A Proactive Driver With The Proper Attitude

It would be a mistake, however, to see this situation exclusively in terms of any one individualвЂ™s moral failings. Consumers and attorneys general in more than 40 states had accused the company of misleading customers and selling them unnecessary parts and services, from brake jobs to front-end alignments. In 1992, Sears, Roebuck & Company was inundated with complaints about its automotive service business. Sears Auto CentersвЂ™ and Beech-Nut Nutrition CorporationвЂ™s experiences illustrate the role organizations play in shaping individualsвЂ™ behavior-and how even sound moral fiber can fray when stretched too thin. The once familiar picture of ethics as individualistic, unchanging, and impervious to organizational influences has not stood up to scrutiny in recent years. How Organizations Shape IndividualsвЂ™ Behavior Then an ethical framework becomes no longer a burdensome constraint within which companies must operate, but the governing ethos of an organization. When integrated into the day-to-day operations of an organization, such strategies can help prevent damaging ethical lapses while tapping into powerful human impulses for moral thought and action. Though integrity strategies may vary in design and scope, all strive to define companiesвЂ™ guiding values, aspirations, and patterns of thought and conduct. To foster a climate that encourages exemplary behavior, corporations need a comprehensive approach that goes beyond the often punitive legal compliance stance.ДЄn integrity-based approach to ethics management combines a concern for the law with an emphasis on managerial responsibility for ethical behavior. But organizational ethics means more than avoiding illegal practice and providing employees with a rule book will do little to address the problems underlying unlawful conduct.

Designed by corporate counsel, the goal of these programs is to prevent, detect, and punish legal violations. Prompted by the prospect of leniency, many companies are rushing to implement compliance-based ethics programs. These sentencing guidelines recognize for the first time the organizational and managerial roots of unlawful conduct and base fines partly on the extent to which companies have taken steps to prevent that misconduct. In addition, they deprive their organizations of the benefits available under new federal guidelines for sentencing organizations convicted of wrongdoing.

Executives who ignore ethics run the risk of personal and corporate liability in todayвЂ™s increasingly tough legal environment. Managers must acknowledge their role in shaping organizational ethics and seize this opportunity to create a climate that can strengthen the relationships and reputations on which their companiesвЂ™ success depends. Managers who fail to provide proper leadership and to institute systems that facilitate ethical conduct share responsibility with those who conceive, execute, and knowingly benefit from corporate misdeeds. Ethics, then, is as much an organizational as a personal issue. More typically, unethical business practice involves the tacit, if not explicit, cooperation of others and reflects the values, attitudes, beliefs, language, and behavioral patterns that define an organizationвЂ™s operating culture. Rarely do the character flaws of a lone actor fully explain corporate misconduct. In fact, ethics has everything to do with management. Ethics, after all, has nothing to do with management. The thought that the company could bear any responsibility for an individualвЂ™s misdeeds never enters their minds. These executives are quick to describe any wrongdoing as an isolated incident, the work of a rogue employee. Many managers think of ethics as a question of personal scruples, a confidential matter between individuals and their consciences.

A Proactive Driver With The Proper Attitude