Values and ethics are concepts that different individuals and companies interpret to fit their worldview. Wherever they get applied, in business or personal relationships, ethics (often in the form of a code of conduct), the end result is to impact the image or reputation of a company or individual (MIotto et al., 2020). Besides, ethics are essential to maintaining relationships, which in the business world, creates value and is a source of competitive advantage ( Saurage-Altenloh & Randall, 2020) . In today’s highly competitive business environment, every organization aims to be known for its ethical practices, both to its customers and prospective employees. The problem with ethics is that their implementation takes time (Huda et al., 2017). Furthermore, apart from expecting individuals and companies to uphold their ethical standards, the existing standards organizations that govern and oversee ethical behavior is limited to a few industries, like health care and criminal justice systems.
This is important because we live in a technological age where information is readily available, and though there are some ethical considerations to accessing and using it, not all organizations and stakeholders take a stance early. Instead, most wait for a regulatory or oversight body to create the ethical standards then follow them. Note that there are reasons why organizations choose this track, other than assuming the implied reasons. For instance, it is cost-effective to wait for a regulatory body to create an ethical guideline than to have an internal one that could be subject to change anytime. The longer it takes for the ethical guideline to be published, the deeply integrated it will be within the organization. Therefore, changing it will result in a large organizational change, which will be met with resistance and could potentially impact company performance.
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Regardless of the aforementioned complications, businesses today cannot function without an ethical standard. Ethics is not a choice but the new normal. However, ethics as a core value is often overlooked by different organizations or simplified to mean corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities where the focus is giving back to the community. Often, these organizations fail to understand that they deliver more value by preventing or minimizing the negative impacts their operations are having to the communities through ethical standards in safety and quality control. These ideas on business ethics were sourced from an interview I had with John, the CEO of a consulting firm BCA Consulting.
Apart from talking about BCA Consulting’s take on ethics, the interview involved a lot of sharing of information, from company structure to how they created their ethical code of conduct, implemented it, and the challenges they faced along the way. Furthermore, John pointed out that creating and implementing an ethical code of conduct was a relatively small challenge. The biggest problem they faced was sustaining ethical behavior, knowing when to update it, and how to update it with minimal resistance, especially in the information era where the pace is very fast. Note that before agreeing to the interview, John had asked that any personally identifiable information about himself of his company be removed from this report. Therefore, they will be referred to by their assigned names.
I discovered from the interview that BCA Consulting mainly uses two ethical approaches. The first approach is the utilitarian view of ethics. The utilitarian approach to ethics ensures that every activity results in the desired result (Mandal et al., 2016). However, care is often taken to avoid a “the ends justify the means” mentality. The utilitarian approach to ethics, therefore, emphasizes objectivity and delivering human value. For instance, when promoting a product, it is generally accepted that the activity should not engage in false promises or giving false information ( Brücker, 2018) . On the other hand, the utilitarian approach governs employee interactions at all levels of the company. For instance, employee interactions and relationships that provide minimum utility to the company are generally unacceptable. There are exceptions to this principle, however. According to John, the utilitarian approach to ethics can be summed up as the process of balancing organizational needs and objectives against human rights.
BCA Consulting also practices the Deontological approach to ethics. This approach attempts to balance company obligations and duties (Hooker & Kim, 2018). BCA Consulting mainly applies this approach to shaping and sustaining its corporate culture. The emphasis of the culture is to enhance free and effective communication and align company and employee beliefs and interests. The result, according to John, is that the company has little trouble implementing changes to address different challenges. Furthermore, most of the solutions are created by the employees, who then communicate them to the company and their peers. For instance, when the pandemic was in the early stages, some of the employees had started to devise strategies in case the company would be affected. Most of the solutions they came up with were later used by the company. A good solution that John explained was that in anticipation of disruptions to businesses, the customer relationship management department had started to transition its communication styles away from in-person to online formats. There was a learning curve because not all customers and clients used the same communication tools if they had any. Furthermore, when using the internet became the primary means of customer communication, the department added free service to its clients on what they should do, challenges to solve, and potential solutions.
