How dose ethical decision making affect an employer?

Organisational outcomes and benefits from ethical leadership

More and more leaders of businesses and other organisations are now waking up to the reality of social responsibility and organisational ethics.

Public opinion, unleashed by the internet particularly, is re-shaping expectations and standards.

Organisational behaviour - good and bad - is more transparent than ever - globally.

Injustice anywhere in the world is becoming more and more visible, and less and less acceptable.

Reaction to corporate recklessness, exploitation, dishonesty and negligence it is becoming more and more organised and potent.

Employers, businesses and organisations of all sorts - especially the big high profile ones - are now recognising that there are solid effects and outcomes driving organisational change. There are now real incentives for doing the right thing, and real disincentives for doing the wrong things.

As never before, there are huge organisational advantages from behaving ethically, with humanity, compassion, and with proper consideration for the world beyond the boardroom and the shareholders:

competitive advantage - customers are increasingly favouring providers and suppliers who demonstrate responsibility and ethical practices. Failure to do so means lost market share, and shrinking popularity, which reduces revenues, profits, or whatever other results the organisation seeks to achieve.

better staff attraction and retention - the best staff want to work for truly responsible and ethical employers. Failing to be a good employer means good staff leave, and reduces the likelihood of attracting good new-starters. This pushes up costs and undermines performance and efficiency. Aside from this, good organisations simply can't function without good people.

investment - few and fewer investors want to invest in organisations which lack integrity and responsibility, because they don't want the association, and because they know that for all the other reasons here, performance will eventually decline, and who wants to invest in a lost cause?

morale and culture - staff who work in a high-integrity, socially responsible, globally considerate organisation are far less prone to stress, attrition and dissatisfaction. Therefore they are happier and more productive. Happy productive people are a common feature in highly successful organisations. Stressed unhappy staff are less productive, take more time off, need more managing, and also take no interest in sorting out the organisation's failings when the whole thing implodes.

reputation - it takes years, decades, to build organisational reputation - but only one scandal to destroy it. Ethical responsible organisations are far less prone to scandals and disasters. And if one does occur, an ethical responsible organisation will automatically know how to deal with it quickly and openly and honestly. People tend to forgive organisations who are genuinely trying to do the right thing. People do not forgive, and are actually deeply insulted by, organisations who fail and then fail again by not addressing the problem and the root cause. Arrogant leaders share this weird delusion that no-one can see what they're up to. Years ago maybe they could hide, but now there's absolutely no hiding place.

legal and regulatory reasons - soon there'll be no choice anyway - all organisations will have to comply with proper ethical and socially responsible standards. And these standards and compliance mechanisms will be global. Welcome to the age of transparency and accountability. So it makes sense to change before you are forced to.

legacy - even the most deluded leaders will admit in the cold light of day that they'd prefer to be remembered for doing something good, rather than making a pile of money or building a great big empire. It's human nature to be good. Humankind would not have survived were this not so. The greedy and the deluded have traditionally been able to persist with unethical irresponsible behaviour because there's been nothing much stopping them, or reminding them that maybe there is another way. But no longer. Part of the re-shaping of attitudes and expectations is that making a pile of money, and building a great big empire, are becoming stigmatised. What's so great about leaving behind a pile of money or a great big empire if it's been at the cost of others' well-being, or the health of the planet? The ethics and responsibility zeitgeist is fundamentally changing the view of what a lifetime legacy should be and can be. And this will change the deeper aspirations of leaders, present and future, who can now see more clearly what a real legacy is.

Ethical just means fair to all the employess.

Most employers are fair, the employee getting fired might not thing

so, but if you have people that don't come to work on time, or out a lot of days,

they need to fill that slot with someone that can