Archives
Book Review
Three Dimensional Ethics: Implementing Workplace Values
Attracta Lagan & Brian Moran
ISBN: 978-0-975742-23-5 2006 viii+176 pages eContent Management Pty Ltd, Maleny QLD
Peter McGhee
Senior Lecturer in Business Ethics, Business Interdisciplinary Studies, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
Recent occurrences of unethical practices in many organisations have fuelled interest in the topic of business ethics. Amongst the general public there is an increasing concern that business may only give lip service to ethical considerations. Even among business people themselves there is a conviction that ethical standards have declined1. At the same time there is increasing evidence that good ethics equals good business. These benefits include improved job satisfaction, higher degree of organisational commitment and the reduction of employee turnover2. Furthermore, research has documented positive links between corporate social responsibility and financial performance3. Prompted by moral concerns and the realisation that being ethical pays dividends many leaders in business are focusing on techniques that enable them to inculcate sound ethical practices into their corporate context4 while employees and consumers increasingly seek to engage with ethical organisations.
Three Dimensional Ethics: Implementing Workplace Values endeavours to meet this growing need. The authors contend that in today's complex world a 'well-tuned sense of the ethical has become a 'must-have' for those in business wishing to create and belong to sustainable enterprises, as well as for the average person in the street who is concerned about whom they work for, whom they buy from and whom they invest in' (p1). Acknowledging that many people have a limited understanding of the business/ethics interface, Lagan and Moran describe their book as a primer to a more thorough understanding. They wish to provide a broad, sweeping introduction to ethics and its application in business for the layperson - either in their capacity as a manager, employee or consumer.
While perhaps lacking the depth of other similar works5, this book takes the distinctive view that business ethics is a three-dimensional interconnected whole consisting of the individual, the organisational and the social. Such an approach allows Lagan and Moran to move beyond narrow concepts of business ethics that focus on individual morality to include the impact of each of these facets on the others. They attempt to demonstrate how these three dimensions 'can be aligned to nurture a coherent and healthy personal identity while working co-operatively to build a better future for all' (p6). Lagan and Moran also submit the thesis that we are seeing the emergence of a new ethical framework based around virtue and care in business as opposed to the existing one which prioritises duty and rights. This wish to convince the reader that ethics is not just about 'doing the right thing' but is in fact a multifaceted dimension of personal and corporate life that results in internal as well as external goods.
The general flow of the book is closely linked to this 3D model. The opening chapter provides an overview of each of these three dimensions. It begins with a concise, although simplistic, examination of the nature of ethics and morality and various moral frameworks. This is followed by answers to the question 'who decides what is ethical; is it the individual, organisation or society? The chapter concludes by stating that business leaders must manage in all three distinct areas. Chapter two develops the societal aspect further. It presents a good overview of changing community values and their impact on business. Lagan and Moran contend that business and ethics can no longer be oxymoronic; ethical management, they state, 'will inevitably become and essential part of doing business in an increasingly cynical world' (p32). The usual companies are given as exemplars of good corporate behaviour (eg Johnson & Johnson, 3M and Levi Strauss) while emphasing the notion of private vice and public virtue as no longer being tenable. A brief, and perhaps limited, discussion of corporate social responsibility (CSR) is also provided.
Chapter three 'looks at the dynamic forces that shape organisational context and the behaviours that evolve within it, as well as its external context and interrelationships with shareholders' (p50). With this overview in mind, Lagan and Moran consider the impact of board and management expertise, organisational culture, the personal values and expectations of organisational members and the requirements of wider stakeholders. Two items in particular stand out. First, a heuristic device called the Ethics Decision Tree maps how decisions from various functions in the organisation are fed up to the board and how decisions from the top impact on the lower levels of organisation. It makes evident the embeddedness of ethics in every aspect of day-to-day management because 'it is visible and ingrained in the management language and process' (p54). Second, is the discourse regarding the various means by which the workplace context can determine behaviour. This is a valuable recognition that organisational contexts themselves can and do corrupt. These ideas are expanded in Chapter four which accentuates the personal, organizational and social accountability of ethical decisions made within the organisational context.
How do people in organisations think? What motivates them to behave morally or immorally? How ethically fit are we? These are some of the questions the beginning of chapter five attempts to answers. After this initial, somewhat repetitive, deliberation the chapter centres on the methods companies can employ to institutionalise ethics into their cultures. This material is eminently useful. From designing ethical training programmes, the benefits of such programmes, overcoming obstacles to ethical initiatives, conducting an ethics audit to ethical decision-making models this chapter gives a succinct and helpful introduction to what the authors call 'the mindfield of personal ethics' (p79). Chapter six picks up where five finished. It reviews various ethical frameworks (eg corporate protocols, codes of conduct and ethics, statement of duties to stakeholders and so on) and encourages their development based around the core values that underpin the organisation's cultural model and the relationships it spawns. As before, the emphasis is on practicality with a substantial amount of space allotted to constructing and maintaining a good code of ethics. A welcome sight is the section on stakeholder theory with its guidelines on the stakeholder commitment process and the closing discussion underlining the need for substance over form vis-à-vis ethics in organisations.
