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You Cannot Train Employees to Be Ethical

Written by David Batstone

Companies that lack integrity do not develop overnight. A series of small, subtle choices led them to their fate; each decision set the stage for the next, more corrosive act.

For that reason I usually turn down offers to design an "ethical training" course for employees. Essentially, I don't believe that ethics can be taught. The problem actually lies in the company's culture, and how it encourages individuals to consider deviant behavior as standard operating procedure.

To change a corrupt culture, new disciplines have to be adopted and reinforced. It's vital to recognize that individuals do not need additional information or outside training to grow their integrity. The answer already lies within them; it just needs nurturing.

I had the pleasure of spending some time this past week with Dr. Jack Gilbert, President of New Page Consulting, a San Diego-based firm focused on organizational integrity and ethics. We both took part in a happening pulled together by the good folks at Criterion Consulting.

Dr. Jack has taken considerable care to study the dynamics of decision-making within organizations of all sizes. His research points to five key cultural disciplines that move a company toward more ethical wisdom. Because they go beyond compliance, codes of ethics, and ethics training, I'd like to name them here:

Mindfulness - Individuals have an internal sensor that alerts them to wrongful decisions. It is a private voice that makes us feel uncomfortable when our integrity is at risk. But they often choose to turn that sensor "off" once they fall for the "everybody does it" rationalization. Jack argues that companies grow integrity once they encourage their employees to put discomfort on the table, even if the warning signals are weak.

Voice - This next discipline brings mindfulness into the public conversation. A 2003 study conducted by the Ethics Research Center uncovered that workers do not raise ethical issues on the job for two main reasons: 1) They fear personal retaliation; and 2) they are convinced that senior management won't do anything about an ethical problem once it is brought to their attention. In that light, "voice" only becomes heard in an organization once its leaders reward employees for speaking up. Jack laments the typical response to someone who raises a red flag: "So, do you have a better solution?" That should not matter, says Jack. A healthy organization can accept authentic self-scrutiny as the first step in looking for a better path.

Relationship - Ethical dilemmas are best addressed as colleagues, not as critics. If mindfulness is the antithesis of ignorance, Jack suggests that respect is the antithesis of being judgmental. When we respect our colleagues and approach each other with generosity, we can more easily address tough issues. The key is to stay fact-based and avoid blame-based accusations. Ethical breaches often are allowed to exist because "they aren't being done in my backyard." Respectful relationships allow us to move across functional silos in an organization and see ourselves as part of the problem as well as the solution.

Tenacity - As I already noted, the erosion of integrity rarely transpires in big, black-and-white decisions. The cracks in one's character in the poor discernment between what is the right thing to do and the less right thing to do. Once we "get away" with the less right thing, we then are tempted to move on to even bolder shades of gray. It takes tenacity to take on difficult conversations - where the tools of denial, defensiveness, and even anger are at work - and stay undaunted in the quest for ethical action.

Legacy - Leaders can be especially influential in placing a firm's vision and values above results. It is very difficult for, say, a middle manager to always prioritize the long-term impact of the operation. But the leader can set a tone that prevents the culture from becoming consumed with short-term goals. A firm expresses the highest integrity once it weighs the future legacy of the company as a vital factor in each decision at hand.

I cringe whenever I hear this self-defeating belief: "I don't expect ethical behavior at my company because it's not in the DNA of business." Not that I would expect ethical wisdom to be a genetic pre-disposition. As Jack outlines for us, integrity all comes down to practical disciplines that help organizations to leverage good sense and collective wisdom.

Read Jack Gilbert's essay, "Acting Ethically When Our Values Rub Against Reality."

Is ethical behavior in the DNA of the business enterprise? Share your views below.

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Lynne - Are ethics in the DNA of busin

2006-04-07 07:12:03
The RightReality blog seems to imply there is a different -- better -- way of doing business and that's what attracts me to this space. Because after more than 20 years in the business world, I unfortunately concur with the statement that "ethical behavior is not in the DNA of business."

