What can be done to improve business behaviour? That question was asked in the first paragraph of the first paper in this series, in May of this year. It begs the question, "Does business behaviour need improving?"
Certainly, to read both the general and the business media there would seem to be little doubt about the answer. Stories of dark misdeeds, corrupt practice and inhuman corporate tyranny taint our Sunday mornings week after week. Can we expect the press to do anything else? The public thrives on being shocked by the "Latest Scandal,"
Now of course, those of us who spend our lives in business know that this is not a true picture. So, if you're attacked, all you need do is ensure that the Public Relations department gets onto the case quickly, carries out an effective damage limitation exercise, and enables everyone as soon as possible to get on with business as usual.
But is that really all there is to it?
Are your hands quite so clean? Is all sweetness and light on the seventh floor? Or the fifth? Or the third? Do even your own staff believe that they work for a honest and honourable business? And what would your customers and suppliers say (that is, the people who deal with your organisation on a day-to-day basis, not only their top managers)?
The diagram shows just a few relationships with stakeholders, that is the people who have a stake in the behaviour of your business because their lives, professional or personal, are affected by it. Are you confident of the ethical standards being applied in dealings with each of these, and with others not shown? You may run all kinds of quality programme, but does quality of behaviour characterise your business?
The ethical issues faced by managers in these many relationships vary according to their levels in the organisation, but none is exempt. They also vary between specialist functions (personnel and finance, for example, giving rise to different dilemmas), the nature of the industry (insurance being different from healthcare) and the business situations which people face (international expansion producing very different ethical tensions from say the closure of obsolete manufacturing capacity).
Many companies now are developing and distributing ethical codes, and running values development programmes, but it is important that these be rooted in reality. They should reflect the practical concerns of managers and staff. They should deal with those stakeholder relationships which cause people to question the moral basis of your business. They should focus on answers to questions such as, "What do our people believe is good, and less than good, about the way the business cares about its impact on others?" "What do those stakeholders think of how we behave towards them and others?"
This short article is by David Murray, Principal of Maine Consulting Services and an international management consultant since 1979. Maine Consulting Services provides consultancy and training in strategic organisational issues, continuous improvement, service quality and business ethics.
© Copyright, David J Murray, 1993