The final two chapters are bit out of the norm. Chapter seven is an argument for the 'rise of the meaning economy' (p121). This is the zenith of Lagan and Moran's book. They argue that Machiavellian type behaviour (as exemplified by the Enron story) no longer meets the needs of business in the 21st century. The authors instead advocate an ethic based on virtuous character development with an accent on connectivity and communitarianism. Such an approach adds to the traditional principle-based ethic and its related applications considered in previous chapters. Three Dimensional Ethics concludes with a chapter exploring the ethics of doing business in China, a country which has a significant impact on the way business is conducted both now and in the future and where, theoretically at least, virtue plays a prominent role in most business transactions.
There are few people today who would say that business and ethics are incompatible forces. Despite this shift, the number of business collapses seems to suggest that there is still a gap between the values espoused by business leaders and the resources used to ensure that ethics is embedded in day-to-day decision-making. Three Dimensional Ethics: Implementing Workplace Values is a valuable tool in closing this gap. It is aimed primarily at business practioners and is styled as a primer for realising ethics in the workplace. Its functionality is augmented by a number of contemporary topical case studies and examples of best and worst business practice. Each chapter concludes with relevant exercises designed to enable readers to put their ideas into practice and to reflect on their own ethical role in business.
Three Dimensional Ethics: Implementing Workplace Values achieves the purpose for which it was written - to provide a layperson's introduction to business ethics (p3). Its value is in recognising the interdependence between individuals, business and society and in providing a framework for readers to reflect, recognise both personal and organisational values and seek to synergise these while listening to the needs of others. Despite these strengths, the work is not without its weaknesses. It tends to be repetitive in places and often lacks good signposting and logical flow. Several statements appear contradictory and material is often descriptive with little evidence provided of its validity. Perhaps, for this reviewer at least, the most glaring omission is any discussion of how the modern economic system, in which business operates, encourages the unethical behaviour the authors so obviously spurn. While being unethical in business is clearly pernicious, Lagan and Moran never go the next step and ask whether the system itself is problematic. In fact, they argue that ethics needs to be instrumental (ie contributing to the bottom line) - otherwise managers will not be interested. Such an approach denatures ethics and makes being good about material gain. It's counterintuitive to the model of virtue and care ethics that they wish to promote in 21st century business. Admittedly, such an exchange is probably beyond the purview of this book; however, like many such works its primary focus is on visible symptoms not underlying causes.
Endnotes
1Vitell, SJ, Dickerson, EB and Festervand, TA (2000) Ethical problems, conflicts and beliefs of small business professionals, Journal of Business Ethics 28: 15-24.
2See for example: Viswesvaran, C and Deshpande, SP (1996) Ethics, success, and job satisfaction: A test of dissonance theory in India, Journal of Business Ethics 15: 1065-1069; Fritz, JMH, Arnett, RC and Conkel, M (1999) Organizational ethical standards and organizational commitment, Journal of Business Ethics 20: 289-299; and Sims, RL and Kroeck, KG (1994) The influence of ethical fit on employee satisfaction, commitment and turnover, Journal of Business Ethics 13: 939-947.
3See for example: Stanwick, PA and Stanwick, SD (1998) The relationship between corporate social performance and organisational size, financial performance and environmental performance: An empirical examination, Journal of Business Ethics 17(2): 195-204.
4See for example: Jose, A and Thibodeaux, MS (1999) Institutionalization of ethics: The perspective of managers, Journal of Business Ethics 22: 133-143; McDonald, G (2000) Business ethics: Practical proposals for organisations, Journal of Business Ethics 25: 169-184; Mellor, R, Hettihewa, S and Batten, JA (2006) The relationship between firm management and the ethical practices of the firm: Australian Evidence, The Journal of Corporate Citizenship Summer: 27-39; and Pajo, K and McGhee, P (2003) The institutionalisation of business ethics: Are organisations doing enough? Journal of Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 9(1): 52-65.
5See for example, Costa, JD (1998) The ethical imperative: Why moral leadership is good business Reading MA: Addison-Wesley; Trevino, LK and Nelson, KA (2004) Managing Business Ethics, 3rd edn. Hoboken NJ: John Wiley & Sons; and Johnston, CE (2006) Ethics in the Workplace: Tools and Tactics for Organizational Transformation Thousand Oaks CA: Sage Publications.
eContent Home