Perhaps it was the rise of marketing and advertising (my industry) as business disciplines that contributed to this. The very essence of advertising is nuanced implication, pushing the truth as far as possible (and right over the edge into falsehood) in order to make the sale.

Perhaps it was the profit-focused rise of shareholder-as-almighty that contributed to this. But every business I have worked for, every client I have worked with, every vendor I have interacted with seems to have a wink, a nod, and a "Hey. It's just business."

We continue to tell our underclasses (and ourselves, for that matter) that business is a meritocracy when much of it is no more than patronage and cronyism, perpetuating the myth that people or businesses that fail are not worthy.

My hope is that I can start a business that does *not* work that way. So I continue to read RightReality. You help keep my cynicism in check and remind me that there are a few folks out there trying to make a difference.

Doug - Ethics and quick tips

2006-04-07 08:00:54
Speaking (tangentially) of ethics, a principle of journalism -- that you don't change the facts to fit your story -- seems increasingly disregarded. Your summary of tips for frequent travellers includes this one: "Eat a Time Zone diet - high-energy proteins in the morning, sleep-inducing carbohydrates at night." Fair enough: your source for this item, the business section of CNN, makes the same claim and adds that U.S. soldiers swear by it. But CNN's source, www.antijetlag.com, says this: "Although it [the Time Zone Diet] has some passionate devotees it is complicated and there is little evidence that it works." Sometimes the "quick tip" doesn't really tell the story.

Arden C. Hander - ...ethics & student cheating h

2006-04-07 09:54:29
How is it any longer possible to expect ethics in the workplace when the employee is an erstwhile student, a category in which 70% cheated their way throughout the middle & high school years & thus bring that behavior WITH them to college? Explaining plagiarism and then enforcing a code against it makes a teacher/professor really nothing but a policeman and nothing that I miss AFTER four decades in higher education. Time spent in policing is time not available fot content and, therefore, time lost for course value. Do students care? Of course not, since a course is just what one needs a grade for, not what is learned for applying later. Is it any wonder that there is much talk of accountability & exit testing before degree granting currently? No, but while that process puts the onus on teachers and teaching, believe me when I say that it is the LACK OF ETHICS within students themselves that deserves the focus. Add the Internet as a cheating/plagiarism source, and you quickly understand why a paper must be run through a 'software' program to help detect plagiarism first, before being read & evaluated in the normative manner. What does this bode for the country's future if the 70% factor is valid, which I can personally attest? It fetches you a "gentleman's 'C' drunkard for president" as well as "all the president's men" who manufacture their facts, lie about information then lie about whereabouts, etc. Here we are, but do we have the will to reverse this nasty process that is in place now? Where students are concerned, don't expect ANY help from their parents, sadly. Please don't take this as a false nostalgia for the "good ol' days" because it isn't: it's just reality.

Kurt Westphal - Ethical Lapse in Government

2006-04-08 12:36:25
How about our GOP government right now?
What a disaster...no one understand or practices ethics it seems. Just situational ethics.

Jerry Kirkpatrick - Congregational ethics

2006-04-09 19:00:48
I think the same could be said about churches. Unethical behavior by leaders or clergy can sour a church for some time.

David Batstone - You Keep Me Going...

2006-04-09 19:26:20
...when you publish comments like Lynne's above! You express articulately the exact reason I launched RightReality. If I can inspire folks to make a difference by the way they do their work, I will have fulfilled my vocation.

Lynne, thanks for the push downwind this week!

Suzanne - Ethics a Priority

2006-04-10 12:22:21
How true, ethics aren't really teachable per se, but a person can become more sensitive and accustomed to making ethics a priority. Our culture as a whole needs to remind both business and politics that ehtics are important to us.

Jacquie Chan - Ethical Environments

2006-04-10 14:15:16
What about community ethics?
How maluable is Ethical DNA in our culture? How powerful is leadership, modeling and the power of the media to distort, encorage and celebrate the limits?

