{"id":610,"date":"2019-10-18T11:41:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-18T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/?p=610"},"modified":"2019-10-18T23:43:05","modified_gmt":"2019-10-19T06:43:05","slug":"ethical-failures-are-never-cheap-the-5-ways-to-boosting-ethical-decision-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/2019\/10\/ethical-failures-are-never-cheap-the-5-ways-to-boosting-ethical-decision-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethical Failures Are Never Cheap: The  5 Ways to Boosting Ethical Decision Making"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Ethical-Organization-pic2-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5441\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Most companies have ethics and compliance policies that get reviewed and signed annually by all employees. A company policy states that \u201cEmployees are charged with conducting their business affairs in accordance with the highest ethical standards.\u201d \u201cMorals, as well as legal obligations, will be fulfilled in a manner which will reflect pride on the Company\u2019s name.\u201d These all come from a company\u2019s policy. Yet, to sustain a truly <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/business-toolkit\/ethical-organization\">ethical organization<\/a>, it takes more than a compliance policy or Values Statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>&#8220;Corporate ethical failures have become painfully common, and they are not cheap.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Billions of dollars have been paid in fines by companies charged with ethical breaches. Despite good intentions, organizations set themselves up for ethical catastrophes. In this age of corporate mistrust, creating an ethical workplace takes more than compliance programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Unraveling the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">Ethical Organization Paradox<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/connects.ethics.org\/ecihome\/research\/nbes\">National Business Ethics Survey<\/a>, leaders make concerted efforts to pay holistic attention to their organization\u2019s systems. Yet, despite progress, a number has failed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>41% of workers reported seeing ethical misconduct in the previous 12 months<\/li><li>10% felt organizational pressure to compromise ethical standards<\/li><li>$185 M in fines imposed on Wells Fargo as 5300 employees opened up more than a million fraudulent account.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite good intentions, organizations set themselves up for ethical catastrophes. The paradox is, without realizing it, organizations tend to create an environment in which people feel forced to make choices they could never have imagined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Preventing ethical catastrophes can be done. Organizations just need to create that environment where people are encouraged to make ethical choices. There are <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">5 critical ways organizations can boost ethical decision making<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Boosting Ethical Decision Making in 5 Effective Ways<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Boosting <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">ethical decision making<\/a> is important. This can be achieved when done using the most effective ways.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/flevy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Ethical-Organization-pic1-1024x768.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-5442\" \/><\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Foster a Speak Up Culture.<\/strong> This is best applied when the courage needed to raise ethical concerns are inhibited.&nbsp; The <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/business-toolkit\/corporate-culture\">corporate culture<\/a> will dictate how people within the organization behave.<\/li><li><strong>Create Realistic Performance Targets<\/strong>. The second way of boosting ethical decision focus on ensuring that people do not make compromising choices to reach targets.<\/li><li><strong>Ensure Goals Are Fair and Non-conflicting<\/strong>. The culture of fairness in the organization is the main focus here. This is best applied when there are conflicting goals in pursuit of growth.<\/li><li><strong>Infuse Ethics into Regular Activities<\/strong>. This approach is the most challenging but life-changing. Often, leaders talk about <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/business-toolkit\/business-ethics\">business ethics<\/a> only when there is a scandal or as part of the organization\u2019s compliance program. Infusing ethics into regular activities ensure that ethics becomes an everyday part of the organization and its DNA. It becomes embedded in the way people relate with each other, work with each other, and even in the application of its processes and systems. Here, ethics become your organization\u2019s everyday life.<\/li><li><strong>Set a Positive Example<\/strong>. Leaders play a vital role in setting higher standards when it comes to ethics. Essentially, they must be able to put themselves in the shoes of those they lead to see what unintended meaning they are sending. This can be seen in how they react to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.entrepreneur.com\/article\/296698\">stressful situations<\/a> or event confront poor performance. Leaders need to become extra vigilant as others may interpret their actions or behavior otherwise.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Organizations don\u2019t want to find themselves in a front-page scandal. Hence, they must scrutinize their actions to far greater degrees than they may have realized. The 5 Ways of Boosting Ethical Decision Making can just be the organization&#8217;s steppingstone towards transforming into an <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">Ethical Organization<\/a> and sustaining it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Interested in gaining more understanding of how&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">Ethical Organizations improve Ethical Decision Making<\/a>? You can learn more and download an <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\/flevypro\/ethical-organization-improving-ethical-decision-making-3930\">editable PowerPoint about <strong>Ethical Organization: Improving Ethical Decision Making<\/strong> here<\/a> on the <a href=\"https:\/\/flevy.com\/browse\">Flevy documents marketplace<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Are you a management consultant?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You can download this and hundreds of other&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\/frameworks\">consulting frameworks<\/a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\/consulting\">consulting training guides<\/a>&nbsp;from the&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/flevy.com\/pro\/library\">FlevyPro library<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Most companies have ethics and compliance policies that get reviewed and signed annually by all employees. A company policy states that \u201cEmployees are charged with conducting their business affairs in accordance with the highest ethical standards.\u201d \u201cMorals, as well as legal obligations, will be fulfilled in a manner which will reflect pride on the Company\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[257,223,259,258,255,261,256,260],"class_list":["post-610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-5-critical-ways-organizations-can-boost-ethical-decision-making","tag-business-ethics","tag-corporate-culture","tag-ethical-decision-making","tag-ethical-organization","tag-ethical-organization-paradox","tag-national-business-ethics-survey","tag-stressful-situations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=610"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":611,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/610\/revisions\/611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/themanwhosoldtheweb.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}