8/10/2007
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Investor's Business Daily - National Edition
By Steve Watkins
So many ethics crises pop up: backdating stock
options, fudging numbers on income statements,
conflicts of interest, using company money for
personal items.
One way to address the problem is to create a
businesswide code of ethics.
That's the solution Howard Gardner proposes. He's
a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education and author of the book "Five Minds for the
Future."
He points to several professions, such as
medicine and law, in which professionals must meet
standards to keep their licenses. Business isn't
like that.
"Unless you have agreed-upon criteria and
training, you can't get kicked out," Gardner said.
Now's the time for a code, says Lynn Lieber,
founder and chief executive of Workplace Answers, a
San Francisco-based training firm focused on ethics.
"Technology is going to force us to come up with
an ethical code for everyone," Lieber said. "It
raises all sorts of business ethics questions."
Blogs and Web sites question behavior in the
corporate world -- including whether you can
complain about your boss, post work photos or bash
co-workers online.
"A code could be a very powerful tool for
businesses to adopt," Lieber said.
The problem for many businesspeople when it comes
to ethics is they aren't sure what's right, Lieber
says. They see lots of gray.
When creating an ethics code:
- Make it have consequences -
People must sign an agreement to live up to the
code, and there has to be a method of complaint, as
well as a judging and enforcing mechanism," Gardner
said.
Any successful ethics program should reward
ethical behavior and punish bad actions. A code
might include a license that could be pulled, he
says.
- Push personal conduct -
People in public must maintain the firm's
standards, Lieber says.
- Protect company assets -
"An organization needs to define what that
includes," she said. She says you shouldn't pass along information
about a customer that needs tech service to your
brother-in-law who's a tech consultant.
- Underscore conflicts of interest -
This includes whether you should serve on
another firm's board, Lieber says.
Why don't businesses just do the right thing,
regardless of a code? A lot of it comes down to the
quarterly pressure for profits. "People will do
whatever they can to make profits grow," Gardner
said.
Sure, business schools tell students they need to
be ethical. "But the implicit message that you have
the chance to make a billion dollars by the time
you're 25 is powerful," Gardner said.
Most companies want to be ethical, Lieber says.
But many firms don't require training in that arena.
They gloss over their own internal codes and don't
focus on overall integrity.
"There's some hesitation," Lieber said, "because
they think they'll open Pandora's box if they
emphasize it."