Ethics & Corporate Culture

Our Ethics and Corporate Culture training seeks to help participants recognize the natural alignment between ethical action and a high performing Corporate Culture.

Acting ethically in a given situation requires that a person freely choose to practice the priorities that will help him or her achieve his/her true potential. In the context of today's organization, this translates into employees practicing those priorities which help the organization to attain its mission. While this seems overly-simple, in practice it requires sharp wit and disciplined will; employees must demonstrate both competence in their respective positions and character in the fulfillment of their responsibilities.

Corporate Culture, in its simplest form, is "the way people think and act in an organization." An ethical Corporate Culture is one in which people think and act ethically. Put another way, an ethical Corporate Culture is one in which employees demonstrate competence and character in their every action. So driving an ethical culture isn't about the best signs on the wall, or the most impressive list of corporate values; it's about helping employees to align their actions with the mission of the organization. Our comprehensive approach involves:

Culture Assessments - to help leaders understand what the Culture currently is.
Mission/Vision Mapping - to help leaders clarify where they want to go and how they want to get there.
Priority Alignments - to help employees to recognize, learn, practice and keep their priorities straight.
Ethics Education - to foster the confidence and the drive in employees to "do the right thing."

Ends & Purposes

Ethics finds its proper orientation through the priority of ends over purposes. Scholar Francis Slade, a professor emeritus of philosophy at Saint Francis College in Brooklyn, points out that the modern world makes little distinction between "ends" and "purposes," and calls to account modern philosophers who allow this confusion to persist.

Strictly speaking, "ends" mean the fulfillment or complete development of an act, institution or person. Our ends define the target at which we are shooting for all of our action. Without an end, then, there is really no ground for purpose!