Paul PelletierProject management key note speaker, author, corporate lawyer, and executive| Paul Pelletier Consulting Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
We've seen so many recent examples of organizations violating ethical (and often legal) standards. It has led me to a fundamental question - Can one run a successful business by being ethical? Saving Changes...
AKSHAY JAINPlanning Group Leader| YOKOGAWA, BahrainGwalior, Mp, India
You can run business only by being profitable, if your clients are ready to pay enough money for your offering which gives you revenue and profit over a break even point, you can run successful business. If we define ethics as normal conduct under a given environment than being ethical gives you long term sustainability since customer trust you more so they often comes to you. But as I said ethics again depend on profitability if customer consider high delivery standards as ethics and price he is paying low then to maintain ethics your business cost can eliminate your profits. So for customer satisfaction ethics is must but customer must pay fair cost of this. Many organization violet ethics and even take risk to violet law since basic element of business is profitability because if business don't survive automatically ethics don't survive. Saving Changes...
If you've seen someone violating legal standard, you should report to the competent legal authority. I don't know how it works in Canada, but here in USA you can do anonymously.
Regarding, ethical, are you talking about PMI Ethics? Because there is not doubt that you should do it also. Saving Changes...
Interesting question, what is ethic? is it the same everywhere?
The impression I have is ethic is not the same around the planet. Not all country have place you can report, anonymously or not.
For a simple example in some country seem you can give something ($) to get a contract and put it in your expenses! Not something that can be done here.
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2 replies by Anupam and Mayte Mata Sivera
Sep 26, 2016 8:48 PM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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But Paul is from Canada...as far as I know a bribe is not accepted there. Maybe he will explain us a little more his concerns.
Interesting question, what is ethic? is it the same everywhere?
The impression I have is ethic is not the same around the planet. Not all country have place you can report, anonymously or not.
For a simple example in some country seem you can give something ($) to get a contract and put it in your expenses! Not something that can be done here.
But Paul is from Canada...as far as I know a bribe is not accepted there. Maybe he will explain us a little more his concerns. Saving Changes...
Paul PelletierProject management key note speaker, author, corporate lawyer, and executive| Paul Pelletier Consulting Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Thanks for all your comments! I confirm that bribes are illegal in Canada (and many other countries). My point is that many of our workplaces and countries have laws in place that prohibit such unethical behaviors but it continues nonetheless. Whether it's Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, SNC Lavalin or others, some of the world's largest businesses seem to operate on "profits first and ethics afterwards" basis. I believe that is wrong but wonder what others think.
I'm also very pleased to see that Maria referenced our own Ethics Code and that if a PMP witnessed another PMP breaching our Code that you must report it. Well done!
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1 reply by Mayte Mata Sivera
Sep 27, 2016 11:43 AM
Mayte Mata Sivera
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I'm not aware about SNC Lavalin. West Fargo is banking, I've never been worked in banking, but regarding VW.
- Volkswagen. Do you think that the developer was aware about what his program will be used for? And the project manager?
Then, if they were aware...should they keep their jobs or report to the authorities?
From my point of view, reporting yes, quite the jobs that's another point.
Saving Changes...
Arun ThomasSr. Engineering Manager| Ascendion Engineering Pvt LtdTrivandrum, Kerala, India
Unethical behavior is rewarding in the short run and is thus very alluring.
Part of the reluctance towards ethics is that companies assume ethics is unrelated to profits.
Two decades back companies in India had a 6 day working week.And then some software companies came in with a 5 day week.At that time this was revolutionary and seemed counter intuitive to production.A decade later 5 day week became the norm and the traditional companies fell like a pack of cards forced to adjust to new values.
In electronics there is the concept of dominant bit where in a circuit if out of 8 bits,7 are 1s and 1 is a 0 bit, then overall voltage is pulled down to 0 due to the 0 bit.
In the corporate world ethics is a kind of dominant bit.It doesn't matter if the majority of companies are following convenient but unethical practices, it just takes one company which acts ethically to pull down all the others.
That's what happened when Apple decided to place quality and user friendliness to its products.It trounced other market players whose first priority were not customers.
The profitability of Apple was a side effect of its customer focus. Saving Changes...
Interesting question, what is ethic? is it the same everywhere?
The impression I have is ethic is not the same around the planet. Not all country have place you can report, anonymously or not.
For a simple example in some country seem you can give something ($) to get a contract and put it in your expenses! Not something that can be done here.
I agree. If not by $ then by use of threat. Saving Changes...
Thanks for all your comments! I confirm that bribes are illegal in Canada (and many other countries). My point is that many of our workplaces and countries have laws in place that prohibit such unethical behaviors but it continues nonetheless. Whether it's Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, SNC Lavalin or others, some of the world's largest businesses seem to operate on "profits first and ethics afterwards" basis. I believe that is wrong but wonder what others think.
I'm also very pleased to see that Maria referenced our own Ethics Code and that if a PMP witnessed another PMP breaching our Code that you must report it. Well done!
I'm not aware about SNC Lavalin. West Fargo is banking, I've never been worked in banking, but regarding VW.
- Volkswagen. Do you think that the developer was aware about what his program will be used for? And the project manager?
Then, if they were aware...should they keep their jobs or report to the authorities?
From my point of view, reporting yes, quite the jobs that's another point. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Most companies operate on one bottom-line: profit. A few also operate on a second bottom-line: sustainability (Kickstarter comes to mind). As long as ethics are not part of the bottom line, you will see it go by the wayside when it conflicts with the bottom lines. Saving Changes...
Vibhav PantManager- ICT Projects| Department for Child Protection, SA GovAdelaide, South Australia, Australia
Ethics should be the base to run an organisation. Based on real world scenario, where there's a lot of competition around you, it is your core value that outlines you from the others. Having unethical practices directly affects the team work, respect, integrity and transparency of the organisation, which ultimately degrades the work environment.
Once the culture is deteriorated, the organisation is bound to collapse one day or the other. I hope my thoughts are quite helpful. Saving Changes...
