Ethics, values and decision-making (Part 1)
De ning your values and ethics as a business is critical if you want to run an ethical and sustainable organisation. Let me explain. An organisation bid on a project. e project was for a multinational organisation and a long-time client of theirs. In the initial stage of their business relationship with this client, they dealt directly with the CEO, who was impressed with their product and work ethic, so he kept sending business their way. Earlier in the year, he was transferred out of the country to lead the business in another country. is time, the organisation encountered the procurement team. e lady in charge of procurement, upon reviewing their bid, demanded a commission in exchange for awarding the project to them. In case you haven’t recognised it, she was demanding a bribe. ings were tough. Many businesses were closing down, in the aftermath of COVID and the subsequent downturn in the Nigerian economy. Under normal circumstances, the value of the project was not even worth considering such a proposition. However, in tough times, many people and consequently, organisations put their ethical stances on hold. e sales team desperately needed to close the sale to keep things a oat. ey began to rationalize that it was just a commission, like a nder’s fee. A er all, if they worked with an external agent, they would have paid them a commission anyway. What should the sales manager do? What would you do?
PLUS Framework
a higher standard and call for deep introspection. However, because an individual's ethics are derived largely from their personal principles and values, if they are ethically challenged, they would likely arrive at a course of action that may be deemed unethical when examined under di erent lenses. If a person has high moral standards, even if they answer yes to the other alters, if the proposed action does not pass the Self-test, then they should not proceed with that course of action. If their moral standards are low, then they must still subject the situation to the policies, legal and universal alters.
Because this scenario is common in Nigeria, it will serve an organisation that aspires to be ethical, to spell out what to do in a situation like the one above. WG Evans de nes ethics as the guidelines for conduct, that address questions of morality. In addition to clearly spelling out ethical policies, For the PLUS framework to work, the organisation and providing a framework for dealing must have a clear set of policies with nuttier issues, consider introducing and guidelines on ethics. e organisation the PLUS framework in your organisation. must also have a cohesive set of de ned PLUS is a mnemonic for Policies, Legal, values. ese values are not something that Universal, and Self, proposed by the Ethical is just put in an HR manual and company and Compliance Initiative (ECI) as a set website, but an actual description of the of alters to help parse through decisions core principles and behaviours that are involving ethical issues. e framework exhibited by members of the organisation. involves 4 questions: e values serve as a lter and an inspiration
Policies: Is it consistent with my organisation's to act in a certain way. Pat Lencioni in policies, procedures, and his book: e Advantage, suggests using guidelines? the descriptive phrase: “How we behave”
Legal: Is it acceptable under the applicable in place of the word “Values”. He also laws and regulations? advocates, using terms that are speci c as
Universal: Does it conform to the universal opposed to vague terms when describing
nd principles/values my organisation the behaviours that typify the organisation’s has adopted? core values. For example in Housessories,
Self: Does it satisfy my personal de nition instead of “Integrity” it describes the behaviour, of right, good, and fair? “We do the right thing even when
e beauty of this framework is its robustness. no one is watching”. Depending on the society, and Values are subjective and inspire a person the individual, the Self alter may provide toward desired action, while ethics are
Values and Ethics
prescriptive and constrain a person from engaging in an undesired course of action.
ough ethics and values are not the same thing, an organisation's ethics should not be misaligned with the organisation’s values.
While it is generally not essential that an organisation’s values explicitly refer to its ethics, one would go as far as to propose that in a country like Nigeria, where there are ethical land mines at every turn, an organisation that desires to be ethical, should boldly enshrine ethical behaviour into its core values. Doing so creates a Northstar to guide your team toward. It will attract people seeking to work in organisations that prioritise ethical behaviour. Including ethical behaviour in your values also signals to potential customers that they can trust you because they know what sort of behaviour to expect from your organisation.
To embark on this journey, look at your core values. Are they speci c and descriptive behaviours that are easily identi able? If they are not, consider reviewing them to arrive at values that spell out behaviours that are recognisable to your team members and stakeholders. Secondly, create an ethics policy guidebook. In the guidebook, de ne your bribery and gi -giving policy and address other ethical issues. irdly, train your team members on its content and continually emphasize its importance. e values will inspire them towards the desired ethical behaviour, while the ethics policy guidebook will set the boundaries to deter unethical behaviour when faced with issues.