete" employment clause is legally enforceable. Is the "non-compete" clause by itself ethical? Is it fair to restrict the options in an individual's choices in employment? Or is it unethical for such an individual to join a competitor company within 1 year or 2 years of leaving an organization, as most such clauses indicate? There was a lot of debate around these questions. Employees with niche skills and knowledge are poached by competitor organizations; we notice this happening all around us. They are wooed away specifically for their niche profiles and this is a business need in almost all cases. So where do we stand on ethics in such situations?
- More recently, with reference to the amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act in India, how would ethical dynamics play out in organizations around this law? I recall, in one of my earlier professional experiences many years ago, an organization mandated that the performance incentives and annual increments needed to be pro-rated for employees on maternity leave in any year, as there was no legal binding to pay the full dues on both these counts. Was this directive ethical? Tell me about it....
- And on the "darker" side of life : In many countries around the world, suicide and euthanasia are not illegal. But deep down in our subconscious minds, are we willing to accept these two issues as unequivocally ethical, even if their legal status were established?
While some of these debates remained inconclusive, we converged on the view that the whole issue boils down to our core beliefs in each situation and resulting perceptions, which by themselves are ubiquitous in their diversity. Undoubtedly there are globally accepted standards regarding codes of conduct and ethics, while at the same time, it is paradoxically interesting that legal frameworks and concepts are diverse across the world.
As we go along, it is likely that we will experience more dilemmas between legalities and ethics in different situations. It would be useful to record and debate such paradoxes; hopefully there will be nothing unethical or illegal about such discussions...:-)
good one Mukund M.A