Ethics in business and life

IEDC committed to an aspirational ‘code of ethics’ in 2008

REGARDLESS

OF HOW LARGE or how small an organization is — every company and employee is expected to demonstrate “ethical behaviour.” As New York Times bestselling author John Maxwell states: …“There’s no such thing as business ethics — there’s only “ethics.”

In 2010, I was asked to join the board of directors for the Washington, D.C., based International Economic Development Council (IEDC). IEDC is a not-for-profit membership organization dedicated to serving economic developers and their profession. IEDC is currently the world’s largest organization of its kind with more than 4,500 members.

One of the keys to IEDC’s success is the utilization of its board members (the majority of whom are economic development practitioners) to assist in the delivery of specific programs, policy and procedures development, and training.

Board members are unpaid, but the benefits include the following: access to IEDC’s research resources, databases, being part of a global network of economic developers and the honour of representing our country on an international board.

In October 2008, IEDC committed to an aspirational “code of ethics” for the or- ganization. Development of a curriculum was the first priority with the next step being the creation of an ethics task force. Training the membership then was the immediate objective and it soon became a mandated requirement for accreditation in our profession. A select few of my fellow board members and I were chosen to deliver the training (which on average is scheduled twice a year) and is always convened on weekends for individuals working to receive their certification.

The IEDC ethics training course focuses on the following topics: ethical behaviour, making ethical decisions, personal integrity, strong values and promoting an ethical culture. Over the past 5 years, IEDC has developed a number of case studies which enables role play for the participants, identifying ethical dilemmas, discussion and how to analyze options.

The IEDC training course is laden with ethical content from a number of leading experts (sociologists, business analysts, PhDs, legal counsel, management consultants, etc.). Business author Peter Drucker best sums up the importance of having ethics in your company or organization as follows: “Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing!”

“Management is doing things right. Leadership is doing the right thing.”

PETER DRUCKER,

AUTHOR