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Management
Ethics is an important part of transacting business. It is vital to walk the talk where ethics is concerned. It is not sufficient that ethics be present and restricted to publish codes of practice, which are distributed to the employees and they are trained in the code of practice. Organizations as large as Comcast and Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC) were under severe criticism for a reported illegal termination of a PWC employee. Ultimately, the violation of ethics brought Comcast Corporation to its knees when they carried tales about Conal O’Rourke to his employer PWC because they had access to PWC’s management system. O’Rourke’s grouse was that he was billed $1, 820 for gadgetry that he never asked for and he never needed.
Comcast’s Senior Vice-President for customer service Charlie Herrin accepted the fact that they went and sneaked up to PWC and carried tales about O’Rourke. He said “We simply dropped the ball and did not make things right.”
Accepting the fact the Comcast had violated the ethical boundary just because they had access to people who could manage one of their difficult customers. The mistake apparently that O’Rourke did was that he went to different publications like the Consumerist, for instance, and told them that he was billed for something that he did not order nor that he required. This prompted an angry Comcast to contact PWC because they had access to the management team.
PWC is defensive saying that O’Rourke violated PWC’s ethical policies, and that he was terminated because of violation of those policies. The moot question here is that, when an individual conducts an independent business transaction with the employer’s client, what are the roles that the employer-employee relationship limits? Was O’Rourke wrong to have used Comcast’s service in the first place? The next question that would come up is, was O’Rourke under any kind of a limitation from his employer’s side to discuss an independent business transaction with media? If O’Rourke’s employer PWC played no role in prompting him to choose Comcast as a service provider, is PWC on ethical high grounds to interfere in the private life of one of its employees? And the last question is, Is Comcast right in approaching PWC in relation to a customer they cannot handle, despite the public fact that along with the Time Warner Cable (TWC), they are notorious an infamous for worst customer satisfaction in cable business? They are second and third from the bottom, among the businesses that actually annoy customers.
The takeaways from this article are several questions on ethical behavior in business. What Comcast did is exactly similar to a spoilt child who goes and complains to the neighbor’s child’s father that the neighbor’s child has drank its own milk, and because of that he has got a stomach ache.
Ethics in a global business organization that is truly global must have the Golden Globe Standards for Business Ethics. It is often a debate in business schools on adapting ethics to the local business environment.
Most students including professors tend to lean on the idiom ‘While in Rome, do as Romans do.” This simply implies that one must adapt own standards to the local requirements and practices, or what people like James Adam and Joseph Fletcher call situation ethics allowing so-called pragmatic approach to ethical business dilemmas. Today, the question that seems to glare at us very loudly is how can a business, or for that matter, even an individual have one set of principles at home, and another set of principles outside?
Today’s complex business environment is almost 100 % global, and this intensifies the ethical dilemma debate. For those local businesses in countries of Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Middle East, it is seen as an accepted practice to make payments to procure business. But is this right, when it is illegal to make such payments back at home in United States? Siemens of Germany that admitted paying $2 billion in bribes finally had to let go of their Chairman and CEO. BAE systems of Great Britain ostensibly made a $2 billion payment to a Prince to secure $80 billion government contracts. This is yet to be proved and is under investigation.
The most common things that happens when scandals breakout is, a permanent damage to reputation. Should an organization risk losing its reputation permanently? Do application of situational ethics in such situations right? The answers to these questions seem to be that such application of situation ethics could actually destroy large global organizations. If an organization has its offices across three or four continents or even countries, what is the message that needs to be sent for practicing uniform global standards? ‘Who should do it? Can managers posted overseas indulge and deviate from the Code Book because they need to meet the financial targets? Will the company back them up when they fail to do so?
Doing business ethically is way beyond mere excellent code of conduct. It is finally the responsibility of the CEO and the Board of Directors of the organization to communicate to all employees at all locations of the need for compliance. If that message does not get transmitted from the top, compromises could occur, and when the top management looks the other way, it is the organization’s reputation that goes for a toss. There should be strictly no tolerance when it comes to ethical violations.
Ben Heinemann, the former Counsel for GE says integrity landmines must be avoided at all costs, and that superlative performance at extreme levels of integrity, performance proposal and ethics must always go hand-in-hand. It is insufficient that CEOs publish a Code of Practice and forget about it. It is a priority that needs to be top-driven, and transmittal must be repeated, and violations must be condemned with a heavy hand. However high the violator is in the hierarchy, there must be no exemption. CEOs must not only ensure their own ethical behavior, but also must always remain totally committed to ethical business operations constantly. Organizations must be built on rock solid ethical foundations and there can be no compromise on it. The ‘Don’t Look, don’t tell’ approach will definitely harm the company’s reputation. Ethical practices in global business operations will always add credibility to the organization, and such organizations will be looked up to and respected in any country of operation. Therefore, ethics is not a mere lip-service, but rather it must be the living soul of the business organization.
Works Cited
George, Bill. Ethics Must be Global not Local. 12 February 2008. 10 October 2014. <http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2008-02-12/ethics-must-be-global-not-localbusinessweek-business-news-stock-market-and-financial-advice>.
Vynck, Gerrit De. Comcast Says Sorry to Customer Fired After Bill Dispute. 09 October 2014. 10 October 2014. <http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-10-08/comcast-says-sorry-to-customer-fired-after-bill-dispute>.
