‘Ethics’ and ‘morals’ are not mere buzzwords that we learn in character enhancement classes. These words may have been rendered redundant by unscrupulous people but the fact of the matter is that they are hugely important. Why? Why do they still matter, particularly in a business situation?
The answer, of course, is not all black and white as some might think. There’s more to ethics than just right or wrong. A look at the financial situation today really makes one think hard about the kind of mistakes that business leaders have committed in the name of profit. Ethics and profit are not lined up on a see-saw, so if you think that one goes up and the other comes down – no it doesn’t work that way. Ethics and profit can actually co-exist if you make the effort.
Why do we need ethics today?
Ethics are not there just to make you feel good about having done the right thing. There’s more to it than just a feel good factor. Good ethical practices by companies lead to increased trust amongst stakeholders and trust is something that cannot be negated or achieved easily. The crumbling economic situation today is proof enough that companies that have by passed ethics will eventually pay, not just by losing money, but by also losing trust.
Why trust is important
When a top-line organization builds its foundation on trust and good ethical practices, what follows is an increase in efficiency. Some companies fail to see this and blindly rush after profits. For them, their only bottomline is greater and bigger profits, at any cost. What they don’t realize is that by doing so, they are endangering the entire chain that will lead to good profits for them in the long run. Short term profits might be fantastic but one needs to have a larger bird’s eye view of the picture which will show that all of these factors are inter-related.
How to instill good ethics?
Ethics have to be passed on from the higher levels to the lower ones, a process that cannot take place overnight but which needs to be developed over a period of time. Senior management and their policies determine how the lower echelons will regard ethical issues within the organization.
The HR department can play an important role in instilling ethics across the fabric of the organization by implementing traditional ideas of corporate responsibility and ensuring that these values reach all the levels of the organization. Employees follow by example and nowhere is this fact more apparent than in the following of rules, regulations and ethics which affect the world at large and not just the profit bottom-line of the organization.
