Is Corporate Ethics Beneficial To The Bottom Line?

This is a new world. A world where the common man or woman on the street has words like "Enron" and "Arthur Andersen" and "Worldcom" on the tip of their tongues. Yet will major corporate scandals have shaken the bedrock of America's trust in its companies and their executives, this world is new in another way as well. Global competition has never been sterner. U.S. companies are sending jobs overseas to centers of cheap outsourcing labor at a record pace to try to staunch the flow of red in their profits column. Companies are competing with rivals from all over the world - rivals that may not hold to the same ethical standards of conduct, using child labor for instance, or refusing to insure its workforce.

Can American organizations really afford to operate ethically? Will it improve their bottom line over time? The answer can be found in examining the five major benefits that corporate ethics training, and the presumed accompaniment of ethically-behaving employees, can have within an organization. Before listing these benefits, it must be first stated that the tendency for corporations that do train its staff concerning ethics is to have workshops or other one-time "events." These are, for the most part, ineffective when compared to a consistent ethics program which seeks to incorporate ethics into every piece of training and management disseminated company-wide. Therefore, in this article we will refer to "ethics programs" rather than ethics education.

Benefit One: Ethics programs chart a course in time of change. Times of upheaval is precisely what we are facing in today's economy. In these seasons, the line between right and expedient can become blurred, but choosing to make the quick yet questionable buck can permanently harm your company's future ability to function with moral integrity. If it becomes kosher to gain money from outside the unit through unscrupulous means, what's to say that employees won't begin to defraud their employer as well?

Benefit Two: Public image is key to survival. The vast majority of companies in the U.S. are publicly traded, publicly held, or at the very least dependent on the public as consumers of their product. A company which strives for ethical integrity and gains a reputation for doing so, as well as fending off corporate scandals, will win the public's trust and therefore financial fidelity.

Benefit Three: Ethics are cheap. In the long run, ethics save you money. Period. Less policing internally must go on, saving you expense. But far more important, scandals, siphoning, and embezzlement can be caught before they reach a truly gigantic scale. As well, any government fines for wrongdoing are reduced by catching them in an earlier, smaller stage of criminality.

Benefit Four: Ethics promote teamwork and work ethic. Hard work is just that: an ethic. An ongoing open dialogue for ethical questions and issues, and stress by the management upon key company values, over time produce a culture that reinforce and reward teamwork and hard work.

Benefit Five: Peace of Mind It feels good to good is an old but true report. Owners, executives, managers, and employees can trust an ethical operation, and that makes for happier, more well-adjusted personnel that tend to have longer careers, higher production rates, and more enjoyment than companies less trustworthy. Do right and it will reward you in the long run every time.