Ethics in business has been a concern for businesses for a while now, but events of the past years has mad it even more of a focus. It seem like it should be such an easy thing; do what is right and you won’t get into trouble, but deciding what is right seems to depend on who you talk to.
Business schools teach managers have a responsibility to grow the business and get the best return for the stakeholders, but some times the stakeholders have conflicting concerns. How do business ethics apply to that type of situation?
3 Important Business Ethics
While there are often times that the answer is not clear cut, there are a few standards that will help you avoid major missteps.
Honesty
One business ethics rule you should never violate is to tell the truth. Regardless of what problem you might face, you will never go wrong by being honest. If you need to make a decision that is not popular, or may even harm one group or another, be honest with the people involved.
Most of the major business ethics scandals over the past years have come as a result of business leaders that were dishonest. Knowing right from wrong, they chose wrong, and then lied about what they had done. Those in the organization that were not involved in the original problem ended up getting in trouble when they participated in the cover up.
Perhaps the most basic tenet of business ethics is maintaining honesty. Those you deal with may not agree with you, but they will respect the fact that they know that you are telling them the truth. That goes a long way with people.
Integrity
Business WomenThere are times in business when people do something that may be honest, and it may be the right decision for the company, but they go about it all wrong. You have heard stories of companies that announce layoffs the week before Christmas.
Many times these companies new about the decision weeks or even months before it was announced, but in order to avoid problems, they put off the announcement until the last minute. Integrity in business ethics would say that you tell your people what is coming so they have the opportunity to prepare for the layoff.
The same is true with price increases for your clients. If you need to increase prices you need to be honest and up front about the increases, not try to slip an increase in unnoticed. This type of behavior usually backfires, and the reputation of your business is harmed in the process.
Security
One area that has improved over the years is the issue of security of information about your clients and customers. There have been too many examples in past where a company has sold customer contact information to a third party for marketing purposes. You customers end up on a junk-mail list because the company owner saw an opportunity for a quick pay-day.
You need to apply business ethics by making sure that any information you collect about your customers is kept completely private. If your customers do not feel safe with your business they will quickly go to your competitors, and you will have a hard time trying to win them back.
Code of Business Ethics
One way to make sure the people in your organization abide by your business ethics is to write a Code of Ethics for your organization. This sends a message to your employees and your customers that you practice good business ethics.
Be prepared to spend some time getting this right. It isn’t something you can typically knock out over lunch one day. You need to make sure it truly captures your view of business ethics for your organization. If you do this half-heartedly, your customers and employees will see through it, and they will probably doubt that you truly hold to the business ethics that you claim are important.
Points To Keep In Mind…
- Many problems can be avoided by being honest with the people involved.
- Sometimes businesses do what is right, but they go about doing it all wrong.
- A Code of Business Ethics lets your customers and employees know what is important to you.
- Once you lose the trust of the people you deal with it is very hard to get it back.
- Your Code of Ethics needs to truly reflect what you believe and not just something you threw together.
