Question

Companies are expected to act ethically and ensure their employees are also acting ethically. However, as we know the level of ethics expected and those practiced are not always the same. Take a moment to share your thoughts on the following questions about ethics.

• Do you believe that ethics can be taught? Why or why not?
• If you were the CEO of a company how would you ensure employees operated at a high ethical standard?

Answer 1

After we leave college, few of us will ever need to fix another quadratic equation, or to remember the minutiae of cell biology. But we're all going to face moral decisions. Every day, we face these choices. Most of the time we don't think about it, but ethics is everywhere; the products we purchase, the careers we choose, and the manner we communicate with others. The first reason to teach ethics is to help us reflect on the moral dimensions of our decisions. The second reason to teach ethics is that moral choices are hard and will often be one of the most significant choices of our lives. In creating them, we will be almost completely dependent on our own capabilities.

Finally, there is a public interest in ethical learning. The capacity to reason morally is a basic necessity of good citizenship and is widely understood as an element of' civic schooling.' It is essential for people to understand how regulations are created and how choices can be questioned. But solid democracy needs more: it needs people with the ability to think about how their country should be. Issues as varied as taxation and inequality, limits to freedom of expression and the demands of future generations all have a moral dimension.

Create a corporate culture where staff feel free to talk truthfully to leadership. Surveys indicate that a big proportion of staff who see misconduct do not talk up either because they think that their superiors will not take action or fear that they will face retaliation if they report what they saw. This hesitation tends to produce an unhealthful, at-risk working atmosphere.

Employees look at top executives to see what conduct is acceptable. Senior management sets the tone for occupational ethics. The Code of Ethics can decrease ethical ambiguity. The Code of Ethics should set out the main values of the organization and the ethical guidelines that staff are supposed to follow. Managers should remember that the Code of Ethics is meaningless if rulers fail to model ethical behavior. Managers should set up workshops, workshops and comparable programs to support ethics in the workplace. Training sessions strengthen the standards of conduct of the organization, clarify what practices are and are not permissible, and address possible ethical dilemmas.