Question

Think about a company you have worked for, either currently or in the past. Reflect upon the corporate culture with respect to the practice of ethics within the organization. What was leadership's role in establishing this culture within the organization? How did power and motivation relate to the degree of ethical conduct?

Answer 1

The company I currently work for has very strong ethical practices. The entire company has a reputation within the community of doing the right thing. This obviously motivates people to continue that longstanding tradition because they do not want to be the one who destroys the reputation. Leadership has played a very strong role in establishing this culture. The Butt family, particularly Florence Butt, established the still privately-owned company in 1905 on sound principles of ethical behavior. She would allow neighbors to have charge accounts and her son would deliver groceries to people within the town unable to go to the store. Today, H-E-B gives back millions of dollars into organizations and never wants to receive credit for it. For example, every year we build 2 homes for wounded veterans and the media is never alerted and no blasts go out through social media. This is just one example of the company doing the right thing because it is the right thing to do. Leaders model this type of ethical behavior daily even in “run the business” daily work and the rest of the employees naturally follow suit. All of the employees are encouraged to put people first and to do the right thing. We can get so caught up in the day to day business that it is critical we keep our ethical standards high and a normal part of doing business or these standards can easily fall off and unethical behaviors can take their places quickly. I know that at H-E-B we try to make doing the right thing easy and people do not get in trouble if they were acting ethically and something goes awry.