Ethics Schmethics: What Skeptics are Saying

Here is a website (called appropriately EthicsCrisis.com) where readers can confess their ethical misdeeds and have them rated by level from 1 to 10. Guess what? The ethical misdeed “We totally fabricated our numbers” is only rated a 6 out of 10 (with 10 being “never acceptable”). Does that trouble you? It should. For too long, practices like fudging the numbers have been considered minor offenses, not major ethical problems. Why? Thomas Paine says it best:

A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong gives it a superficial appearance of being right. Thomas Paine

There are skeptics about the movement toward more ethical leadership. Why would anyone be skeptical after all the stories we’ve seen in the news? Here is a possible list of reasons:

I don’t want to have to care about other people
It’s too much trouble to be ethical
If I’m ethical I can’t make money
I don’t understand what ethical means
My boss is unethical
My company is unethical
My friends are unethical
They taught me to be unethical in business school
What’s wrong with unethical? Fabricating numbers is only 6 out of 10 on EthicsCrisis.com. Everbody’s doing it!

Leaders at all levels who want to be responsible are becoming aware that they can lead ethically, even if their boss does not. And skeptics are beginning to realize that the very success of their companies depends upon embracing the new consumer expectation for ethical leadership and a high trust customer relationship.

Resources for Skeptics: