Apple vs Samsung - Ethics

In the last two postings, Samsung has regretfully been a topic about poor Customer Service. The court decision in California upheld Apple's case about copying, indicating additional possible company culture issues? All of this is not a good use of company money by fighting in court (which directly affects profitability and brand image),....but it seems to be part of our litigious nature. What ever happened to the hand shake and person's word being their bond?

Sadly, not for many years now.

Ethics seems to stem from parental values, country values, educational reinforcement or lack there of, core values espoused by the company and reiterated/communicated in employee handbooks and demonstrated over many years, Leadership, and Senior Management values.

Do you agree?

Improper vetting of Data on a Resume leads to Resignations at Yahoo!

As mentioned in a couple of earlier blog posts, making sure that the references check out and information on Resumes/c.v.'s is accurate before hiring someone, is critical and essential. This impacts the corporation on multiple levels:

1) Making sure that there is good "Job Fit" by contacting people who have worked with the individual before and how they have performed, and in "assessing" behavioral traits that fit with the position's benchmark, based on top performers.

2) Ensuring that the Ethics and Moral values of the person are consistent with the company's values, as this person's interaction with all levels of the company's personnel will have some effect, regardless of position within the company, from sanitary engineer on up.

3) Finding a replacement can take time and interrupts strategies or activities being handled by the individual in question and can set back the initiatives, by months to even years.

4) It affects the morale of of the company and personnel. The higher the position of the person or people in question, the broader the impact and negative affect on the company. In this most recent case at Yahoo!, which has been struggling to compete against Google, it casts ongoing credibility issues for the company, both internally and with shareholders. Morale and Credibility Issues follow Yahoo!

And:
5) In this case, it has affected not only the career of the individual who embellished his credentials, but also, regrettably another Board member.

Have all the shoes fallen yet? Only time will tell! There should be policy changes put into place to prevent a occurrence, that is clear.

Scott Thompson CEO of Yahoo! Resigns

Patti Hart of Yahoo! Resigns Over CEO's botched Academic Records

ETHICS, Drugs and Morality: How they affect Communication, Productivity and Everyday Life- Part IV

The recent study about Ethics (Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior-from the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States) was mentioned in yesterday's posting, but it merits greater attention, as it is as recent as January 2012. Also, many times, higher social class people tend to be in higher positions, for a variety of reasons, some warranted and some not. This study was mentioned in a recent Canadian TV newscast also.

The importance of this study is of interest because it states that the higher the social class, the greater the increase in unethical behavior. So, this supports why both pre-hire assessments should be used to help screen and identify these behaviors before hiring certain individuals, or at the vary least, the need to validate the results. Establishing benchmarks can be easily done around these issues. For non-profits these behaviors may be even more critical.

Even if these people are hired, then the company should use this information as Training Needs Analysis and possibly implement more frequent reinforcement in the beginning years of employment for these individuals. Or during the onboarding process, highlighting sections in the employee manuals, and if ethics is part of core values, then highlighting this also.

The significance of the study is important as it may also be a partial explanation as to why recently there have been so many abuses of fraud, stealing and and deception in high profile news stories. Only through Board oversight can the C-Suite and senior level employees be supervised. The rest of the organization should be supervised by watch-dog employees and HR scrutiny.

Below is the abstract from the above mentioned study. The link is in the first sentence above.

Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior

1      Paul K. Piffa,1,

2      Daniel M. Stancatoa,

3      Stéphane Côtéb,

4      Rodolfo Mendoza-Dentona, and

5      Dacher Keltnera

+ Author Affiliations

1      aDepartment of Psychology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720; and

2      bRotman School of Management, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada M5S 3E6

3      Edited* by Richard E. Nisbett, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, and approved January 26, 2012 (received for review November 8, 2011)

Abstract

Seven studies using experimental and naturalistic methods reveal that upper-class individuals behave more unethically than lower-class individuals. In studies 1 and 2, upper-class individuals were more likely to break the law while driving, relative to lower-class individuals. In follow-up laboratory studies, upper-class individuals were more likely to exhibit unethical decision-making tendencies (study 3), take valued goods from others (study 4), lie in a negotiation (study 5), cheat to increase their chances of winning a prize (study 6), and endorse unethical behavior at work (study 7) than were lower-class individuals. Mediator and moderator data demonstrated that upper-class individuals’ unethical tendencies are accounted for, in part, by their more favorable attitudes toward greed.

