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Denis Collins, PhD, is a tenured Professor of Business at Edgewood College and teaches in the areas of business ethics, management, leadership, and organization behavior. Considered a leader among business ethics professors, Dr. Collins serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Academic Ethics, and Encyclopedia of Business Ethics and Society and has published numerous books and articles in the areas of social philosophy, participatory management, business ethics, and service learning.

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The essential guide to creating an organization ofhigh integrity and superior performance

With the high-profile corporate scandals that have taken place in recent years, corporate ethics are more important to a business than ever before. The failure of ethical leadership in an organization is very destructive-it demoralizes the workforce, breeds public distrust, and ultimately results in organizational decay.

Based on more than two decades of consulting, teaching, and research, Denis Collins's Essentials of Business Ethics is designed with appreciation for your demanding professional obligations, with easy-to-find, at-your-fingertips information. Its nuts-and-bolts presentation provides you with practical "how-to" examples and best practices on every area of managing ethics inside your organization in a handy, concise format.

This brief yet powerful guide presents executives and leaders with timely discussion on:

• Human nature and unethical behavior in organizations
• Determining the ethics of job candidates
• The differences between a Code of Ethics and a Code of Conduct
• The best practices for managing diversity
• Using Management-by-Objectives to establish work goals that encourage ethical behavior
• Performance appraisals that reward ethical behaviors
• Aligning community outreach with the company's mission and assets
• Handling the environmental change process
• How to manage three internal communication mechanisms for employees to report potentially unethical or illegal behaviors: an Ethics & Compliance Office, Ombudsman, and Ethics Hotlines<

Providing a five-step ethics job-screen process and an ethical decision-making framework, as well as guidelines for conducting a variety of business ethics workshops, Essentials of Business Ethics is the only guide you will need containing all the relevant facts on business ethics, all in one place.

Aus dem Klappentext

Essentials of Business Ethics

Creating an Organization of HighIntegrity and Superior Performance

Use a systematic ethics decision-making framework to arrive at moral conclusions

Conduct ethics and diversity training workshops

Integrate ethics into work goals, performance appraisals, and financial incentives

Screen job candidates for their ethics

Develop an Environmental Management System plan and assess environmental performance

Denis Collins

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Essentials of Business Ethnics Creating an Organization of High Integrity and Superior Performance

John Wiley & Sons

Chapter One

After reading this chapter, you will be able to:

Explain the competitive advantages of creating and maintaining an ethical organization

Describe some common types of unethical behaviors that occur in all types of organizations-for-profits, nonprofits, educational institutions, and government

Appreciate that unethical behaviors can occur in all organizational operations

Understand that unethical behaviors can be very costly to organizations

Discuss human nature in terms of people being pleasure-seekers who can choose to do good or bad

Businesses, nonprofit organizations, and government agencies significantly improve the quality of life on Earth by providing goods and services that fulfill consumer needs.

Look around. A business built the house you live in, the alarm clock that wakes you up, the bed you sleep in, the clothes you wear, the newspapers you read, the chair you sit in, the food you eat, the music you listen to, and the car you drive to work. Providing goods and services that enrich the quality of life, and employment, are very ethical endeavors.

Ethics should permeate all aspects of organizational operations. Unfortunately, due to human nature and inappropriate management control systems, many organizations are ethically challenged.

This chapter discusses why managing ethics is essential, moral imperfection among human beings, and the nature and negative ramifications of unethical activities within organizations. Almost every decision made every day has ethical ramifications. Managing ethics appropriately leads to superior financial performance.

Daily Occurrence of Ethical Dilemmas

When an organization employs someone, that individual brings to work not only unique job skills, but also his or her ethics. Ethics is the set of principles a person uses to determine whether an action is good or bad. Ethics permeates every stakeholder interaction involving owners, customers, employees, lenders, suppliers, and government officials.

People experience a multitude of ethical dilemmas on a daily basis, beginning with whether to get out of bed or hit the snooze button when the morning alarm goes off. Almost every decision and action a person makes the rest of the day has an impact on other people, beginning with arriving at work on time and ending with unfinished tasks at the end of the day. Each decision and action is subject to ethical analysis.

An action sequence consists of the motivation behind the act, the act itself, and the consequences of the act. An ideal ethical situation is one in which a person has good motives and the act results in good consequences. The most unethical situation is one where a person has bad motives and the act results in bad consequences.

Is it ethical for you to inform a subordinate about next year's business plan? It depends. If you have permission to share the information and doing so improves the subordinate's performance, then it is very ethical. However, if sharing the information violates a confidentiality agreement and the subordinate is likely to misuse the information, then it is very unethical.

On the ethics continuum, some situations fall between the two extremes. Sometimes, good motives can generate bad consequences. For instance, trying to help a colleague perform one task might distract the person from meeting an important deadline. Sometimes, bad motives can generate good consequences. Your selfish refusal to support a colleague in need of assistance may result in the colleague obtaining even better support from someone else. When evaluating these less-than-ethically-ideal situations, some people place greater ethical weight on having proper motives, while others place greater weight on achieving favorable consequences.

Without having been trained in philosophy, few managers realize that almost every business decision has ethical ramifications. For instance, in 1985, Ken Lay, chief executive officer (CEO) of the regional Houston Natural Gas (HNG) company, had to decide whether to accept a merger offer from InterNorth, which owned North America's largest natural gas pipeline (see In the Real World). The ethical implications of this business decision are profound. Lay's decision would impact all InterNorth and HNG shareholders, all HNG employees and their families, and the cities of Houston, Texas and Omaha, Nebraska.

Competitive Advantages of Ethical Organizations

Ethical organizations consist of ethical employees empowered to operate within a culture of trust. Research findings (and common sense) strongly suggest that, in the long term, ethical organizations financially outperform unethical organizations. Eight competitive advantages of achieving high integrity within a culture of trust appear in Exhibit 1.1.

If you were a job applicant, would you rather work for an ethical or an unethical organization?

An ethical organization attracts high-quality employees and leads to higher levels of employee satisfaction and loyalty. If the pay is similar, job candidates consistently choose the ethical organization rather than the unethical organization. Individuals only choose the unethical organization if pay and benefits are substantially higher. A survey of MBA students found that 94% of them would accept an average of 14% lower pay to work for an organization with a reputation for high ethical standards.

If you were a customer, would you rather purchase products or services from an ethical or unethical organization?

A stellar ethical reputation is priceless marketing and leads to higher levels of customer satisfaction and loyalty. When product price and quality are similar, potential customers consistently choose the ethical organization over the unethical organization. In fact, consumers are willing to pay a modest premium for products and services supplied by an ethical company. They purchase from an unethical organization only if the price is substantially lower.

If you were a supplier, would you rather sell your products and services to an ethical or unethical organization?

An ethical organization attracts high-quality suppliers and increases supplier satisfaction and loyalty. Potential suppliers consistently choose to sell to the ethical organization that pays a fair price rather than the unethical organization. Suppliers depend on customers to pay their bills on time so that they can manage a smooth operation.

If you were an investor, would you rather do business with an ethical or unethical organization?

High-quality investors are attracted to ethical organizations, which leads to higher levels of investor satisfaction and loyalty. If anticipated return-on-investments are similar, potential lenders and investors consistently choose the ethical organization rather than the unethical organization.

If you were a community leader or government official, would you rather interact with an ethical or unethical organization?

Ethical organizations honestly communicate with stakeholders and pay their fair share of taxes. In return, ethical organizations earn the respect of, and gain access to, community leaders and government officials.

Lastly, if you were an employee, customer, supplier, investor,...