Why It's Imperative to Have a Culture Based on Ethics

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Why It's Imperative to Have a Culture Based on Ethics

 

Adam Smith, in his Theory of Moral Sentiments, saw no contradiction between
maximizing benefits and ethics. With time and deepening knowledge about business management, modern thinkers found it difficult to reconcile the world of ethics and money benefits, whether at the company level or at the personal level, without institutionalized premises to help this reconciliation.

 

In response to this concern, elements such as cultural values, corporate reputation and corporate social responsibility [CSR], have emerged. And what does that have to do with employee engagement?
Today, with new generations’ expectations on the way to do business, an ethical
culture and CSR policies gain more weight among the criteria of employer selection for young people.


Studies by the consultancy BCG indicates that new generations prefer to earn less, but not work for companies that are known to be greedy or "bad employers".

 

According to the report “happyshifting” of El Mundo, one of the biggest  newspapers in Spain, one of the common behaviors and characteristics of new employees is the tendency to look for "incoherence and inconsistencies”. If the company falls into these practices, it will lose talent very quickly.

 

According to the article, among the 10 reasons new employees consider leaving a company are because their values ​​are less and less related to the corporate culture of the company where they work, and the inconsistencies that they notice in their company are destroying their attitude towards work. Another reason is that they become suspicions about the ethics of the company.

Companies recognized as Great Place to Work-Certified contribute significant efforts to create more opportunities for happiness at work, considering good treatment of their employees, positive working environments, and 
fair working conditions.


People that work on developing culture and engagement between people and their organizations, try to avoid the following question: What happens when we stumble upon bad practices and behaviors in our day to day work that contradict our organizational values?


Perhaps the answer is in a quote from Adela Cortina who says, "Ethics is like
oxygen, you only remember it when it is missing. When we see that there are no
ethics in our work environment, it feels like it’s harder to breathe."

 

Read part one of this blog post here: To Be An Authentic Leader, How Do Ethics Come Into Play?

 


 

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DeliveringHappiness

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