An Evolution of Ethics

In today’s modern business climate, ethics is often bandied about by leaders who disagree as to its true meaning and act according to what serves them best. This should come as no surprise, for throughout the ages educated persons have debated, discussed and philosophized ethics with respect to business.

Immanuel Kant (1724 -1804, pictured right), a German philosopher, is considered the founder of critical philosophy. In the Metaphysics of Ethics (1797), Kant described his ethical system, which is based on a belief that reason is the final authority for morality. Actions of any sort, he believed, must be undertaken from a sense of duty dictated by reason, and no action performed for expediency or solely in obedience to law or custom can be regarded as moral.

Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832), an English philosopher with very radical views on the nature of political and social organizations, first developed the philosophy of modern utilitarianism. This system of ethics is based upon the universal, hedonistic premise that good can be judged based upon whatever produces the greatest happiness for the largest number of people. Bentham started with the principle that "Nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure." His work came to have an important influence on political philosophy, and his most important theoretical work is the Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (1789), in which much of his moral theory--which he said reflected 'the greatest happiness principle'--is described and developed.

More recently, Lawrence Kohlberg completed his doctoral dissertation on the topic of moral issues at the University of Chicago, where he developed the first rendition of his new stage theory. In the field of moral education, he is particularly well known for his theory of moral development. Kohlberg believed, and was able to demonstrate through studies, that people progressed in their moral reasoning, or acted on their ethical standards, through a series of stages. He believed that there were six identifiable stages that could be more generally classified into three levels. Those levels and stages are listed as follows:

Level I. Preconventional Morality Stage

Stage 1. Obedience and Punishment Orientation Stage

Stage 2. Individualism and Exchange

Level II. Conventional Morality

Stage 3. Good Interpersonal Relationships

Stage 4. Maintaining the Social Order

Level III. Postconventional Morality

Stage 5. Social Contract and Individual Rights

Stage 6: Universal Principles

Kohlberg's conception of justice follows that of the philosopher Kant, as well as great moral leaders such as Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. The principles of justice require us to treat the claims of all parties in an impartial manner, respecting the basic dignity of all people as individuals. These principles are therefore universal; they apply to all. For example, we would not vote for a law that aids some people, but hurts others. Kohlberg’s description helps us to understand a good deal about business ethics. Business people will always claim that only the governing body of law binds them, not moral norms and ethical standards.

All of these philosophies would be interesting to see in action today regarding decision making within corporate America. Kohlberg’s stages may work best in directing the ethical and moral decisions of corporations in today’s “civilized” world.

Jeffrey Skilling, Bernard Ebbers and John Rigas were unavailable for comment regarding the views discussed in this article…

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Are You Getting the Most From Your Employees?

We have all heard of the adage, “The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior,” but is this true for performance related behavior in the workplace? While more U.S. employers are adopting some sort of pay-for-performance program, recent studies too have examined the link between employee performance and compensation programs. Not surprisingly, the findings of available research cite that money does indeed have an incentive value! However, there exist several methods by which increased employee performance can be accomplished, including but not limited to base pay, lump sum bonuses and merit increases. The real question is which method is most effective?

Psychological and economic research suggests that compensation plans influence individuals through two mechanisms: first, their effects on motivation connected to the incentives inherent in the pay system; second, their effects on motivation based on reactions to the plan’s specific distributions. Sturman (2006) found that both “how much” (the amount of the reward) and “how” the money is paid (the relationship that exists between performance and pay) influence employees’ future performance levels. Further, both raises and bonuses increase future performance, but merit raises were found to have a greater effect than that of bonuses. Specifically, Sturman (2006) found that the benefit of a 1-percent increase in base pay was comparable to the benefit from a 3-percent bonus. Although the absolute level of one’s salary was not related to future performance, relative pay levels made a considerable difference. More over, and perhaps most important, the study also showed that how an employee is paid can also influence performance. The examination into merit raises found that the link between pay and performance was generally unrelated to future performance.

Conversely, the extent of the pay-for-performance relationship with bonuses was significantly related to future performance.

Based on Sturman’s (2006) findings, pay structure can be designed to achieve greater employee performance. Simply spending more on employee pay would likely yield minimal results. Improving the merit-increase pool by one percentage point, but otherwise not making any allocation changes would be projected to increase performance only by roughly 2 percent. On the other hand, if the same money was applied to pay-for-performance bonuses, Sturman’s analysis suggests a performance increase of better than 15 percent. In sum, the research suggests that providing a strong pay-for-performance link for bonuses rather than raises had the greatest potential benefit, predicted to improve employee performance by nearly 20 percent.

Source: Sturman, C. M., (2006). Using Your Pay System to Improve Employees’ Performance: How You Pay Makes A Difference. v6, 13. Cornell University. The Center For Hospitality Research.

