resultsthroughintegrity

WORKPLACE MISCONDUCT

Albert Camus said that integrity has no need of rules.

KPMG in their 2008-09 integrity survey conclude that there is a real need for integrity in the workplace.

The survey reports that 3700 out of 5000 employees say they have seen or know of wrong doing or misconduct in the workplace.

IF IT’S LEGAL THEN SURELY IT’S ETHICAL?

The economist Milton Friedman argues that “there is one and only one social responsibility of business - to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud”(1).

 These “rules of the game” are to be understood as a particular society's laws. In a nutshell, Friedman is arguing that business people are ethical if and only if they struggle to increase their profits and that they are entitled as part of that struggle to do whatever the law permits.

 As long as a person's profit-maximizing actions conform to the law and professional rules, he is, in Friedman's view, acting ethically.

 Ethics is not rules.

The activities of businesses under the Nazi regime should be sufficient to show that morality (2) and law are distinct. Helping to build extermination camps was legal and good for profits but it was not ethical. Even in a more just society, laws often state only a minimum requirement, usually what is enforceable in practice, rather than what is right.

 Yet Friedman’s answer is the most common one in business today.

Friedman’s approach to ethics is limited because rules cannot cover every situation. An ethical code that simply gives detailed rules and nothing else will sink under pressure either from clever people who find ways round the rules or from new situations the rules don’t cover.

 Another very real problem for investors who take law as their professional moral guide is the different laws that operate in the different countries where they do business. While the sale of the pesticide DDT is illegal in the EU, it is legal in many less developed countries. Does that make it morally acceptable to invest in factories producing DDT in poor countries?

 What distinguishes ethics from rules is that rules tell you how to act while ethics tells you how to think before acting.

 If rules are the bricks with which we build the house that shelters us from greed and selfishness, then the foundations of that house are ethics. Without ethical foundations, the house of rules will collapse under the growing weight of regulations and the pressure of financial storms.

 So what is ethics?

Integrity In Practice

What is Integrity? What is business Ethics?

We begin by answering head-on the questions “What is Integrity?" and “What is Business Ethics?"

We do this in a way that is analytic but which we hope is easily understood by the majority of our audience.

Whilst we believe that most people have an intuitive sense of right and wrong, it is clear that an analytic understanding of integrity is no longer a significant part of our educational or cultural curriculum.

This makes integrity difficult to implement in practice as people try to resolve issues of principle and profit in their working lives.

Indeed, some people even fail to recognize that they are facing an ethical decision.

We also believe that the conflict between people’s intuitive sense of doing the right thing and the practical demands of their job generates a lot of the stress felt by many.

Integrity Based Problem Solving

By  Douglas Ross

What is the problem with problems?

Most people believe that their problems are unique to them. Many people believe problems are not a good thing to have.

Some people make a living solving other people’s problems. And then there is me ….

My problem is that I see problems like mosquitoes hovering around me in the woods and frankly they just bug me. I want to know the nature of problems and more importantly how to get rid of them.

Agreements, Integrity and Trust at Work

By

Peter G. Vajda, Ph.D.

 Healthy and conscious relationships are open, honest, safe and trustworthy, where people are acting and being in integrity. One of the major foundation blocks of open, safe and trusting relationships is that of keeping agreements.

The foundation of healthy relationships begins to atrophy and crumble when one feels betrayed. One feels betrayed when another fails to commit to or keep agreements.

What is an agreement?

Integrity at Work-Do the Right thing and Do things Right

By
Douglas Ross

“Individually and collectively, we will optimize our efforts to safely complete quality work that meets customer expectations on time, every time at a world class cost.”

The goal statement is an example of integrity at work.

The goal integrates the mindsets and behaviors required for success with specific performance measures of people, safety, quality, delivery and cost that directly impact profitability. It assumes that the requisite organizational structures, systems and processes are healthy and robust. 

Yet, integrity at work is not yet a vital ingredient in our personal and professional lives.

The challenge is to create a simple and easy way to integrate people, systems, processes and structures to be successful at work and at home.

Integrity at work – how do you stack up?

By Peter Vajda, PhD

With the business sections of today's papers and magazines reading more and more like a police charge-sheet, "integrity" is fast becoming a hot topic of conversation in boardrooms, around water coolers, and in business best-sellers.

Integrity means walking the talk when it comes to living one's true values - being authentic. Try taking this self-assessment and exploring how you walk your integrity talk when you show up at work.

Integrity is a lot like being pregnant. Either you're pregnant, or you aren't. There's no middle ground. It's the same with integrity. Either you're behaving with integrity, or you're not.

You Reap What You Sow

By Douglas Ross

Money, power and fame are the desired results of doing the right thing in business today.  Why does doing the right thing in business not always work?  Do you really need integrity in your life to be successful?

You reap what you sow is an ancient proverb that demonstrates the link between actions and results. People, who do not get the results they want, may want to look at their intentions.

Ground Hog Day

By Douglas Ross

Ground Hog Day is the story of a reporter caught in a time loop where he awakens every day to the morning of the day before.  It is the comical story about being stuck in the same old story and getting unstuck.  It mirrors parts of our life as we know it at work and at home.

Bill Murray portrays Phil, a man of little integrity and dubious character, who covers the story of ground hog day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. He is caught in a repetitive pattern of life that he is not even aware of. Only because he awakens every day to the same day does it dawn on him that he is stuck in his own muck.

Keys of Professionalism

By Douglas Ross

Many people, outside the recognized professions, promote themselves as professionals. But are they? What are the key elements of professionalism? The answers from people around the world may surprise you.