Tahoe's lake clarity is being pulled between Short term self-interest preservation/profit (greed) and long-term community and environmental preservation. Guess what Voice and resulting actions are turning Tahoe's famous blue lake grey/brown?

What if considertion was cool, preservation profitable, truth triumphed and touch was more fulfilling than trash?

It seems overwelming to step out of the stream of cultural entitlement consciousness and walk the talk of mindfulness.

Much easier to follow the (get it while you can) pack then swim in a more mindful stream of consciousness, that suppports a different story.

I beleive ethical wisdom holds the greater light in our DNA. We are an interdependant species whether we like it or not. Our survival literally depends on the actions of others.

Our cultural story is survival by the dominators (as in the wild), but true wildness is compassinate. A wild animal does not take more than he can eat, pollute a stream she drinks from, or wipe out a species he needs for survival. Our story distorts our values and ethics.

Time for a new story. Who is ready to walk a different way? Leave a legacy of sustainable compassionate living that seeks to take you higher - not mold you to its image.

Al Erisman - Ethical training

2006-04-10 21:19:29
I think you have missed the point--badly--on this one. What you have done is built an excuse that it's OK to be unethical if your organizational culture is poor.

It is true that some of ethics is in the DNA of the enterprise. Some is in the DNA of an individual--we often call it character.

But some can be taught. Awareness is a big issue--around diversity, and around ethics. Many people need to raise their antennas to think issues before they are in crisis mode--that's what effective ethics training will do. Will it be perfect--of course not. Will it work for all people uniformly well--of course not. Will it survive an unhealthy culture? Perhaps not--unless it starts to change that culture. But we can at least deal with those issues, and opportunities, that could make the organization and the people in it better than they are today. Don't give in so easily.

Robert Schaefer - Ethics Training is Important

2006-04-12 09:10:16
David:

I love your website, and usually agree with you, but your perspective that ethics cannot be trained is a gross oversimplification of the truth. While I agree that people have a general and vague moral compass, in most businesses and in every profession, ethical behavior is an acquired knowledge over time; ethical behvior is learned behavior, and requires a deep understanding of how to apply specific operational and policy rules in the face of ambiguity and uncertainty.

Case in point...the new 20 year-old supervisor who sincerely thought they were helping the company by manually adjusting cash overages and shortages. Consider the restaurant manager who honestly believed they were doing the right thing when they substituted a different grade of beef on a specific dish to avoid product spoilage. Consider the office administrator who had never been trained on the ethical problems related to email CCs, message forwarding, or email escalations within the organization. Consider the counselor who releases a child's session notes to the non-custodial father based on one state law, while failing to consider another law regarding confidentiality.

I cannot tell you how many times I have come across employees who absolutely believed they were doing the right thing while clearly engaging in unethical, and sometimes even illegal behaviors.

Another non-inuitive issue is how to handle problems of ambiguity that constantly arise in the workplace. Answers to these situations are seldom "common sense" or matter of conventional right/wrong thinking. Proper and ethical resolution here requires experience, insight, and critical thinking skills (which CAN be developed and trained). Training sessions that use case studies and focus groups help supervisors handle sensitive employee and customer issues with greater skill and a deeper appreciation of the ethical and legal issues involved. Without reflection time in a safe environment, people are left to their own intuition to handle issues on the fly, and it is a disservice to them for a company to demand expert compliance without proper education.

There is often a huge confusion among employees between deontological ethics versus utilitarian ethics versus ethics of categorical imperative (e.g. it is always wrong to tell someone a non-truth). What should a manager do when they suspect that an employee is stealing but they do not have any hard proof? What should a manager do when asked a question from an employee and are faced with having to either lie or break confidentiality?

These things are not to be disregarded in such a cavalier manner David. Training in professional ethics is an absolute must in most professions, and it is part of the reason why we are facing so many problems in this area. Sorry to disagree, but my personal experience in this area forces me to counter what I see as a disservice to readers.