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Bullying: From the Playground to the Workplace – Part I: The Effect of Workplace Bullying

For many individuals, the word “bully” sparks images of playground fights, name calling, and stolen lunch money. It is rare that one would associate this term with a co-worker or supervisor, but a study conducted by The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute (WBTI) found that approximately 1 in 6 employees do experience some form of bullying while in the work environment. Bullying in the workplace is formally defined, by Salin, as: “Repeated and persistent negative actions towards one or more individual(s), which involve a perceived power imbalance and create a hostile work environment.” Bullying is thus a form of interpersonal aggression or hostile, anti-social behavior in the workplace. This can include, but is not limited to, performance prevention tactics, tactics of control (unrelated to getting work done), and violations of civil norms, policies or laws (according to WBTI).

Targeted individuals often experience severe psychological and physical reactions in response to persistent harassment and abuse. Victims may have feelings of shame, stress, anxiety, and depression, and can develop gastrointestinal disorders, hypertension, and suffer reduced immunity to infections. It is clear that bullying can be extremely distressing for the victim(s), but it is important to note that cases of workplace bullying can also be costly for employers. Businesses, which tolerate bullying in their workforce, run the risk of increased turnover rates (possibly of top-performers leaving out of fear), absenteeism, low productivity, the development of a poor reputation, and negative public relations from headlines which spotlight litigation and/or violent incidents.

What can employers do? The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute has developed a blueprint for employers looking to take action against bullying. The blueprint is comprised of recognition training, prohibitive policy, and a mechanism for enforcement. WBTI suggests that employers:

• Create A New Values-Driven Policy

• Develop Credible Enforcement Processes

• Incorporate Restorative Interventions for At-Risk Teams Create A New Values-Driven Policy

• Develop Credible Enforcement Processes

• Incorporate Restorative Interventions for At-Risk Teams & Individuals

• Provide General & Specialized Education

The implementation of these principles is voluntary, as there is currently a lack of legislation pertaining to bullying in the workplace; though this may be changing. A relatively new bill, being proposed on the state level, could potentially impact how employees and employers manage and respond to bullying within their organization. Next month’s issue will include a discussion on the future of this bill, its objectives, and the impact it could have on employers.

We will look at the legal aspects of workplace bullying in Part II next month.

Additional information on the Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute’s blueprint can be found at: http://www.bullybusters.org/advocacy/pdf-docs/overview.pdf.

For more information from The Workplace Bullying & Trauma Institute, please visit their website at: http://www.bullyinginstitute.org.

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“eLearning” . . . The Future of Workplace Training?

“eLearning” is the delivery of educational content via any electronic media and is distributed in many different forms, including web-based training (WBT) and computer based training (CBT). The eLearning industry has surpassed 10 billion dollars in the US alone and is expected to grow because it can reduce training costs upwards of 60% by replacing traditional classroom training.

With a Return on Investment often exceeding five times that of traditional classroom training, it is easy to see why companies of all sizes are turning to elearning as a way to train their employees. One of the largest growing segments of elearning is WBT because of its cost benefits. With in-person trainings, you often have the travel expense in getting employees and trainers to one conference room or training facility. WBT is available 24/7 and users take the courses at a computer at their convenience, with no lost time due to travel. A WBT course can be set up to have an unlimited number of employees take a training as opposed to limiting the number because of classroom size constraints.

With better technology, WBT courses are becoming more engaging with video, sound, and role playing scenarios. Business Controls’ Workplace Violence training allows users to click through different workplace scenarios, learning about situations and making decisions on the best course of action for resolution. Users are then tested on how well they know the subject matter and if their decisions are sound, based in fact, and legally viable. Management can track these results, such as the time needed to complete the course, pass/fail rates, and scoring. The ability to track these results helps managers assess their employee competencies and provides insight into their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. They can then refocus efforts on those who may need additional training or support.

As technology becomes more imbedded in everyday life, companies need to look at technology as a way to connect with their employees. Younger workers, for instance, are accustomed to computer-driven education, and respond well to interactive programs. eLearning, when done correctly, delivers greater subject matter retention and effectiveness, while drastically reducing time away from the job. Training is a continual need for your workforce to maintain skills, develop new skills, and empower employees to improve, often leading to increased productivity and reduced turnover. eLearning will continue to replace other means of corporate training, bringing greater results and reduced expenses to your organization.

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The loss of company laptops and the sensitive information contained on those laptops is unfortunate commonplace in corporate America today. Many organizations attempt to minimize the potential damage by “scrubbing” laptops, or attempting to wipe off existing information from a hard drive so that the only information contained on a laptop is intentional, as opposed to a laptop containing files from previous users and programs, which oftentimes contain sensitive information.

But most organiztions and their IT departments are not experts in effectively scrubbing laptops. A recent case of laptop theft in Arizona involving Intermountain Healthcare underscored the issue, as Intermountain had attempted to scrub some laptops before donating them to charity. Unfortunately, Intermountain’s scrubbing technique was not effective enough, as information on Intermountain employees was left behind on at least one hard drive.

The proper way to scrub hard drives is to use software that writes zeros to a target hard drive over several sweeps, eliminating the possibility of residual data. There are several programs that can accomplish this; a free tool called DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke) is available for free download.

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