Therefore, my opinion of BCA Consulting is that it has a good understanding of ethics, and it applies it appropriately. This is evident from its use of its corporate culture to generate solutions to contemporary problems, then using the solutions to add value to their customers. However, things were not always smooth with the company. According to John, when they started out, they were facing a lot of challenges. None of the employees, from the management to juniors and stakeholders, could understand and relate to one another. These issues caused the company to fail to comply with its ethical standards. Furthermore, the situation was exacerbated by the fact that most of the employees came from different companies that had different ethical standards and practices. The solution John used was to take everyone out one weekend for a company retreat. The objective of the retreat was to get everyone to know and understand each other outside the context of work. After the weekend, there was a noticeable shift in the atmosphere at work. John then proceeded to request the employees to create the company’s code of ethics and conduct. Using the feedback, the current corporate culture evolved.
An evaluation of BCA Consulting shows that it does not have any inconsistencies relating to its implementation and application of ethics. It appears that John invests heavily on ethics to not only govern employee behavior but also help create a corporate culture that adds extra value to both the company and its customers. The strength of BCA Consulting’s ethical standards is that they were designed and implemented to deliver value to the employees. The standards were not meant for the companies. Therefore, is employee beliefs and values change, the company culture and ethical standards get to be updated effectively to reflect the changes. Furthermore, the changes will primarily be driven by the employees, hence minimizing the resistance. This is not meant to imply that the employees share similar beliefs.
By John’s admission, the company accepts and celebrates diversity. However, the downside to diversity is that the stakeholders often have conflicting views and opinions. The approach John takes to solve these conflicts is to take the different groups for a retreat, give them a challenge whose solution requires them working together then letting the conflicting employees settle conflicts outside the office. This approach has been successful, according to John because it puts the main stakeholders at the center and makes them create solutions that are to the benefit of all. When I asked him how much it cost the company to facilitate the retreats, John admitted that though the cost was significant, the return on investment (ROI) made it a feasible business activity.
In general, I agree with John’s leadership style and his company’s approach to ethics. First, the approach does not prioritize the organization’s needs above those of the employees. I got the impression that BCA Consulting employees do not identify separately from the company but think of themselves as part of the company. Secondly, organizations are inanimate objects and concepts. They are imaginary communities that require employees to work. Therefore, I learned from John that ethics are not put in place for the good of the company. Instead, ethics exist to maximize human value. Therefore, it is best to create a code of ethics that reflects the beliefs and values of the employees who are expected to follow them.
Lastly, I learned that having an ethical code of conduct is a source of competitive advantage. The common conception is that ethics creates a competitive advantage through CSR activities. However, I learned that competitive advantage could also be created through company culture. BCA Consulting taught me that fostering an environment where communication is open and free leads to employees who take the initiative to solve problems. These solutions are not only valuable when solving the problems faced by the company but also delivering value to the company.
References
Brücker, H. (2018). A Utilitarian Approach for the Governance of Humanitarian Migration. Analyse & Kritik , 40 (2), 293-320.
Hooker, J. N., & Kim, T. W. N. (2018, December). Toward non-intuition-based machine and artificial intelligence ethics: A deontological approach based on modal logic. In Proceedings of the 2018 AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society (pp. 130-136).
Huda, M., Maseleno, A., Jasmi, K. A., Mustari, I., & Basiron, B. (2017). Strengthening interaction from direct to virtual basis: insights from ethical and professional empowerment. International Journal of Applied Engineering Research , 12 (17), 6901-6909.
Mandal, J., Ponnambath, D. K., & Parija, S. C. (2016). Utilitarian and deontological ethics in medicine. Tropical parasitology , 6 (1), 5.
Miotto, G., Del-Castillo-Feito, C., & Blanco-González, A. (2020). Reputation and legitimacy: Key factors for Higher Education Institutions’ sustained competitive advantage. Journal of Business Research , 112 , 342-353.
Saurage-Altenloh, S., & Randall, P. M. (2020). The Influence of CSR on B2B Relationships: Leveraging Ethical Behaviors to Create Value. In Examining Ethics and Intercultural Interactions in International Relations (pp. 83-105). IGI Global.
