Ethics

Below is a powerful collection of ethics management and training tools and assessments to help people understand, and manage ethics at work.

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By Robert Rosell, President, QMR

The headline in the Seattle Times read: "Boeing lawyer warns of company’s legal peril". The article sited Boeing Senior Vice President and General Counsel Doug Bain's speech to 260 top company executives. In a powerful presentation, Bain made the case that poor ethical decisions were seriously damaging one of the country’s oldest, largest and most important companies. Settlement costs with the government and lost revenues due to ethics scandals at the aerospace giant already have cost over $1 billion and could reach $5 – 10 billion. That’s billion with a “b”. 15 company Vice Presidents have lost their jobs due to ethical “lapses” over the past few years. He noted that in 2005 alone, 900 of the formal ethics complaints that were lodged internally with the company’s Office of Ethics and Business Conduct were found to have substance. 900 in one year!

Before you start shaking your head and wondering how Boeing could have reached these depths, read the article directly below the one on Boeing which is headlined “Exxon posts $36.1 billion in profits, highest in US history”. Now I’m not opposed to any company making a profit, but what is particularly interesting about this story is that on announcing its quarterly profits yesterday, Exxon took out newspaper ads around the country to make the case that their $36.1 billion profits were really quite moderate and that people shouldn’t pay any attention to them. There is no profiteering on the war in Iraq or the devastation caused by recent US hurricanes. It’s just business as usual. The fact that this is the largest profit by a corporation in the history of the US (and possibly the world) and that we’re the ones who are paying for it with artificially inflated gas prices is really no big deal. Relax. Forget about it. Buy the stock.

If organizations don’t make a real commitment to the highest ethical standards, if they don’t start or expand training on what their organizations’ fundamental values are and how to make better ethical decisions at work, they risk losing it all. And we, as employees, customers, stock holders and citizens will pay the price just as we’ve done with Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Andersen and so many others. There is no other training that is as important to an organization’s future as this. If you don’t believe me, ask Doug Bain.

Robert Rosell, President, QMR

Powerful corporations have fallen and top executives gone to jail because of terrible ethical decisions. How can you avoid this? How can HR and Training departments help?

By Robert Rosell*

There has been a confluence of sad and painful situations, all caused by people at work making terrible ethical decisions.

On the business side, some of the largest corporations in the United States have fallen victim to the belief that the ethical choices we make will somehow remain invisible. At communications giant WorldCom, senior executives were convicted of fraud, conspiracy, and lying to regulators. Global conglomerate Tyco's CEO was listed by Business Week as one of America’s top 25 managers before he was charged with looting his own company of $600 million. Boeing's top executive was fired after a series of scandals involving military contracts, and his successor resigned a few months later in the wake of a sex scandal. Adelphia, AOL Times Warner, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, Halliburton and many more of the most powerful corporations in America found themselves on the front pages of newspapers around the world, accused of a wide range of offenses. And the name Enron - once considered one of the most innovative and successful energy companies in the world - has become synonymous with fraud, greed, and ethical misconduct at the highest levels.

Corporations haven'€™t been the only institutions impacted by ethical scandals. The majority leader in the US House of Representatives was censured by his own Ethics Committee 3 times in one year. Sports organizations, from the Olympics to professional and college leagues, have all found themselves making headlines because of drug abuse, financial misconduct or other indications of a lack of sound ethical judgment. Even charitable and civic organizations have been rocked by a wide range of scandals.

In response laws have been passed, committees formed, and individuals prosecuted. People shake their heads and lament the lack of values in our most valued institutions. Employees look to the leadership in their organizations to provide clear guidance on how to improve the situation.

Part of the problem has been that as we enact more laws to define appropriate or "legal" behavior, we distance people from the decision-making process about what constitutes "€œright" conduct. As a result, we have begun to confuse "€œcompliance"€ with €"ethics" - we see compliance with the law as the goal, rather than the starting point of ethical decision making.

Human resource and training departments have a long history of playing a critical role in tackling difficult social issues at work. As sexual harassment became a major concern in the 1990's, organizations mobilized their resources to provide guidance to employees at all levels on their rights and responsibilities. Policies were crafted and enforced, and conditions in most companies and agencies improved. The same has been true of discrimination and other diversity issues. These battles are not won, but there has been significant progress.

The same energy must now be applied to improving the ethical climate in our organizations. We can and must arm employees and managers with the tools they need to help them make better ethical judgments. The goal is not just to avoid embarrassment or penalties; it's to make our organizations stronger and more effective.

These are the conditions that prompted QMR to create Compliance is Just the Beginning, a training video program to help people at all levels make better ethical decisions. (You can preview the entire program Free online. See next item below)

We don't pretend that this series is a silver bullet. A training resource won’t turn around the condition of ethical decision making in any given workplace. It will take a sustained effort that includes clarifying organizational values and policies, clear and unequivocal enforcement of the highest ethical standards, and most importantly €“ leadership. We have seen the cost of inaction as retirement savings have been wiped out, careers ruined, and important institutions in our society weakened. It is too high a price to pay.

Your decision to introduce or expand ethics training in your organization is an important signal that you take this issue seriously. If we are going to have organizations that we can be proud of, we need employees and managers who are aware of the values that underpin our decisions, a process to help them deal with difficult ethical choices, and most of all we need leaders who are willing to step forward and show us the way.

Robert Rosell, President QMR

For all leaders in our 21st century—upper management, middle management, front-line supervisors, and team leaders—ethics is essential to success. This program helps leaders understand the benefits of ethical behavior and to apply ethical principles in their roles as leaders. Using a well-defined system of understanding ethical decisions and choices, the program helps participants know how to choose the most ethical choices.

The program examines the concept of organizational social responsibility, seeing how values-based organizations today let principles and values guide them in day-to-day decisions, as they avoid wrong behaviors and take active steps to do what’s right. When they complete this program, participants will understand how to be ethical in their own actions, and how to lead others in their groups or organizations to be ethical.

The Complete program contains 5-minute Video (DVD or VHS) with Leader's Guide and 5 Participant Booklets $495.00

Additional Participants Booklets are sold in packs of 5 / $49.75

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Ankerstar & Dalke's Balancing Personal and Professional Ethics comes with a Trainer's Guide with Reproducible Exercises, Handouts, and Case Studies

This fully reproducible trainer's guide goes beyond just talking about ethics in the workplace. It utilizes thought-provoking activities and case studies to stimulate new thinking and new ways for making sound ethical decisions. To complement this process the guide includes a tool called the Ethical Question Cycle and step-by-step guidelines for developing a code of ethics. All the training materials are fully reproducible, and are offered in a sequence that prompts participants to examine how their personal ethics impacts relationships with co-workers, management, and customers.

As the facilitator for this ethics program, your goal is to provide an environment for all participants to share their ideas and feelings. This training guidebook will show you how. Each chapter contains notes for the facilitator along with approximate time limits for each explanation, activity, and summary exercise. Includes workshop designs for 2-hour, half day, and full day sessions.

Training Objectives:

• Heighten the professional ethical standards of all employees
• Integrate ethical reasoning with other work behaviors
• Enhance employee commitment to developing a code of ethics Selected

Contents

• Steps in Making Ethical Decisions
• Ethical Choices
• How Personal Ethics are Formed
• Consequences of Unethical Behavior
• Rewards of Ethical Behavior
• Challenging Professional Ethics
• Ethics: Preserve or Compromise
• A Code of Ethical Standards.

160 page Guide book, reproducible exercises, hand outs, and case studies/ $69.95

Building a strong organizational culture, or strengthening a good one you already have, starts with understanding the various dimensions and dynamics of your existing culture. The ‘Understanding’ process involves answering the questions of: What does the data mean? What are our strengths? What are our areas that need improvement? Who do values and ethics stack up against the pressures for achievements and results? Do we have a productive balance between theses forces?

The customizable and reproducible Cultural Compass enables you to find the answers to the critical questions about your culture and its hidden values, and provides you with ways for moving toward a stronger, more positive and productive culture at work.

