Zinkin / Bennett The Challenge of Leading an Ethical and Successful Organization

1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-3-11-078095-6
Verlag: De Gruyter
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 173 Seiten

Being both ethical and successful is challenging. The rewards of unethical behavior are often greater than the price paid for misbehavior. This book explains why leaders, seeking to run ethical and successful organizations, cannot depend only on the law and their organizations to make moral business decisions.

The authors explore why making ethical business decisions is harder than is generally understood, and explores the difficulties leaders face as a result of differences in context, circumstances, and other challenges to ethical behavior, such as misleading rhetoric, inappropriate role models, cognitive dissonance and motivated forgetting. They argue that individuals need to establish ethical baselines that they will not cross when making decisions and explain how to do this systematically.

offers ways of handling ethical dilemmas successfully. It explores the need to determine in advance the potential areas of ethical conflict, and the potential costs of such conflicts and provides leaders with a practical ethical framework to reconcile ethics with business success. This book is essential reading for professionals, consultants, and academics interested in the ethics of leadership and management.

Zielgruppe

Professionals, consultants, and academics interested in the ethic

Autoren/Hrsg.

Zinkin, John

Bennett, Chris

Fachgebiete

• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Bereichsspezifisches Management Management: Führung & Motivation
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Betriebswirtschaft Unternehmensorganisation, Corporate Responsibility Unternehmensethik

Leseproben

Chapter 1 Ethics and the Law

People who lead ethical and successful organizations should appreciate the different constraints posed upon their freedom of action by ethics, and the law.

Ethics

Ethics, as the thought of Man about his action, is as ancient as Man itself . . . ethical systems changed through time, gaining more and new concepts to think about new human realities in the world and to communicate them. An example would be the constellation of four concepts needed in ancient Greek philosophy to explain moral life – good, end, happiness, and virtue – to which medievalism added the concept of God, modernity the concept of liberty, and contemporaneity the concept of responsibility. . . . Ethics originally heteronomous, being given to Man (from a higher entity: Nature or God), becomes autonomous, being made by Man to Man. Finally, ethics turned out to be applied to many different concrete fields of human activity – engineering, media, economics, politics, etc. – but none more developed than in biomedical (and environment) field through bioethics.

. . . ethics has always been and still is a rationalization of human action (the logic underneath human actions) concerning the principles it is grounded on, the ends it aims toward, and the processes it entails.1

[Emphases ours]

Many ethicists consider ethics and morals to be related concepts. The difference is that morals reflect intentions and whether we perceive our behavior as “good” or “bad,” whereas ethics defines what practical behaviors are “right or wrong.” Ethics can be classified into three types:

1. General, covering issues that affect humanity as a whole

2. Institutional ethics, dealing with issues that affect given organizations, with professional and business ethics as distinct subsets and/or

3. Personal ethics affecting the choices of individuals in their relations with society and the organizations that they work for.

Problems arise when the three classes of ethics come into conflict with one another, the law, and varying societal expectations. The conflicts create ethical dilemmas that are difficult to resolve:

Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. Ethics, for example, refers to those standards that impose the reasonable obligations to refrain from rape, stealing, murder, assault, slander, and fraud. Ethical standards also include those that enjoin virtues of honesty, compassion, and loyalty. And, ethical standards include standards relating to rights, such as the right to life, the right to freedom from injury, and the right to privacy. Such standards are adequate standards of ethics because they are supported by consistent and well-founded reasons.2

[Emphases ours]

Ethics is a branch of philosophy that aims to answer the basic question, “What should I do?” It’s a process of reflection in which people’s decisions are shaped by their values, principles, and purpose rather than unthinking habits, social conventions, or self-interest.

Our values, principles, and purpose are what give us a sense of what’s good, right, and meaningful in our lives. They serve as a reference point for all the possible courses of action we could choose. On this definition, an ethical decision is one made based on reflection about the things we think are important and that is consistent with those beliefs.

While each person is able to reflect and discover their own sense of what’s good, right, and meaningful, the course of human history has seen different groups unify around different sets of values, purposes and principles. Christians, consequentialists, Buddhists, Stoics and the rest all provide different answers to that question, “What should I do?” Each of these answers is a “morality”.3

[Emphases ours]

Professional Ethics

Professional ethics are a form of applied ethics governing the behavior of members of a professional body. Shared ethical principles form the basis of professional codes of conduct, though they may differ according to profession. They provide agreed rules on how members, when acting as representatives of their profession, should act toward other people, and institutions in their work, sharing a common morality, seeking efficient and effective solutions:

Applied ethics is a branch of ethics specific to a concrete social domain of activity, grounded on common morality and addressed to all people possibly involved in that activity.

All applied ethics are of a theoretical–practical nature, having a double requirement: on the one hand, a sound theory to guarantee the objectivity of its justifications and the coherence of its orientations and, on the other hand, efficient and efficacious interventions in concrete situations to assure the real and satisfactory resolution of problems.4

[Emphasis ours]

Professional codes of conduct reflect the unique circumstances and conditions of a given profession, and share ethical principles: honesty, trustworthiness, loyalty, respect for others, adherence to the law, doing good and avoiding harming others, and accountability. They confirm the expectations that the profession has of members, providing guidelines to set minimum standards of appropriate behavior.5

Professional codes of conduct provide benefits to the:

1. Public in general and clients in particular by building confidence in the trustworthiness of the profession

2. Clients by providing greater transparency and certainty about how their needs are met

3. Members by providing support to resist pressure to behave inappropriately and for advice on how to handle “gray areas”

4. Profession as a whole through the common understanding of acceptable practice, creating collegiality and fairer, transparent disciplinary procedures and

5. Outsiders dealing with the profession because the profession is regarded as more reliable and reputable to deal with.6

For professional codes of conduct to be effective:

Codes should be regulative; should promote the public interest and the interests of those served; should not be self-serving; should be specific and honest, and should be both policeable and policed.7

The major business-related professions are accountancy, engineering, finance, journalism, law and medicine.i Appendix 1.1 (Introduction to Business-related Professional Codes of Conduct) provides a snapshot of their professional codes of conduct.

