Encouraging Positive Workplace Behavior: Ethics on the Job
Have you ever experienced a situation at work in which a highly performing and highly skilled employee was accused of some inappropriate behavior in the workplace? You probably watched, along with other employees, to see if the person being accused would be confronted if their behavior was indeed determined to be unethical. Maybe you were disappointed because your organization overlooked the unethical behavior due to the fact that the accused employee was such a “good” performer?
Most of us have experienced or witnessed some type of inappropriate behavior in the workplace and have been involved or observed how our organization handled it. Many organizations do a good job of finding their moral grounding and deal with unethical behavior when it is encountered. Other organizations may struggle even though they understand and value the importance of practicing good ethical behavior in the workplace.
The Importance of Ethics in the Workplace
I remember playing golf with my dad when I was young. He used to say to me, “Count every stroke, including your penalty strokes.” Since I hit the ball out of bounds a lot, it wasn’t easy giving myself the two-stroke penalty each time I hit the ball out of bounds. I certainly wasn’t going to break any of Arnold Palmer’s golf records. But, besides instilling in me the importance of keeping an honest golf score, my dad was teaching me another important life lesson about honesty.
By keeping an accurate score each time I played, I could tell how much I was improving each time I played. The accuracy of my golf score helped me get better at playing golf because I knew what part of my game I needed to focus on. Thanks to my dad’s wise golf advice, I have been able to apply that same life lesson to others areas of life, as well, including my work.
In an organization, workplace behavior ethics should be a core value. Aside from doing the right thing, conducting ourselves ethically has great rewards and returns. Being ethical is essential to fixing problems and improving processes. It is needed to establish baseline measures and increase efficiencies. Most importantly, it is essential to having strong working relationships with people. On the other hand, covering up our unethical behavior does the opposite of these important workplace practices and impedes on our ability to grow as leaders, as workers and as people.
Self-Reflection
Let’s say that I believe that it is important to be an honest person. What do I do when I make an error at work? Do I admit it or do I cover my error and hope that no one finds out? I may rationalize, “If I tell my boss, she will be disappointed in me. I may not get that raise that is coming up next month. There is no harm in not telling her.”
We humans tend to weigh the benefits and consequences of our actions and we look for the path of least resistance, where we will suffer the fewest consequences. When we are deciding what to do with our error, we need to ask ourselves, “Do I really value honesty like I say I do? If I am willing to lie to cover up my error, what am I really valuing?” When we lie to cover up our error, we are doing so to protect ourselves from the consequences of our actions. So, what is the greater value to us, honesty or self-protection?
As leaders, the importance of being ethical must be emphasized even more. Leaders must always be cognizant of the fact that they are in a “fishbowl” and how they behave is clearly visible to others. Whatever they do will not only be seen by others, but may be duplicated as well. So how do we ensure that we not only say that honesty is important, but that we “walk the talk?” Here are some important things to consider to shore-up your ethics in the workplace so that good behavior is practiced and encouraged.
Tips for Managing Ethics in the Workplace
1. Define your values. If you haven’t done so already, define your values and include honesty as a core value. Take your leadership team off on a retreat or use your staff meetings, but make sure that you have clear and visible statements about what is important to your core business principles. Put them up on a poster so that they are visible to all employees. Post them on your website, put them in your policy manual and your employee handbook. And, add them to your performance review process so that you can hold people accountable to them.
2. If you post, you must practice. Posting values and then not actively demonstrating them can be very damaging to an organization’s culture. Hold everyone accountable especially your senior management team. Make sure that they are “walking the talk” of ethical behavior. If they are doing anything that even could be perceived as questionable, confront it.
3. Integrate ethical workplace behavior into performance criteria. Don’t rate people as “high performers” if they do not practice ethical workplace behavior. Instill in your leaders that high performance means high integrity. They are not mutually exclusive. Don’t give big raises, promotions, etc. to people who perform “well,” but have questionable ethical behavior. Don’t let a highly skilled employee hold you “hostage.” Don’t let people get away with bending the rules of appropriate workplace behavior just because you don’t have a good backup plan for them if they quit and go to your competitor. Make sure you have a succession plan in place for anyone who has a skill that is critical to your success.
4. Watch out for the “slippery slope.” Have you ever used the term, “his behavior really crossed the line?” Each workplace has a “line” that separates appropriate behavior from the inappropriate. Organizations get into “hot water” when they define or ignore some unethical behavior because it is considered to be a “small” issue or “no big deal.” When they do this, they are moving their “line” farther down the slippery slope. Many companies who have been sued for large amounts of money due to ethical issues were allowing way too much unethical behavior because their “line” kept sliding down the “slippery slope.” Businesses must stand firm on their intolerance of any and all dishonesty and unethical behavior.
5. Being above reproach. Above reproach is the practice of not only staying above the “line,” but staying way above it. Ethical organizations manage perception, as well as reality. They ensure that even those types of behavior that might look like unethical behavior are discouraged as well and drive this point with their leadership team.
6. Getting past self-protective behavior. Remember that ethical behavior is not just about me knowing right from wrong, it is about my willingness to admit it when I have done something wrong and accepting the consequences for my actions. It is about valuing integrity even if it hurts. Good leaders not only practice ethical behavior themselves, they help people get past looking out just for themselves and seeing the greater good of team and corporate objectives.
Ethical behavior makes organizations succeed. A business that does not value integrity and does not “walk the talk” of being ethical will find themselves at the bottom of the slippery slope and wonder when and how they crossed the “line.” This is why we need ethics in the workplace.
Regards.
John Sporleder
Sporleder Human Capital
john@sporconsulting.com
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this is a very good explanation of Ethics in a workplace. I was able to understand the reason for why we need ethics in a workplace since the writer used his personal experience in explaining it. Well written:)