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So You'd Like To Work In A More Ethical Culture?

This article is more than 8 years old.

Many employees would.  Unfortunately cultural change is, simply put, hard.  Corporate cultures take a long time to develop and a long time to change, especially in large organizations.  Over my career I was involved in numerous culture-change operations, and it was always slow grinding work, a bit like trying to move a glacier by hand.

Still, if you work in a culture that habitually cuts ethical corners or you sometimes feel your management has the scruples of a timber rattler... well, this can be a big problem.  But how to attack the problem?  Where does one start?  It can feel like a huge overwhelming issue.  Which is why I was surprised and pleased to come across a recent reference on Twitter to a blog by Linda Fisher Thornton called 40 Ways to Build an Ethical Culture (An Ethical To Do List).  I was impressed by the article's practical tactical can-do attitude.  A tangible approach to an intangible subject.

Ms. Thornton writes, speaks and consults about ethical leadership, and I thought her list was worth sharing with Forbes' readers, some of whom may be in the midst of "culture wars" or just looking for ways to set positive change in motion.

Again, while cultural change can be glacial, you have to begin somewhere.  I'm not suggesting this list is perfect or a panacea, but I feel it is a helpful conversation-starter for management teams and HR teams.  I give her high marks simply for taking action in a part of business where inaction is the norm.  Accordingly, following is Ms. Thornton's full unedited 40-item "ethical to-do list."

  1. Avoid Harm To a Wide Variety of Constituents
  2. Balance Ethics With Profitability and Results
  3. Carefully Build and Protect Trust
  4.  Choose the Ethical Path, Even if Competitors Aren’t
  5.  Clarify What “Ethical” Means in the Organization
  6.  Clear Code of Ethics
  7.  Clear Messages About Ethics and Values
  8. Commitment to Protecting the Planet
  9. Consistently Demonstrate Care and Respect for People
  10. Decision-Making Carefully Incorporates Ethics
  11. Develop Leaders in How To Implement Proactive Ethical Leadership
  12. Do Business Sustainably
  13. Enforce Ethical Expectations
  14. Embrace Corporate Social Responsibility
  15. Engaging and Relevant Ethics Training and Messages (Not The Same Old Boring Stuff)
  16. Ethical Actions Match Ethical Marketing
  17. Frequent Conversations About Ethics (That Honor Work Complexity)
  18. Full Accountability for Ethics At Every Level Including the C-Suite
  19. High Degree of Transparency
  20. Leaders Aware of Increasing Ethical Expectations
  21. Leaders Stay Competent as Times Change
  22. Open Leadership Communication and Invitation to Participate in Decisions
  23. Open, Supportive Leadership
  24. Performance Guidelines and Boundaries For Behavior
  25. Performance System Fully Integrated With Ethical Expectations
  26. Positive Ethical Role Models
  27. Recognize and Praise Ethical Actions
  28. Recognize and Punish Unethical Actions
  29. Safe Space to Discuss Ethical Grey Areas
  30. Set Ethical Boundaries
  31. Strong Commitment to Improving Leadership and Culture
  32. Take Broad Responsibility For Actions
  33. Think Long Term About Our Impact
  34. Treat Ethics as an Ongoing Priority
  35. Treat People With Care
  36. Use the Precautionary Principle
  37. Use Systems Thinking to See the Big Picture
  38. Values Mindset (Not A Compliance Mindset)
  39. Welcome and Act on Feedback From Constituents
  40. Willing to Do What it Takes to Become an Ethical Organization

My personal favorites on this list are numbers 6, 19, 29 and 35.

If you at least take the time to codify what ethics should be (#6), that's a meaningful thought-provoking exercise in an of itself.

A high degree of transparency (#19) is something employees always want and appreciate, yet something many managements, for a variety of usually defensive reasons, are wary of providing.

A safe space to discuss ethical grey areas (#29):  Really like this concept, my favorite on the list.  It has substantive practical value since it institutionalizes a way to bring problems into the light of day.  The reality is employees with ethical concerns often (understandably) fear for their jobs and have no idea where or how to safely start a dialogue.

Last but not least, treat people with care (#35) - simply a sound reminder on the basic foundation on which an ethical culture is built.

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I don't want this to come across as Pollyanna-ish, some sort of soft namby-pamby liberal recipe from someone who's never managed a day in his life.

I know that business is business and necessarily has an edge to it.  It's no walk in the park, nor should it be.  I get it.  I worked in Fortune 500 management for decades.  But I also know we have a vast army of disengaged employees out there, and disengagement hurts productivity, and it's an awful lot easier to be productive for a company you can in-your-bones believe in.

So what do readers think of this list?  And the broader question about the importance of an ethical workplace culture?  I'll be interested to hear...

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Victor is author of  The Type B Manager: Leading Successfully in a Type A World (Prentice Hall Press).

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