Tips for Creating a Culture of Ethics

When did CEOs decide that morality was irrelevant? 

Shouldn’t the recent departures by the heads of United Airlines, Massey Energy and Volkswagen send a message that cutting ethical and legal corners is a foolish business strategy?

The end does not justify the means. In fact, sloppy ethics set the wrong corporate tone, risk the corporation’s reputation and value, and may be the loud, memorable endnote to an otherwise stellar career.

Stories of copyright lobbyists who violate copyright law by freely sharing protected newspaper articles with one another, or of airlines colluding to restrict capacity and keep fares high, are not isolated ethical lapses. Meeting planners get large “affinity program” gifts from hotel chains for steering them business. Drug companies give doctors secret cash “rebates” for using their name-brand drugs over lower-priced equally effective alternatives.  

We increasingly accept sleazy behavior in business.

Perhaps that is why Donald Trump is leading in presidential polls. His personal wealth not only makes him “unbuyable” to would-be influencers, it gives Trump insights into how the best cheaters and swindlers do business. He is successfully arguing that the presidency will allow him to level the playing field.

Our next president will inherit a nation where the meek may be the majority, but they are not inheriting the earth — or determining public policy. Instead, their future is being robbed by politicians who refuse to confront our exploding debt or face tough fiscal decisions head on, instead choosing to tell voters that they can have increasingly bigger government largesse without consequences. 

While our troops risk their lives for the nation, most politicians won’t risk an election on a difficult vote.

Then there are state attorneys general, such as Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood, who take professional ethics to new lows. In 2014, Hood accepted campaign contributions from interest groups opposing Google and filed a lawsuit against Google drafted by the donors’ lawyers. The man elected to be his state’s chief law enforcement officer even plotted to lower Google’s stock price. Despite all that, Hood was re-elected to a fourth term in office in November.

Congress has proven to have a hazy view of professional ethics, too. Last year, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada took massive contributions from trial lawyers after refusing to bring bipartisan patent-reform legislation to the Senate floor. And in 2012, Reid accepted campaign donations from the nation’s highest-billing doctor, then summoned then-Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to meet in Reid's Senate office and demanded the government back off its case alleging fraud against that very same doctor.

The doctor and one of Reid’s colleagues, Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey, to whom the doctor contributed, have since been indicted — but inexplicably, Reid has not.

Not all business leaders take an “ends-justify-the-means” approach. Intel’s Brian Krzanich pledged $300 million to support workplace-diversity efforts. Krzanich wasn’t legally required to do this. Rather, he took this step to strengthen his workforce and make Intel a better place to work. Intel is an effective example that we can, and should, do better. 

Our laws do not and should not define morality. My parents raised me to be ethical: If I broke the rules, I had to be prepared to pay the consequences. But today, what is legal and what is ethical are often two separate discussions. Crossing an empty street with a “Don’t Walk” sign may be illegal, but it is not unethical. Today, too much of the business of politics is unethical, even when it follows the letter of the law. 

Business leaders and politicians need to restore an abiding regard for ethics, not only in the context of the letter of the law, but also in the spirit of the law. If you can’t tell the difference between right and wrong, consider the very values that built this nation.

We live in the greatest nation on earth. Our national success derives in large part from our free-market system, in which companies can compete ferociously for customers. But we have lost a sense of shared values, a black-and-white litmus test of what constitutes right from wrong, not simply distinguishes between legal and illegal.