MY REPLY TO A HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL ARTICLE - On the topic of ethics

The article: How Ethical Can We Be?

Looking at the conclusion which the articles questions are based on, I would continue on to make this specific point. Bounded ethicality can be addressed in ethics education by teaching a type of ethics management. This is similar to the notion of politics in an organization, which some propose should be accepted for the fact that is has become more common over the years, while at the same time business schools teach that politics is bad for an organization.

Something to recognize in the case of bounded ethicality, and responses to reduce its effect toward eliminating it, is that the approaches will find resistance from other organizational approaches, which put ethics low on the list of priorities. These are the those organizational styles which primarily value results above all else, where the concept of entrepreneurialism, for instance,  is promoted to the detriment of structure and the procedures that come with, including procedures intended to foster good ethics.
 

I think the ethics training currently provided is helping people see how they act in ways that are inconsistent with their more reasoned ethical preferences, as Jim Heskett, the articles author, puts it. But still the problem remains, begging the article’s question, ‘How do we address this problem?’. I suggest that hiring more ethical people into leadership positions higher and higher up in an organization is an effective answer. This helps address the conflict of organizational styles which has a waterfall effect down through an organization, disseminating the idea of good ethics and countering any ill-effects from silos, the lack of transparency, and matrix-management, for example. 
 

Although the business world is different enough than a society that it needs to be looked at differently, societies have historically gone the approach of ethical leadership. The promises to promote the rights of people or the credos about bringing about change have been common among those wanting the societal leadership position. And as in the business world, improving ethics in a society presents its own difficulties, but the ethical leadership approach has been very popular.
 

Having worked in the operations end of multinational businesses myself, I appreciate the complexity of the business environment and the difficulties in implementing the ideas spoken of here. When people, information, products, and resources of various types must come together in a way that meets very stringent criteria, any solutions sought will present many considerations and challenges. It is no surprise the manufacturing sector has gained the reputation of being the most complex system of work.
 

The problem of bounded ethicality is only beyond us if we acknowledge it to be, and we can only be as ethical as the boundaries forced on us permit. I think it is dangerous to entertain thoughts of ethical and moral behavior being beyond us. Without these, we step into a boundlessness world which in essence moves toward a no-rules environment. And once that is accepted and considered acceptable as a rule, we have to start asking very basic questions, like is the information in this article real at all? A bit absurd to ask, of course, but it makes the point that nothing will be worthy of being trusted, and why would it if there are no ethics?
 

I will not go so far as to talk about what a solution to bounded ethicality would look like, my consulting days are over, I do however offer thoughts on business related and other topics in the books I write.

My books; A Business Diary and The Swindle, look at issues pertaining to the business world, some the same as the ideas presented in this article. My novel Legend Station relates to societal ethics in terms of people’s vices.

Frank Riganelli, Author

Former Fortune management, consultant and trainer.