Business Ethics

Business ethics are not an oxymoron. Ethical behavior creates sustainable businesses. Achieving sustainable ethical organizational success presents individuals with ethical challenges that can be anticipated. The skill of organizations in resolving their ethical challenges provides the foundations for sustainable success.

Ethical business practices add to the boundaries of the law as it applies to customers, employees, and the communities impacted by their operations. Potentially, they build trust between customers and the organizations that serve them. They can act as a “quality signal” in achieving repeat business and enhancing brand equity. With the increased interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters, ethically run organizations have become more attractive to investors and prospective employees, making it easier to attract and retain scarce talent.

Organizations with good business ethics are trustworthy: keeping promises, transparent and honest in communications, and diligent in following up. They respect customers and their needs, treat employees with empathy and understanding while at the same time setting them challenging objectives that allow them to see how they can contribute to achieving the organization’s mission and vision. They treat customers and employees fairly, according to clearly communicated standards in their codes of conduct, that apply to all.

Organizations that behave in this way put their customers first, recognizing that the purpose of business is to create and maintain loyal, satisfied customers while optimizing shareholder value.ii

Personal Ethics

Personal ethics are the ethics people adopt in dealing with...

Über Autor(innen)

John Zinkin is the Managing Director of Zinkin Ettinger Sdn Bhd, a boutique consultancy specializing in corporate governance, brand-based change, vision, mission and values and marketing strategy. He is a coach, affiliated with Foresight Global Coaching in Sydney, Australia. He was a faculty member of the Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM), and of the Securities Industry Development Corporation (SIDC).He was a member of the working party that launched the Malaysian Green Book on Corporate Governance in 1999 and was involved in the roll out of the Malaysian Corporate Governance Code in 2000. He was a member of the working party that drew up the Malaysian Corporate Governance Blueprint in 2011 and the Malaysian Code of Corporate Governance 2012 and drafted the IOSCO Emerging Markets Corporate Governance Task Force report on behalf of the Securities Commission Malaysia in 2016.
John used to speak regularly on leadership and governance and wrote for on governance-related topics (2007-2013) and Focus Malaysia (2019). He was voted "Writer of the Year" on CG matters in 2014 by the Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group. His other specialties are "Leading Brand-Based Change", "Reconciling Leadership and Governance" and "Ethics in Business". He is a certified training professional who has done extensive training in branding and leadership. Since 2007, he has trained more than 1,500 directors in CG as well as senior managers of public listed companies. He has also trained ASEAN regulators on behalf of the Securities Commission Malaysia and the Australian Government as part of their capacity building programs in ASEAN and APEC.
John has led board effectiveness evaluations in banking (commercial and development banks), insurance, telecoms and government statutory bodies. He has developed codes of conduct and board charters for two development banks.
John was Associate Professor, Marketing and Strategy at Nottingham University Business School, Malaysia Campus and in charge of the MBA program (2001-6), CEO of Securities Industry Development Corporation (2006-2011), Managing Director, Corporate Governance of Iclif Leadership and Governance Centre (2011-2013). Before coming to Malaysia, John led businesses in office products distribution, and food distribution across Asia-Pacific based in Hong Kong and was the Chair of the Marketing and Change Management Practices of Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific.

Chris Bennet is an experienced director, and senior executive with significant international exposure. He has lived and worked in 6 countries, held directorships for major British and American companies in 13 (and held senior managerial responsibilities in more than 20) in Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Australia, NZ, and the Americas.
Chris is now focused on research, writing, and facilitation/teaching. His research interests are centred around how corporate governance is impacted by human behaviour as it occurs in Boards and Top Management Teams, particularly in how those factors manifest in different cultures, and in complex company groups. He is a regular commentator on those topics. His doctoral research is titled "Cultural cognition and decision making in multicultural boards of directors in South East Asia and Australia". His writings have appeared in The Business Times, and The Edge (Singapore), The Edge (Malaysia), Company Director Magazine (Australia), Chris has served on committees advising on corporate governance and human resource matters in Singapore.
Chris is a director of BPA Australasia Pte Ltd a social enterprise founded in 2008, concerned with improving corporate governance through delivering research, professional education, and advocacy in the area where human behaviour meets governance, risk management and strategy in the Boardroom and "C" suite.
He served as Managing Consultant of Towers Perrin (Malaysia), and Watson Wyatt (Malaysia and Singapore). In both roles he was responsible for board level consulting including board effectiveness, and executive compensation. He has led board evaluations, notably the first board effectiveness evaluation conducted by Bursa Malaysia (The Malaysian Stock Exchange).
In his work as Faculty at the Australian Institute of Company Directors he has facilitated on the International Company Directors programme and the International Foundations of Directorship programme in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Dubai for the past 9 years, and continues to do so. He has designed and reviewed modules for these programmes.