David Batstone - Too long a title to put in thi

2006-04-12 14:14:43
I do sincerely thank my esteemed colleagues, Al Erisman and Robert Schaefer, for taking the time to offer some thoughtful input to the discussion of ethics at work.

Do I really think that individuals are incapable of making ethical decisions within an organization; that is, they are simply products of their organizational culture? Of course not. Do I really believe that the kind of professional training that Robert features is unnecessary? Also a resounding no.

I do admit to being a bit cavalier, Robert, and can understand why you and Al might be alarmed. There is only so much that I can express in a 500-word (give-or-take) column each week. And I confess to a penchant for being deliberately provocative, especially in the title of the column.

It does concern me, however, that both of you polarize the individual from the culture. Direct to the point, a company shows "character" when its culture encourages empowered individuals to make the right choices.

Each of the elements of Jack Gilbert's model of "ethical wisdom" that I featured in my essay address both the individual and the organizational culture. The "awareness" and "voice" of individuals are the nodes of the organization; absent these nodes the network of accountability and truth-telling crumble. "Relationships" among individuals are critical to reinforcing trust in the network of an organization. "Tenacity" and "legacy" address the type of character and vision, respectively, that individuals require to act consistently with integrity. Where in all of that Al do you interpret that I have "built an excuse that it's OK to be unethical if your organizational culture is poor"?

Funny enough, a business journalist from the Kansas City Star asked me during an interview yesterday whether I took a Confucian view of ethics. I suppose my emphasis on environment *along with* individual character represents a paradox to our western ethical categories.

I do put a great deal of emphasis on the ethical culture because of the narrow scope that so many companies bring to ethics. Most companies now have some kind of "ethical training" program in place that aim to teach individuals how to make good choices. As noted in the column, I am often asked to participate in designing those, and I usually decline because those training programs do not want to touch the culture of the company.

In many ways you address this point in your blog post, Robert. You speak of the "ambiguity" that so many workers face, and may make the wrong choice - even when acting with sincerity to do a good job - due to the ambiguity of the business environment. Ambiguity is not an accident, in most cases. We provide clarity in organizations on those issues that most matter.

The title of my column, then, more accurately should have been, "You Cannot Train Workers to Be More Ethical If You Are Going to Reward Corruption, Remove Accountability, and Punish Truth-Telling." Hard to fit all of that into the subject line of an email though!

Al Erisman - Ethical Training

2006-04-12 22:05:16
David--We are not that far apart, but...you excused your oversimplification with the limitation of word limits. So do I. My reference to the DNA of an enterprise is shorthand for the culture of that organization. In this sense, I don't believe there is a DNA of business, but there sure is a DNA of an organization. And you are exactly right--this is crucial to ethics. But I did not "polarize" the individual from the culture. I said both are important. It takes individual to influence the culture. And individuals can stand against the culture (granted they often get chewed up in doing so!). But I tried to suggest that there are aspects of the individual and the culture that influence ethics. So, I completely buy the idea of working on the culture of the organization. Generally it starts at the top--but it can be influenced from anywhere. And we must also challenge individual character regardless of the culture. Thanks for the provocative column.

David Batstone - Common Ground

2006-04-13 00:16:09
Thanks, Al. Your pushing the envelope is helpful. I knew we were not all that far apart because I regularly receive - and read - your Ethix magazine. By the way, WAG readers, I highly recommend you check out what Al is doing at www.ethix.org. He regularly interviews top business leaders on business ethics, and takes on case studies that tackle integrity at work. A good read.

Jack Gilbert - Again, can you train people to

2006-04-13 07:32:04
Well, as the person whose thoughts are in the article, time I chimed in and not let David twist slowly in the wind. First, my concern is organizational ethics and personal integrity at work. Second, in no way do I want to negate the difference contributors to the blog are making and have made (over four decades of teaching, for example) or their points of view. But here is part of what is on my mind.

