THE LEADER AS ETHICS OFFICER
- Most codes of ethics include: o Conflicts of Interest, Record Funds and Assets, Information, Outside Relationships, Employment Practices, and “Other” Practices. - Risk (can kill an organization), Ethical Weakness (always room to improve), and Change (Environment shifting) are the three factors that should encourage constant ethical learning. - Organizational Learning and Ethical Improvement can be caused by the following: o Scanning Imperative – what outside forces might affect organization in the future? o Performance Gap – Where we are versus where we want to be. o Climate of Openness – Reduce barriers and group creates new ideas. o Continuous Education – Never-ending process of learning. o Involved Leadership – Involved leaders learn by becoming students. o System Perspective – Looking at the big picture of the organization. Case Study 9.1 – Cutting Corners at the University Academic cheating is widespread among college students in both the US and Canada. Technology such as the web, cell phones, text/instant messages, and having the ability to cut and paste work has increased the cheating rate over the years. Succeeding in the classroom is becoming more and more demanding; therefore many students are cheating to get better grades on tests, papers, and other projects/assignments. Students are found cheating in high school to get into college, then college to get jobs and go to grad school, and then grad school to get better positions down the road. Many people who cheat early in life carry it on to their professions as has been seen in exams with policeman, paramedics, dentists and coast guards just to name a few. Case Study 9.2 – The High Cost of Ethical Neutrality Carleton (Carly) Fiorina became the CEO of Hewlett-Packard (HP) in 1999. She did this after getting her MBA, then being a sales superstar at AT&T/Lucent Technologies, and capped off by being named Fortune Magazine’s most powerful female American executive in 1998. At HP, the Founders had put into place the “HP Way” (code of ethics focused on trusting employees, treating everyone with respect, sound finances, technical excellence, teamwork, thrift, humility, and hard work). In the late 1990’s profits dipped and Carly changed the “HP Way”. She made three changes which were to go to a primary focus on financial performance instead of nurturing employees, salespeople were now paid on commission rather than salary, and the last was consolidating divisions to now be under her authority. In 2002, HP merged with Compaq as morale and stock value continued to drop. In 2005 Carly was fired going from the top to the bottom very fast mainly because she cared more about making the numbers then she did HP’s ethical standards. Case Study 9.3 – Agenda for Change at the Air Force Academy US service academies strive to enroll the top high school students in nation who will hopefully be our next military leaders. They follow codes that prohibit drinking, drug use, cheating, and breaking curfew. In 2002 the Air Force had a case brought against academy officers for mishandling several cases of sexual assault. Students that were raped were dropping out of school while potential rapists were being promoted. Women cadets had higher grades then the men in many cases yet the amount of promotions was much higher for the men. Many officers were fired after an investigation was done and the “Agenda for Change” was put into place. These steps taken helped to decrease sexual crime and improve the school’s image. A woman was put in charge of the academy for the first time, a sexual assault hotline was put into place, and advisors are assigned to those who report incidents. Cadets also receive 70 hours of training on sexual assault, harassment, accountability, and substance abuse the moment that they walk onto campus. There have been fewer incidents since the Agenda took place but sex crimes are still issues at the academy. |