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January 26, 2006

Bad Boss, Bad Worker

Posted by Angus Loten at 4:56 PM

Forget about bad apples and personal grudges. A recent international study by the American Management Association found that trying to meet impossible goals set by business owners and managers was the number one reason employees lie, cheat, and steal.

Getting a career boost or simply protecting one's livelihood came in second and third, while a personal desire to do outright damage to an employer was second to last, the study found.

In fact, many of the roots of unethical corporate behavior identified in the study, which surveyed some 1,121 managers and HR experts worldwide, are eerily similar to the sorts of upstanding values recruiters look for in a good employee -- willingness to follow orders, be a team player, and help the company grow. Yet, in an environment that doesn't foster ethical values, the study said, even well-meaning workers can go bad.

The key, according to AMA president Edward Reilly, is leadership. "Corporate leaders need to communicate ethical values throughout the organization, but they must do more than talk the talk in order to establish and sustain an ethical culture," Reilly said. That means keeping promises, encouraging open communications, keeping employees informed, and posting a formal ethical code, the study showed.

But should all businesses, big and small, have an official code of conduct?

5 Comments

Posted by: Tim Whelan at January 30, 2006 12:34 AM

Very well put.

This has been a business ethics issue that I remember back in my accounting 101 days at the University. It always starts and ends at the top. This has such a direct negative affect on employee performance that it lowers performance, customer loyalty, sales production; manufacturing output and customer and employee retention.

Want to lift your company another notch up the ladder? Then start empowering the morality of those who work for you with a proactive value proposition on ethical standards and practices. Then practice them from the top down. As a consultant in the customer service/ experience disciplines I will assure you your customers will know and see the difference and so will the companies bottom line.

Posted by: Motivator at January 31, 2006 10:41 AM

A lot of time and effort is spent on analyzing the wants and needs of consumers but the same attention is not given to employees. If the wants and needs of the employees are not collectively met or individually met then there will be a lag in performance and will end up costing the company money. When people feel like their voices are being heard and their concerns are being met, they will be more effective and will help increase the company's bottom line.

-Motivator
www.ursuccess.blogspot.com

Posted by: Doug Karr at March 16, 2006 3:51 PM

Posting an ethics code is like having a speed limit sign. Everyone knows it's there, everyone knows it's wrong to speed, but a lot of people ignore it and do it anyway.

Much like you see policemen speeding, managers are often the worst observers of ethics. As the article may suggest, employees follow leaders. If you have bad leaders, you've got a problem.

Kill the Queen Bee and the hive will move on or die.

Posted by: Shitiz Mathur at March 29, 2006 8:53 AM

'Ethics' come from 'Principals', which inturn come from 'Culture'. It is of formost importance to evolve and also guard the organization's culture from harmfull developments by living it in true spirit. An employee first senses the existing culture of the organization and if he/she finds its preachers as 'un-following'...there go his words into trash!!

Posted by: StockMama at April 7, 2006 10:52 AM

Employers treating employees as interchangable parts and discarding them when they're broken is nothing new. The history of the industrial revolution is filled with worker abuse, which is the whole reason that unions arose in the first place.

What businesses have learned and must act on is the notion that treating your employees well is good for business. If employees feel that they are treated fairly, they are far more loyal, far more likely to talk up the company, and far more likely to produce ideas that will help the company. It's risky, of course, for employees to start thinking that the company is there to take care of them. Employers aren't parents. But setting up a positive work environment can only help the company's bottom line.

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