Are your organization's values a joke?
An organization's culture is not about words in the mission/vision statement on the entry wall of the home office. It's about behavior and consequences. Yet, from schools to colleges to corporations, "values drift" is pervasive.
Bob Lutz former Vice Chairman of General Motors, president of Chrysler, as well as an executive at both Ford and BMW, conceived the Chevy Volt as his last automotive project. Recently, speaking to the Greater Ann Arbor Area Economic Club about tough love and discipline in both education and the business world, said "We trained a generation of your Americans that they get the "gold star" whether their stuff is any good or not. Frankly, we're turning out a bunch of functional illiterates."
In the April 30, 2012 issue of FORTUNE, Jack and Suzy Welch wrote about "one of the most immutable rules of business. In fact, soft culture matters as much as hard numbers. And if your company's culture is to mean anything, you have to hang--publicly--those in your midst who would destroy it. It's a grim image, we know. But the fact is, creating a healthy, high-integrity organizational culture is not puppies and rainbows. And yet, for some reason, too many leaders think a company's values can be relegated to a five-minute conversation with HR and a new employee. Or they think culture is about picking which words--do we "honor" our customers or "respect" them?--to engrave on a plaque in the lobby. What nonsense."
In The New York Times of April 22, 2012, a former executive described how Wal-Mart de Mexico had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance. In its rush to build stores, he said, the company had paid bribes to obtain permits in virtually every corner of the country.
Is Bribery an Ethical Condition of Doing Business in the Global Economy?
Violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, a federal law that makes it a crime for American corporations and their subsidiaries to bribe foreign officials is to be enforced by the Justice Department. Yet, the Times's examination found credible evidence that bribery played a persistent and significant role in Wal-Mart's rapid growth in Mexico, where Wal-Mart now employs 209,000 people.
How ethically vulnerable is your organization?
Of 462 executives who were asked, "What characteristics are needed to be an effective leader today?" 56 percent ranked ethical behavior as an important characteristic, followed by sound judgment (51%) and being adaptable/flexible (47%). --Source: American Management Association, New York, NY
Yet, it seems every week we hear about ethical leadership lapses from Goldman Sachs, British Petroleum, Wal-Mart, etc. that can ruin a company's reputation. Unethical behavior, in which people deliberately intend to harm themselves or others, springs from, and is reinforced by, destructive and painful mind states such as fear, greed, anger and jealously.
Ethical behavior, on the other hand, enhances the well-being of everyone because it comes from, and reinforces, motives and emotions such as love, joy, generosity and compassion. Ethical cultures are the result of diligent effort--frequent, scheduled conversations between leaders and employees about what the standards of your company really are according to Laura Hartman, a professor at DePaul University.
A biennial survey of the nonprofit Ethics Resource Center found 25% of nearly 2,000 U.S. employees said they had observed their colleagues or their companies lying to customers, suppliers, workers or the public--up from 19% in 2005.
It would seem to me that experienced leaders like Jack Welch and Bob Lutz need to recruited by our federal government for a discussion/recommendation as to what standards of ethics need to exist and be enforced in our global economy today. This committee needs to answer questions like: Should organizations be allowed to pay a government agreed to fine without admitting guilt? What is the definition of a "bribery" violation of a government official versus an agreed to economic exchange between the company and a government entity?
A good first step for global corporations, is to take a hard look at their business ethics policies and potential violations by corporate executives. Then check out http://www.leadership401.com/ if the board of directors is willing to give its C-level executive(s) another chance at ethical behavior modification with outside leadership coaching.