ETHICS, Drugs and Morality: How they affect Communication, Productivity and Everyday Life- Part III

When asked WHY, after conducting pre-hire assessments of candidates, and drug screening prior to hire,  the client still has issues with employees who have been long term employees in the areas of ethics, drugs and morality...

The reason is relatively simple…

These are issues that need to be re-enforced over the years regardless of how we have been raised, taught and/or shown. Our personal situations change over time, and there are temptations and challenges that we are confronted with that test our resolve in these areas. Personally, I have observed that mid-life crisis years (male and female) increase the pressures on individuals and a number of people have changed or relinquished their values to regain where they had envisioned themselves to be at this stage in their career or life. Many times, this is because they possibly have felt that they have not attained the success they had expected to achieve at this stage of their life, or financial challenges have arisen at a stressful period of time, and many other reasons.

This is why it is essential that companies have reinforcement programs to remind existing employees of policies and standards that need to be followed. In a fortune 100 where I worked, after a several hour session of re-enforcement each year, we had to sign anti-trust and ethics standards each year.

These kinds of programs need to be implemented yearly as they can then communicate changes in existing  programs, or address questions that employees might have encountered through the course of the year.

In January of this year, at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, a paper was included with the title of:  Higher social class predicts increased unethical behavior . Maybe this is ONE reason why so many recent instances of CEO and Senior Executives violating laws or absconding with money, in one way or another.

Ethics in particular is a major problem. Obviously, the well publicized cases in the past of Bendix’s

Agee, Enron, and what you can find in this article: The Corporate Scandal Sheet

And a recent Wall Street Journal article: Behind a CEO's Departure: An Ouster or Resignation?

Best Buy: Best Buy Probes CEO Relationship

MF Global : Fast, Furious at MF Global

Allan Stanford: Prosecutor Sums Up: Stanford Lied for Decades

AIJ Investment Advisors (Japan): Japan launches probe of all advisory firms in wake of AIJ case

Russell Wasendorf of Peregrine said in a statement that he forged documents and lied to regulators.

Hong Kong Billionaires Charged With Bribery

If you are not addressing these regularly, then do not be surprised when employees "fall off the wagon"….so to speak. These examples above, are the high profile ones, imagine the lower level employees and the numbers that exist there. The retail industry is well aware of the theft and losses involved. Does your Employee Manual address these issues? Are they not part of your core values? Is this not a key element to building human asset value and sustainability? So if you are not doing assessments during pre-hire, don't you think you should? Once people are on-board, re-enforcement programs are required. 

So the question is: What are you and your company doing to address these issues on a regular basis?

Ethics, Drugs and Morality: How they affect Communication, Productivity and everyday life Part I.

This is a broad but critical and essential topic(s) for the C-Suite, Board of Directors, and HR Heads. Why? Because, these impact almost every corporation at some point in time and on multiple levels. This costs trillions, not just billions of dollars/local currency on a global basis. The retail sector probably recognizes and deals with these issues the most often, however we are all confronted with them, and it is on a large scale.

In my many years in business, there has been some discussion about this topic but normally in general terms, and not with the URGENCY it deserves. It has been dealt with in a spotty manner at best, and non-existent during many others. This is not to say that the “sky is falling” but we need to address this and hear the drum beat.

You don’t hear the drums and cadence? Well let’s just mention a few instances: Bernie Maddoff and multiple ponzi schemes recently in the news running into the billions of dollars, WaMu, the Catholic Church’s issues with sexual abuse, Enron, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Solyndra,…the list is endless, unfortunately.

