11.2Committing to an Ethical View

is the same in all of its two hundred stores around the world. Whether you are eating in Los Angeles, Hong Kong, or Dubai, you can order dishes with mozzarella, fontina, parmesan, cheddar, feta, or Swiss cheese, along with plenty of bacon, sour cream, and potatoes (Figure 11.2). The interior decor is also the same wherever you go, guaranteeing a uniform experience.10

Does it raise any ethical issues for the Cheesecake Factory not to tailor its offerings to local tastes and norms, as competing chains have done? People in Hong Kong, for example, normally eat a diet with fewer calories and dairy products and that is much lower in fat and sugar than is typical in the United States. As one young customer at the Hong Kong outlet exclaimed, “Chinese people just cannot handle this much cheese.”11 Yet the company is offering a product the great majority of the public wants. Does it owe them anything in addition? That is, does the Cheesecake Factory have an obligation to give customers what they need, rather than what they want? In many parts of the world, there is pronounced desire for many things American, in particular, and Western, in general. Do Western companies have a primary mandate simply to meet this want, or do they have an obligation to deliver what is better for others? This is a core ethical consideration that has implications for companies far beyond simple marketing strategies and tactics. To impose certain products and services on other cultures because Western nations believe these would be best for them certainly would be a form of imperialism. However, for corporations to satisfy expressed wants could be applauded as an honorable response to customers identifying their own preferences. To preemptively decide what ought to be consumed by others—because it is for their own good—might be a form of paternalism. Ultimately, do customers or do companies have the right to make these decisions? You might answer that it would depend on the company and its products or services, and you would be right to see it in this light. What is unmistakable, however, is that these truly are decisions fraught with ethical dimensions. Business leaders must become accustomed to considering them in this way.

Professional values and ethical reasoning are traits valued by all good employers. In fact, we have seen throughout this book that employees’ sound ethical decisions lead to higher profits in the long run. How do we develop the ability to make such decisions? We will see in the coming paragraphs that it takes discipline, commitment, and practice. Strong work and personal relationship matters, too.

Relationships Matter

Workplace research indicates that employees are more likely to be unethical when they are dissatisfied with their jobs or see their superiors acting unethically.12How do relationships influence this equation? A good example set at the top and the freedom to determine a comfortable work-life balance for oneself—all influenced by the organization’s positive relationship with its employees—lead to a more ethical workplace. Consider Walmart’s relationships with its many employees. CASES FROM THE REAL WORLD Walmart: “Save Money. Live Better.” With annual revenues of almost half a trillion dollars (2017), 2.3 million employees, and nearly twelve thousand stores worldwide, Walmart is the largest private employer on the planet (Figure 11.3).13In fact, it is bigger than many national economies, including some in the developed world. In 2007, it replaced its longstanding slogan, “Always Low Prices,” with “Save Money. Live Better.”14

Walmart attempts to demonstrate virtuousness by holding itself out as a responsible corporation, concerned especially for the lower-income families that make up the majority of its customers.16But the company has experienced problems over the years, including lawsuits over illegal firing of employees, withholding of overtime pay and benefits, violations of foreign workers’ rights, wage violations, violations of child labor laws, and failure to provide health coverage where and when applicable.17 Thousands of Walmart’s U.S. employees are also reported to be receiving public assistance to make ends meet.18Meanwhile, the Walton family, operators of the retailer that purports to help people “live better,” recently made $12.7 billion in a single day.19 Critical Thinking

• If you were an upper-level manager at Walmart, what kinds of decisions would you expect to make regarding the company’s challenges?
• As a Walmart manager, how would you view the company’s relationships with its stakeholders, including its employees? How would that view guide your decision-making?
• As a company executive, would you try to increase employee benefits? Why or why not?

Where does a case like Walmart’s leave us? If a corporation with 2.3 million employees globally has reason to be concerned that at least some are dissatisfied with the job and may have witnessed some degree of unethical management behavior, the firm might also need to assume that some of those employees could choose to act unethically in the course of any business day. Of course, no job is perfect, and most of us experience some Monday mornings when we do not necessarily want to go into the office or exert the energy to be productive. And a company that provides high-quality goods to consumers at relatively low prices should get at least some credit for treating consumers fairly and ethically. It remains true, however, that any firm that wishes its employees to act ethically in the workplace must develop managers who model such behavior consistently toward all the company’s stakeholders. No other single act on the part of business leaders is as important as this in fostering ethical behavior on the part of employees.

