Ethics at Work

On a personal level, everyone must answer the following question: What is my highest aspiration? The answer might be wealth, fame, knowledge, popularity, or integrity. But if integrity is secondary to any of the alternatives, it will be sacrificed in situations in which a choice must be made. Such situations will inevitably occur in every person's life.

Murphy Smith, ethicist and author, “Business and Accounting Ethics”

Events at work affect us in countless ways. The products and services upon which we depend, the communities in which we live, the well-being of our families, our economic security--all are affected by what happens in the workplace. The kinds of people we are--our commitments to one another, how we view competition and cooperation, our sense of personal and social responsibility--are reflected by what we do at work. We also spend a large part of our day at work, so the setting offers an excellent opportunity for practicing ethical conduct.

Yet, few companies require that their leaders analyze the ethical cost/benefit of a particular action in planning a marketing strategy or setting up annual budgets. Candidates for employment are seldom asked to describe how they have actually handled ethical dilemmas, requiring detailed description of the process of decision making and action. When managers must make tough decisions about people or resources, rarely do plans for action include the company's ethical obligations. All too often, companies fail to visibly and formally recognize those persons who place integrity above making commissions or refusing to do other things that they judge to be the wrong thing to do. Have you ever heard of senior leadership praising, in meaningful and visible ways, an account executive for losing a sale by doing the right thing? In reality, sales personnel are often punished for losing sales, regardless of the reason. It must be difficult for them to watch as others receive recognition or a bonus when the very sale that the ethical seller refused would have been sufficient to earn that bonus.

The downfall of Enron, WorldCom, and HealthSouth, to name a few, demonstrates that ethics needs to be an on-the-table topic, with the goal of including ethical processes as part of the usual and customary way that business is done. This book provides a framework for identifying and implementing strategies to improve the ethical climate in the workplace. It provides the tools of applied behavior analysis to help each of us make changes in our own actions where needed—to behave in a more ethical manner. This book is also designed to serve as a concise, practical text for students of business and ethics.

Alice Darnell Lattal, Ph.D., has a doctorate in clinical psychology and is President and CEO of Aubrey Daniels International, a management consulting firm headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. She is an adjunct professor of psychology at West Virginia University, a member of the Board of Directors of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies, listed in Who’s Who of American Women, and is a Diplomate in Forensic Psychology. She has served as president of her state psychological association and has been a part of or an owner of several companies using behavior analysis to produce fluency with populations as diverse as elementary school age children and adults learning to read to companies working to increase discretionary effort by arranging positive management strategies. She has previously published, along with Dr. Clark, Workplace Ethics: Winning the Integrity Revolution as well as written articles in refereed journals.

Ralph W. Clark, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at West Virginia University, teaches courses in business ethics, current moral problems, and ethical theory. He has published in such journals as Philosophy, The Monist, the Journal of Value Inquiry, and Philosophical Studies. His other books include Workplace Ethics: Winning the Integrity Revolution (co-authored with Dr. Lattal), Introduction to Moral Reasoning and Introduction to Philosophical Thinking.