A recent replay of an interview with David Millar, a professional cyclist who was found to be doping and now openly admits it, brought this topic into sharp focus at this time and provides an excellent reference point. This interview provides the essence of what we are confronted with, not only in professional and amateur sports, but in our day-to-day business and management lives as leaders. To ignore it, or down play it, is at our company’s risk.

Recently, a couple of companies have asked in our discussions, why, after conducting assessment screening around these topics during the pre-hire, they have still found a few people stealing? The answer to the question is because at different points in our lives, we are challenged by circumstances that may dislodge us from our values, depending on how deeply they are ingrained within us and this is so frankly discussed by David Millar.

It is David Millar’s interview which so clearly addresses this issue. He had rejected doping for 7 years of his career and had no intention to ever dope. However, when he fell on a tough period, when he was no longer performing at the level of before, he decided he would and he did Dope!

He says that he didn’t do it so much for the money, but for his ego and to regain his reputation in the sport (the irony was lost on him at the time: that by doping and getting caught it had an even a greater negative effect on his reputation, than if he had just retired from the sport when he was no longer competing at the level of before).

Each of us is confronted with similar issues at various times in our lives and career. However, it is our ethics, view of drugs (and this takes many forms) and morality, and the depth we are inculcated with these values that provides the guidance for us to avoid these issues….. or, we surrender to the issue at hand.

A way to help provide the foundation for a company and it’s employees, is through reinforcement with written policies that need to be signed by each employee each year, regular training, and corporate communication around these values on an ongoing basis.

Some statistics that may be eye opening (from SHRM and other sources):

31 % admit to abusing drugs or alcohol

41 % say they falsified records

56 % of working people admit they lied to their supervisors

64 % use the Internet for personal use while at work

80% of computer crime is committed by company insiders

A majority of applicants stretch the truth on resumes!

  More than half, 55%, lied about the length of past employment.

  Past salaries, 52%

Criminal records, 45%

  Former job titles, 44%

Former employers, 34%

 Driving records, 33%

Degrees, 28%

Schools attended, 22%.

 Some 15% percent even falsify their social security numbers!

So, if you are not convinced by these statistics, then look around you at work. How many people do not show up to work on time? How many feel that if they work 7-8 hours a day, that is all that they need to do because that is what they are getting paid for? How many really understand where their salaries, commissions and bonuses come from? How many have a basic understanding of profit and loss?  Just because it is clear to you, is it really clear to others?

It is every employee’s responsibility to help articulate and support these issues. Only through vigilance can the theft of time, property, and erosion of values be prevented!

The challenges are for the C-Suite and Human Resources:

1)      Are pre-hire techniques being used to help avoid bringing in future employees with the wrong values?

2)      Once onboard, how much corporate communication and time is spent around core values, and especially these particular issues? Are policies in place in Employee Manuals?

3)      Are they reinforced and training provided, regularly? Are the investments being made? This affects all shareholders in one form or another.

Values come from the top down, but can be supported by all employees! These can clearly be shown to impact sustainability, survivability and profitability, as well as personal success, individual health and life issues and values.


Link to the interview:

David Millar, Cyclist, Drugs, BBC Interview

Analyze, Decide, Lead says Columbia's Business Dean

It is interesting that even Columbia's Business School is talking about "...weaving topics such as decision-making and ethics into classes across all disciplines." Assessments can help along these lines, and in pre-hire, ethics can be assessed, and of course a good background check will help validate the results.

Both good decision-making and ethics can help drive engagement  in an organization. The reverse can have detrimental effects on an organization's engagement from entry level, to Front-Line managers and to all management levels in an organization. This effects motivation, morale, and indirectly profitability and retention.It is the responsibility of HR and Senior Management to ensure that people with good ethics and with good common sense/decision-making abilities, are brought into the organization, as this helps to increase the asset value of the company, short and especially long term.

The question is, is your organization and HR focused on these issues, from Pre-Hire, On-Boarding, Training and Promotion? Don't you think that they should be? Shouldn't they be part of your Core Values? The decisions made today lead to the sustainability over time.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303365804576429974256934518.html