Business Culture

Corporate Culture Should Hold Business Ethics in High Esteem

There is a question commonly asked these days about whether or not corporate culture has fallen victim to a deterioration in ethics in business dealings. When people think of corporate America they often think of corruption, looking out for No. 1, profit and more profit! Corporate culture holds business ethics in high esteem because it's more important than ever for consumers to be able to trust a company in all business dealings.

The Institute of Business Ethics recently conducted a study that showed a proven correlation between ethical practices and business performance. The study shows that corporate culture should hold business ethics in high esteem in the sense that with ethics comes an environment where people want to be there and want to work as a team striving for the same goal. They are less likely to behave in an unethical manner. They aren't looking out merely for their own interests, as they do when working conditions lead to low morale. Due to the high morale among workers, there is increased employee retention, not to mention the better productivity and services that come with keeping happy experienced employees.

Corporate culture should hold business ethnics in high esteem only if there is an effective and consistent ethics program in place. Some companies just skim over business ethics during orientation meetings for new employees and the words are never brought up again. BIG MISTAKE! When there is more than just words about business ethics, for example, the company leading by example in their practice of ethical business, the success is amazing. Management, from the CEO down, should view themselves as a model of ethical behaviour in the eyes of their employees. If they demonstrate practices like favouring certain employees, compensation that is based on office relationships rather than merit, and failing to take disciplinary action when unethical behaviour of another employee is reported, employee morale as well as ethics will undoubtedly suffer. The concept of the corporation being a "team" is disregarded and employees are likely to be bitter about the corporate environment. Most employees will gauge their actions by watching that of their supervisor or superiors in the business.

Ethics tend to be learned more than taught. We learn ethical behaviour from the time we are young and mostly by observing the conduct of others, especially people we respect and admire. Our personal ethics may differ from person to person but business ethics is all about finding a uniform code of conduct that everyone can follow to cultivate a positive work environment and corporate structure. That corporate culture should hold business ethics in high esteem is important for ensuring that the business will run smoothly and employees will give of their best.