What is the importance of considering ethics not only as a practice, but as a fundamental pillar of a company's culture?
Over the years, Juan has faced ethical dilemmas more than once in his business decision-making. In fact, in his 37 solid years as an entrepreneur, he has faced many situations where “the fine line” appeared in front of his eyes: doing the right thing at the expense of the business and its results. Juan, of Japanese origin, knows very well the expression: reading the air.
Today’s society, driven by the desire for results in all areas, is often willing to forget, transgress and even soften ethical norms to achieve them. We are facing a decline and a crisis of social, state and, as evidenced by several authors, also organizational values. On more than one corporate website, in corporate statements and manifestos, we find clearly written corporate values, among which we almost always find “we are ethical”.
The responsibility of leaders, managers, bosses, business owners and, in general, of all members of an organization is to respect, comply with and enforce the ethical standards that are shared within and outside it to endure over the time and safeguard their personal and business reputation, as well as the workplace.
We do not only confront with the law or public scrutiny, but also with ourselves every day when we make decisions, and these decisions pass through the sieve of ethics daily. This is the filter that confronts us when interacting between people and companies. We have the responsibility to act in accordance and coherence with our values, those of the company and the moral standards of society, which include the legal dimension.
Companies that are considered blameless are so because their members have that reputation and are the ones that achieve better economic results in environments of high pressure and expectations.
Juan knows that the creation of an organizational culture with solid values helped him telling his story with pride up to this day. We did not find explicitly in the values section of their website “we are ethical”. What we do find is that, when we visit his company, we can “read in the air” the behavior that, over the years, defines the organization as an ethical environment.
Back to Basics is committed to values!
