Business Case #11: Abrasive Personality in the Workplace

Jan is a clerk with a very abrasive personality. She is usually competent but at least once a month she says or does something that seriously offends co-workers or members of the public. Dan, her supervisor, has counseled her several times but concludes she is a negative influence and he wants to terminate her but this is her fourth year …

Business Case #4: Financial Crisis

You are the chief financial officer of a 25-year-old manufacturing company that employs 75 people.  The company has been losing money for four years and its family owners have poured over $1 million dollars into it to save it.  In addition, the company has a $750,000 line of credit.  The bank has become increasingly nervous about the loan, especially since …

13 Truths for HR Professionals

Everyone rationalizes — including you. There are lots of things you don’t know and lots of people who hope you don’t find out. (The most dangerous problems are the ones you don’t know about). Complacency and overconfidence about ethics is a major vulnerability. (Everyone says it can’t happen here until it does). There’s never just one bad employee – there’s …

Honesty in Conduct

Honesty is the bedrock of trust and trustworthiness. The moral command to be honest requires us to speak and act only in ways that engender and justify trust. That seems simple enough. But honesty is a broader concept than some realize. An honest person tells the truth, is sincere, doesn’t deceive, mislead, act devious or tricky, doesn’t betray a trust, …

Leaders Create New Realities

If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.”               – Henry Ford Leaders need to listen to those they lead and those they want to influence, but as their greatest task is to take people beyond the reality and even the imagination of those they seek to lead, they often must choose another …

Decision Making Models: Consequentialism / Utilitarianism

Utilitarianism  holds that we should judge the merit of an act by its foreseeable consequences.  Actions are good when they produce benefit or prevent harm.  There are two divisions: Act Utilitarianism – The ethical merit of an act is judged by the immediate and direct consequences of the action. Rule Utilitarianism – The ethical merit of an act is judged …

Decision-Making Models: The Golden Rule

This most basic and useful ethical theory, sometimes called the “Rule of Reciprocity,” has a long history: Confucius (500 B.C.): “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Aristotle (325 B.C.): “We should behave to others as we wish them to behave to us.” From the Mahabharata (200 B.C.): “Do nothing to thy neighbor which …

Decision Making Models: Kant’s Categorical Imperative

According to Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), the moral character of an action depends solely on the principle behind it – not upon the consequences it produces.  Ethical obligations are “higher truths,” which we must obey regardless of the results. According to Kant, moral obligations are absolute and do not allow for exceptions or extenuating circumstances.  A major virtue of Kant’s duty …

Unethical Behavior Worsens Productivity

“Nobody . . . should have any doubts of the linkages between poor ethics in the workplace and low productivity . . . When workers don’t trust each other and their supervisors, then morale is low, stress is high and output is undermined.”  – Kenneth C. Frazier (2003 National Business Ethics Survey) Consider: Companies without a code of ethics do …