In my biased view here is what I see in business today: What passes for teaching of ethics for many large companies post-Enron et al. is a CYA exercise designed to create a defensible position in case of legal exposure or to teach compliance. So called ethics training often creates the opportunity to shift responsibility for unethical acts away from the company to individual employees (“they knew the code of ethics, they read it, and we have their signature to prove it”). Or the training might include scenarios which create the further defense that the employees were well aware of the cultural expectations of the company. Or it might include decision-processes or reinforcement of policies and procedures. But do these few hours of training make a difference in those everyday pressure situations when our values rub up against reality (to paraphrase Ron Heifetz)?

In organizations where the leadership is predisposed to high ethical standards aren’t you and I likely to see something very different? Not necessarily teaching but a greater number of incidents of sharing of ethical dilemmas, of shared insights and dialogue on issues, of an authentic struggle for resolution of tough ethical challenges (sometimes choosing between two rights, not a simple right or wrong), and of the use of the mission, values, or code of ethics as a North Star for decision-making (not to cover the legal bases)? That to me is ethical wisdom in action. And I am uncertain that this can be taught and more certain that it can be modeled, rewarded, and embraced by individual choice.

I give a good number of presentations and workshop on ethics but I am convinced that I cannot teach ethics. When people resonate with what I am saying then the presentation has served to evoke their own wisdom. I hope you will appreciate that I am not trying to be cute with language but to point to what I consider the source of ethical behavior; the sum of our experiences, knowledge, and good sense - or in my words our ethical wisdom and in aggregate an organization’s ethical wisdom.

Robert Bruce - We did Ethics Training - It Wo

2006-04-27 04:09:11
What do they say 20:20 hindsight?
Well at the former Worldcom, we learnt the hard way about not having any highly visible ethics policy.

I regret that we only launched a global programme after the largest fraud in corporate history.

That was then and we have seince completed the training - all 60,000 or so of us and we live it. We also need to continue the Ethics top up programmes now that we are part of Verizon.

Hand on heart? I reckon you need it too if you want to secure your business's future. Ethics is so tangible within our organisation, you can smell it. Many is the time I could have employed a nod and a wink since 2002 but guess what, that phrase, "Do What is Right" keeps popping up and man oh man is it a decision saver.

I recommend you guys to do the programme.

Be well
Robert

That is good

Randy Schwartz - Ethics in the work place

2006-05-07 08:17:11
Hello,
I work for a company that 7 of us are share holders (partners) I know there is a lot of things going on that are un ethical. I won't be a part of them. But I would like to hear someone's oppion of some. I must keep my mouth shut and deal with it and sometimes it is unbearable
For one, some of us have a background in toolmaking. To save the company we will work in the shop after hours to make some of the tooling at a streight time rate. This saves the company money because they would need to pay the employees time and half.
Some of the other partners who can't even put in more than 37 hours a week (salared) are jealous that we are taking extra money home and have put 5 hours of overtime on their checks each week for months now even when they are on vacation. I know this because I see the checks when I get my check from the accountant. Now the sticker, the other partners that are working for extra also know about it and have decided to put 5 hours on their time and hand it in. This has been going on for months so it is not just a one time thing.
What are your thoughts? I work for every hour I hand in even when the other partners who are working and collecting extra tell me I should do it too because we are supposed to be partners.
They also have wives that have insurance at their jobs and put themselves on their insurance and split the differenc of cost with the company (exm. if the wife's insureance costs only $300.00 more to add them and our insurance was $900.00 a month for this individule they split the $600.00 difference with the company. Thoes of us who don't have a wife working to put ourselves on their insurance don't get any benifit from it.
Some of the partners that don't get this benifit just add extra hours to their time card to hand in to make up the difference.
These guys also think that the other partners don't work as hard as them so they do all, I mean all of the personal business on company time. Some of this is to make things or fix things in the shop in front of the employees.
We are supposed to be bought out soon so I think these guys are really going to have a hard lesson to learn about working when the new owners take over. I have many more things to talk about but I think you get the picture. Please give me your thoughts so I can see how someone with a great rep for ethics responds to me regarding this.
It will be confidential because I will not confront them and cause myself undue problems.
Thank you in advance
Randy

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