We all know that you can’t do that. You can legislate punishment for ethical violations, and you can make it stick. In this way, you can reasonably hope to constrain instances of unethical behavior. But you cannot create ethical behavior the same way. People won’t become, or even behave, ethically because the law requires it. Ethics comes from morals, and morals are transmitted by culture, not Congress.
We all know that. But, of course, we try anyway.
Witness the spread of the position of “ethics officer” over the past decade or so across corporate America. A peculiar idea, which murmurs volumes about us and how we see ourselves.
We’re all familiar and comfortable with having a police chief in our communities, with a force of officers that helps protect us against ethical transgressors. We’re also accustomed to the civil court system, by means of which we can sort out allegations of unethical treatment. These are useful devices that make perfect sense to us.
But imagine having an ethics chief, someone who scrutinizes your life, your daily activities, someone who speculates intrusively and skeptically as to your motives, and who obtrusively imposes everything from voluntary guidelines to mandatory restrictions on your behavior, all in the name of a system of ethics that you, clearly, are expected either to not understand or to lack the character to exhibit.
I’ve been in places that have religious police. In addition to being distinctly unpleasant, it just doesn’t work. Behavior that is beaten into shape by men with batons isn’t ethical, it’s simply self-defensive posing. More than that, it’s sullen. And, it’s waiting its chance to show you what it thinks of you.
What are you saying when you place an ethics officer in your organization? If you are doing it as a sop to certain government policies that reward such initiatives (often with unintended, but unavoidable, cynicism, by reducing punishments for ethical violations imposed on companies that have formal ethics policies), then you are clearly being manipulative and insincere. Do it, and with poetic irony, watch the actual ethical character of your organization degrade. If, on the other hand, you do mean it, then you are being authoritatively dismissive of the morals and character of your staff. Do that, and watch their initiative, loyalty, and productivity drain away.
Policy regarding certain activities (gift giving/receiving, personal use of organizational assets, and the like) should be an HR matter that is determined, decided, and updated at regular intervals by senior management and the board, informed by frank and open discussion with staff at all levels. It should come from, not be imposed on, or hover threateningly over, the organization.
For a review of the history of the ethics officer position, together with a good discussion of the motivations and consequences of its use, see this excellent article by Hannah Clark in the 23 October edition of Forbes.com
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[...] We can neither legislate nor institutionalize ethics that don’t exist naturally within us. Efforts to pretend we can only trivialize our comprehension and expression of ethical behavior or moral thought. But that doesn’t mean, of course, that we can’t keep trying to figure this one out. [...]
[...] The Managing Leadership website has an article about legislating ethics. Granted this particular article isn’t dealing directly with hunting ethics and fair chase but the short of it is ethics is ethics no matter in what forum it is subjected. Here’s what is said about legislating ethics. You can legislate punishment for ethical violations, and you can make it stick. In this way, you can reasonably hope to constrain instances of unethical behavior. But you cannot create ethical behavior the same way. People won’t become, or even behave, ethically because the law requires it. Ethics comes from morals, and morals are transmitted by culture, not Congress [...]
[...] The Managing Leadership website has an article about legislating ethics. Granted this particular article isn’t dealing directly with hunting ethics and fair chase but the short of it is ethics is ethics no matter in what forum it is subjected. Here’s what is said about legislating ethics. You can legislate punishment for ethical violations, and you can make it stick. In this way, you can reasonably hope to constrain instances of unethical behavior. But you cannot create ethical behavior the same way. People won’t become, or even behave, ethically because the law requires it. Ethics comes from morals, and morals are transmitted by culture, not Congress [...]
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