Prevent misconduct, prevent scandals

Alessa Rosa

ar224811@ohio.edu 

Corporations, for a long time, have had problems disclosing their internal troubles, which later have led to huge scandals and cover-ups. This era of corporate transgressions, however, is seeing a precedence for accountability.

Take the Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation’ controversy for example. Murdoch’s failure to be transparent and accept accountability only escalated the public’s mistrust. Whereas, Johnson & Johnson’s handling of their Tylenol crisis in 1982 by taking responsibility, even though the poisoning took places outside production, did not hamper public’s trust in the long-term.

The public will always prefer a company, business, or person to be upfront and honest. Presently, transparency is even more important because information more easily makes itself known to the public through our new technologies.

Transparency and accountability are ways to handle the crisis after misconduct, but it is vital to understand what leads to misconduct and how it can be prevented.

CAUSES FOR MISCONDUCT

Having leaders that do not emphasize ethical and legal behavior is the first way to ensure that the rest of the company will not value ethical and legal behavior.

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Virgil Scudder’s article, “Following the Leader: Ethics and Responsibility” speaks to this idea that employers will follow the CEO’s lead because according to Scudder, “One of a CEO’s most important jobs is to create, foster and communicate the culture of the organization.”

Thus companies and organizations whose leadership and management award cutting corners and dishonesty, will establish a culture of misbehavior.

CURES FOR MISCONDUCT

Having leaders that strongly emphasize ethical and legal behavior is the first step to providing an ethical culture in the workplace but there are other vital aspects:

• Code of ethics: It is absolutely necessary to provide employees with a written code of ethics. This should outline the company’s mission and values and indicate how employees are to approach ethical problems. Not only should the code of ethics be readily available, but also it should be constantly visible to serve as a daily reminder of the importance of ethics. Moreover, leadership should demonstrate by providing examples of their own ethical behavior and divulge consequences of unethical behaviors.
• Enforcement: Breaches of the code of ethics should have penalties and management should make sure to enforce those penalties. Carrying out punishments is a great way to discourage others from misconduct.
• Check-ups: Having an outside entity checking for ethical or policy breaches allows for an unbiased report of employees and leaders’ behavior, which also serves as a check of a company’s leadership. The reports should be given straight to the board of directors and shareholders.
• Encouragement: Not only there should be a work culture that promotes ethical behavior from the get-go, but it should also encourage employees to report witnessed misconduct. Scudder suggests, “to set up a ‘whistleblower line’ so that employees can report serious violations anonymously.”

The period of doing-whatever-your-boss-tells-you-to no matter the ethical or legal significances has passed. Employers are now more than ever willing to refuse actions that they deem unacceptable and to report misconduct. This development has largely developed from the public’s desire for transparency and accountability after corporate scandals. However, to nip misconduct in the bud is important to understand leaderships’ roles and how to provide an ethical culture in the workplace.

*Video taken from YouTube.com