In the 1960’s, there was a popular show called Candid Camera. It was one of the first reality TV shows. The premise of the show was that individuals were secretly filmed after being placed in unusual, ridiculous or embarrassing situations. Before the big reveal, the host of the show would announce to those who had been targeted –
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I got an e-mail recently from a colleague in which he expressed his displeasure with a business partner who was very late in paying him. What was particularly troubling to him was the fact that the partner’s business was based on selling integrity.
The e-mail was entitled “Hypocrisy.”
Many organizations are now making claims of how socially responsible they are.
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Fear of “What if…”
The fear of “what if” is a significant driver in making ethical decisions.
This fear can lead to positive results –
• Fear of getting in an accident – can prevent drinking and driving
• Fear of getting caught – can prevent falsifying information
• Fear of hurting someone else – can prevent unsafe behavior
The fear of “what if…” can also lead to negative outcomes –
• The fear of being shunned – can lead to going along with a bad decision
• The fear of losing one’s job – can cause someone to keep silent when they should speak up
The fear of “what if…” can’t be ignored.
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One of the more difficult situations in which to make an ethical decision is when more than one person is potentially impacted by your action and their expectations of how you should proceed are in conflict.
As an occupational health and safety professional, clients and employers often have very different views of what is “appropriate” from those of employees or the public.
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It is the gift-giving season.
This creates a dilemma for many professionals. The American Board of Industrial Hygiene (ABIH) code of ethics, like many other codes of ethics, contains a “no bribery” provision. It states –
“Refrain from offering or accepting significant payments, gifts or other forms of compensation or benefits in order to secure work or that are intended to influence professional judgment.”
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The last few weeks I have been focused on the difficult task of drafting and analyzing comments on the draft ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 standards.
This has caused me to focus on the issue of making commitments.
Central to all of the ISO management system standards is the requirement to establish a policy.
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In the last two weeks, the United States has decided to send military personnel and aid workers to Africa in an attempt to help address the Ebola outbreak. Clearly, assistance is needed but decisions regarding what should be done are more complicated that sending in more people. Epidemics are not like other emergencies.
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In discussions of ethics, we often focus on rules. We analyze codes of ethics and we evaluate our legal obligations. Yet, ethical conduct incorporates three values that we intrinsically understand yet often have difficulty defining – trust, transparency and truthfulness.
First, truthfulness. We don’t want others to lie to us.
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Doubt is an important part of acting ethically. Doubt is what causes us to stop and ask ourselves –
Is this really such a good idea?
Doubt motivates us to seek the information we need to make an informed decision when faced with an ethical dilemma.
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Acting ethically requires constant vigilance. One slip-up can have serious, long-term consequences.
A recent news report demonstrates the importance of a strong defense when it comes to acting ethically.
On July 23rd, the New York Times published a story accusing Senator John Walsh of apparent plagiarism in the paper he wrote in order to obtain his master’s degree from the United States Army War College in 2007.
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