The Compass is a self-scoring paper and pencil tool that takes users through an exciting process of cultural discovery by answering, plotting, and analyzing 48 key questions about their organizational culture. The 48 questions cover four primary cultural orientations; People, Task, Values/Ethics, and Synergy. The self-scoring results are then plotted on two dimensions; the People - Task dimension, and the Values/Ethics- Synergy dimension. The resulting diagram reveals, both in figures and in a visual form, the current state of the organizational culture as viewed by the user.

What People Said About The Compass:

The Compass is sent to you in an electronic file in a MS Word format, so you can customize it by adding your organization’s logo, mission statement, message from the president or the Training Department, or any other information easily and quickly. And the Compass is also reproducible, so you can make unlimited copies to profile the entire organization for only $149.00

Detailed Facilitator's Guide and the Culture Compass in Word format $149.00

For One-Site License: $149.00

Consultants and Organizations who will use the Compass for more than one site or one organization, must purchase the Multi-Site License for $169.00

The Comprehensive Two-Book Resource With A Proactive System to Put Ethical Behavior on Track. This combined resource is based on the concept that the way managers behave is the single most important factor in determining the level of ethical behavior in an organization.

The First Book: The Manager's Pocket Guide to Influence with Integrity addresses the important issue of ethical communication, behavior and influence. It offers ways to continuously improve your skills of ethical influence and persuasion. Whether you are in management or on the shop floor, the ideas presented will help you make your influence more powerful, more positive, and make your sphere of influence wider and wiser.

The Second Book, Value Centered Ethics A Proactive System to Shape Ethical Behavior.

The book contains 12 chapters covering a wide range of issues to help you sort through or create your own approach to ethical behavior.

A Set of 2 Books for $39.90

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• Better understand the importance of ethics in all aspects of life
  
• Explore their personal beliefs and values concerning ethics
  
• Examine the role that ethics and values play in business

• Focuses on a unique concept or principle
• Comes with helpful tips for presenting it.
• Includes debriefing points you can review with employees after they complete the activity.

• An employee who uses the copy machine for personal reasons.
  
• A sales rep who makes promises to a potential customer about extra services that the company will provide to get their business.
  
• A government purchasing agent who awards highway construction contracts to a firm that just happened to be building a new home for him.
  
• A CEO of a large corporation who accepts a multi-million dollar salary incentive bonus for a year in which the company lost an unprecedented amount of money forcing layoffs of 30 percent of its employees.

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Profit Generator

• Altruism, and the building of the Timberland brand.
• A vision that defines work not only as what we do, but also as who we are.
• The benefits of shared values and a common commitment to mission.

In an age when consumers and investors alike are gravitating toward companies whose brands they can trust, it's no longer enough to be solely focused on the bottom line. Delivering more than $1.3 billion in sales last year, Timberland is proof that profit-minded companies can build on their success while both "doing well" for shareholders and "doing good" for communities.

Jeff Swartz firmly believes in commerce, and that profits for Wall Street are necessary--but not sufficient. He also believes in commitment: to the basic human rights of everyone involved in the Timberland value chain; to minimizing Timberland's impact on the environment; and to the notion of engaged citizenship, that encourages us to take the resources we have and find the will to create sustainable solutions that are good for everybody.

Jeffrey Swartz is the third generation of the Swartz family to lead Timberland. Under his direction, the company that his grandfather founded along with the brand his father built has grown to become an example for socially-responsible corporations around the world.

Jeff received an MBA from Dartmouth and a BA in comparative literature from Brown.

VHS or DVD - Length: 61 mins . (2004) - $95.00

The Thoughts of William Sloane Coffin:

Spirituality means to me living the ordinary life extraordinarily well. As the old church father said, "The glory of God is a human being fully alive."

The joy that is of God is not opposed to earthly pleasures. Rather it infuses them with a foundation of meaning.

Love measures our stature: the more we love, the bigger we are. There is no smaller package in all the world than that of a man all wrapped up in himself.

Hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts.

To show compassion for an individual without showing concern for the structures of society that make him an object of compassion is to be sentimental rather than loving.

It is because we are so passionless that we are so joyless, for passion leads to the springs of gladness.

I love the recklessness of faith. First you leap, and then you grow wings.

We don't have to be successful, only valuable. We don't have to make money, only a difference, and particularly in the lives society counts least and puts last.