How to manage ethics in the workplace
1. Here's an idea
Good managers can sometimes be fooled by their own good intentions, their own approach to managerial problem solving, and the search for financial success, into complacently accepting a business ethic that falls short of their private ideals.
Laura Nash, in 'Good Intentions Aside', suggests that all managers, when faced with a tricky decision, should ask themselves the ‘Six Questions which Heighten Moral Sensitivity’:
- Is it right?
- Is it fair?
- Am I hurting anyone?
- Could I disclose this to the public or a respected mentor?
- Would I tell my child to do this?
- Does it pass the stink test?
2. Smile & ponder
The banker Salomon Rothschild was walking down a street in Vienna when a pickpocket tried to lift a silk handkerchief from his pocket. A friend tried to warn him: ‘That man is trying to steal your handkerchief!’
Rothschild responded: ‘So what? We all started small.’
3. It's a fact
William Gladstone, when British Prime Minister, was occasionally forced to send a reply to a personal letter from his office. Such was his integrity that, on returning home, he immediately destroyed one of his own postage stamps.
The boss’s ethical behaviour can set the standard on which others can model theirs. …
