Friday, September 28, 2018

After reading the article below, what are your thoughts? https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/17/business/dealbook/when-money-gets-in-the-way-of-corporate-ethics.html

This article is about how some companies have difficulty following ethical business practices, even when these practices are supposed to be part of their corporate culture, when being ethical prevents them from making money. For example, employees at Wells Fargo, a bank, opened fake accounts to meet sales targets. While the Wells Fargo CEO claimed that this was the behavior of individuals, not a system-wide practice, a report by new leadership at the company found that the CEO had ignored the serious nature of the problem. Other companies, such as Fox News, were (at the time the article was written) dealing with how to handle the sexual harassment charges leveled at TV host Bill O'Reilly (he was later fired).
You have to decide whether you think declarations of how to behave from management can actually curb unethical or illegal behavior. It's clear that top management not only has to dictate what the culture should be but also has to follow that culture themselves for it to be successful. If employees see the top brass engaging in cheating or other unethical and illegal behavior, such as sexual harassment, employees won't take company rules about ethical behavior seriously. It is especially important for corporations to enforce their laws about corporate culture, not only because, as the article states, it is ethical to do so, but because they must protect their reputations. Overlooking unethical behavior is not only wrong and potentially illegal, but it can also be very bad for business.

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