Using Values to Make Hard Choices

According to the logic of the market, each of us is a commodity with specific assets, such as education, training, and job experience. But we are more than commodities, and what moves us are values. Can you identify your core values and imagine how you might live them in the workplace (Figure 11.4)? We’ll return to this question at the end of the chapter.

To make the difficult decisions that come with career, personal life, and the balance between both, we must identify our personal values. Values provide us with the why for doing what we do. As an entrepreneur, for instance, you may find yourself working nonstop, dealing with emergency phone calls at 3:00 a.m., and doing a great deal of soul-searching about the direction and culture of your new venture. These tasks collectively might serve as impediments to happiness unless they truly reflect your underlying values.

The Role of Loyalty

Customers often remain loyal to a brand because of its appearance, functionality, or price. Companies want loyal customers like these and will go to great lengths to keep them. These relationships are external relationships between the company as an organization and its customers as a group. Internal relationships exist among people, including among managers, employees, suppliers, and distributors. The loyalty that forms good internal relationships and enables us to rely on one another to do our work is a matter of trust and develops over time. Although it may be tested by rivalry, resentment, misunderstanding, and personality or other conflicts, without such trust, a company cannot function properly. However, as we have seen, loyalty between employee and employer is a two-way street. The organization takes the first step by hiring a candidate in whom it will invest time, training, and money, and whose success it will reward with recognition, raises, and bonuses. No employer wants to spend time and money nurturing new talent only to see people leave for another firm. Therefore, it falls to the new professional, in turn, to decide whether his or her values align with those of the organization, and if so, to demonstrate a commitment to grow with the company over time. Achieving such clarity about your career goals, the type of company you would be proud to work for, and your vision of your future self requires some self-scrutiny. In the process, you will further clarify your personal and ethical values and start to become an ethical professional.

“‘Professionalism’ is the conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or professional person. It implies there is a quality of workmanship or service. But in reality, it’s more about ethical behavior in the workplace. Every organization knows that a professional and ethical reputation is the difference between success and failure, and they seek to keep those staff who are the most professional.”20 Ethical professionals work for companies whose values align with their own. How do you evaluate a company to see whether it is a good occupational fit and one that will allow you to live your ethical values every day?

Finding the “Right Fit”

Ethics has become a major consideration for young people in their selection of work and career. The following observation about young British workers applies to their counterparts in the United States, as well: “There’s a quiet revolution happening. . . but it’s not about pay, hours or contracts. It’s a coup d’état led by the nation’s young, politically engaged jobseekers who demand employers enshrine values and ethics in their business model, not just profit.”21 Many job seekers want to feel that what they are doing is not just making money but making a difference, that is, contributing to the company in unique ways that reflect their core values, conscience, and personality. They believe an individual has worth beyond his or her immediate work or position. Many modern companies thus try to give greater weight to the human cost of decisions and employee happiness. They know that, according to studies, employees in “companies that work to build and maintain ethical workplace cultures are more financially successful and have more motivated, productive employees.”22The decision whether to transfer someone from Boston to Salt Lake City, for instance, would now likely include the employee from the beginning and consider the impact on family members and the employee’s future, in addition to the needs of the company. This was not always the case, and there are several reasons for the change. The first is that satisfied employees are more productive and feel greater commitment to the organization.23Second, there are more options for job seekers, which gives them more freedom to choose a company for which to work. “When we graduate from school, or whenever we are thinking about changing jobs, we are matching three things in deciding on our “vocation”—the job market (Are there jobs and opportunities?), our skills (Do I have the right skills to succeed in a particular job?) and our passions or beliefs (What do I want to do?) [with the concept that] worthwhile work can be found in working in a corporate culture that respects its workers and their personal lives. You may work where management is supportive and workers thrive and advance, but you can also find yourself working in a toxic environment where