Why your Organization may need an Ethics Consultant.
So says Andrew Fastow, convicted of securities fraud for Enron in his interview “Companies still bending finance rules, published Nov.6,2015 in the BBC business news.
He goes on to say: “I didn’t necessary start out to commit fraud or do harm and didn’t think it could come to do that on just a grand scale. You can follow all the rules and still commit fraud. My mistake was the filter I should have sued beyond following the rules was whether it is ethical and whether or not the decisions are presenting an acceptable amount of risk to the company.”
So what are the lessons here.
1. Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it ethical.
2. Hindsight is nice but usually worthless, as the damage has already been done.
3. Hindsight is not worthless however if the leaders take ethics seriously by consistently focusing on the process of ethical thinking about the ethical causes and effects of decision making.
4. If companies are still operating like Fastow says, no one has gotten the “Ethics message” yet.
5. What is it going to take to turn this corner on the value of ethics and values in the workplace?
Take a look at this article. It really makes one wonder.
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