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Ethics at Work

HR Magazine, Jan, 2006 by Leigh Rivenbark

Ethics at Work

By Alice Darnell Lattal and Ralph W. Clark, Performance Management Publications, 2005

360 pages, List price: $21.95

Factory manager Sharon has a dilemma: Her unprofitable factory in a small town must close. But jobs will disappear, families will suffer, and local schools and businesses will be hurt. Whatever the company does, Sharon must wrestle with ethical questions. How does she best communicate the news? What's fair and honest? How much help can and should the company give to the workers? To the community?

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Sharon's story is one of many in Ethics at Work that illustrate realistic problems. While many books on business ethics probe big-picture questions about insider trading or environmental responsibility, the authors say their aim is different. Ralph W. Clark, a university professor of ethics, and Alice Darnell Lattal, a management consultant and psychologist, say they want to guide readers in making individual ethical choices through deliberate strategies.

The first stop is a discussion of ethics and the benefits of being an ethical company. Such companies "always avoid the negative consequences of unethical behavior, such as bad publicity, fines and legal expenses," but ethical behavior is also good for business directly, the authors argue.

Sales jobs get their own chapter because of the many ethical gray areas inherent in selling, where pressure to close sales is intense and an emphasis on competition can contribute to temptation to act in just one's own interest. The book discusses the salesperson's obligations to the customer and the balance between ethics and profit.

Readers need to consider whether expectations (such as "Any [effort] less than 100 percent is unacceptable") might push employees toward unethical actions to meet goals. Methods of doing away with fear at work include focusing performance management on improvement, not punishment. And the authors look at how privacy, safety, fairness and other factors affect the workplace's positive environment.

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A chapter on employee loyalty calls on employers to redefine loyalty by showing workers that speaking up is "valued and safe." Such a practice shows that ethics are important to the firm, with the added benefit that if employees can bring any concern to management, they are less likely to go public.

Lattal and Clark provide steps toward changing behavior, such as identifying the ethical change required in a situation and phrasing it accurately. The book suggests using avenues to foster ethical considerations at work, such as ethical analyses of documents, ethical goals in performance reviews and ethics training.

Employers can reinforce ethical behavior at work, the authors say, by building measurement, management and reward systems that help improve the likelihood employees will do the right thing while reducing the temptation to act unethically.

Business Services Industry

Ethics at Work

HR Magazine, Jan, 2006 by Leigh Rivenbark

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