November 2007
You are currently browsing the articles from written in the month of November 2007.
Very simple: Be a source of integrity. Don’t be phony, people will know and not come to visit your site again. Even worse, they will post a bad review somewhere on the web and others will not even come to see for themselves. If you don’t know about something, don’t pretend that you do. Respect your customers, or prospective customers, and offer them something of value. Give good information that will draw your customers’ attention and this will help to build trust. It also gives them a reason to stay or come back again for more. Follow-up with your customers, but don’t be a pest. Basically, don’t spam, don’t steal, and don’t lie.
Just as in an offline business, there are ethics and standards that should be followed. If you are starting an online business, you’ve probably spent some time online already and can see that there are hundreds of thousands of businesses trying to sell their products and information and services to you. Study how they do it. Spend some time visiting the websites of your competitors, much like you would when preparing a business plan for an offline business. Look for and evaluate the following characteristics to determine the integrity of the business as a whole:
What are they selling? When you first come to their index page, can you quickly and easily figure out what they are selling? Is it a real product, an information product, a membership or a service? Do they offer something of real value right off the bat for free such as informative content or a related ebook? If you cannot determine within the first 30 seconds what they are selling or why they are in business, chances are that they are just a hodgepodge of links put together to make the owner affiliate revenue. However, if you do see something of value, stay a bit longer and evaluate further.
Can you contact them directly? Look on the main page. Contact information could be in the top nav bar, on the side nav bar or at the bottom of the page. Also, look for a direct link such as Contact Us. Click this link and see where it takes you. Do they provide a physical address, a contact name or email, and a phone number? These three things are a must for a legitimate business. If an owner is not confident in his business enough to put an address and contact phone number on his site, he must be hiding something. The final test is to send an email to the company and see who responds and how long it takes to get a response. Most one-person web businesses should be able to answer your email within 1-2 business days.
Is the content valuable and correct? One of my biggest pet peeves is spelling and grammar. If the owner has done his research and knows what he is talking about, this should show in the quality of the information on his site. A professional image depends on attention to details. Presentation is everything. If you are going to put out information, it has to be presented in an organized fashion with no mistakes. When I see more than one misspelled word or grammar mistake on a website or page, I move on. If the owner has not proofread his own material or verified the information on his site is correct and presented professionally, I won’t be trusting that his products are much higher in quality.
Is there a free trial or guarantee on the products and services being offered? Those businesses that have developed a quality product or service and are confident in it will not hesitate to put a guarantee on it. They will stand behind it 100%. Even better are those companies that let you try the product or service for free. This way you can test it out to see if it is indeed what you need and meets the quality standards of a legitimate business.
How do they advertise? Look at the other links on the website. Visit some of them to see the quality of partners associated with the first business. Do the links take you somewhere valuable and helpful? Is the business partnered with other legitimate businesses? Also, how did you find out about the website in the first place and what in their ad drew you in? Did the ad lie to you? Make sure that when you advertise that you don’t misrepresent what you are offering. In addition, don’t be a spammer. Make sure to develop a double opt-in email list that you can use to send valuable follow up information to your customers. This will help to build loyalty as well as word of mouth referrals. Visit forums and pay-per-click sites to see the companies who are advertising the same products and services that you are to find out what promotion methods they are using. Use them as a starting point and try to set your standards of quality and honesty a step above when developing your ads.
The bottom line is, there is good karma and bad. Even though we all know those people in life whose bad karma hasn’t caught up with them yet, don’t join the crowd. Be a leader, be a source of integrity, and provide a quality product or service that you can stand behind. In the long run, this will help you build a profitable, long-standing business rather than a fly-by-night get rich quick scheme.
Ruth Harris is a real entrepreneur who has helped many others promote their business online. Visit http://dontlosemoney.blogspot.com to learn more about setting up your online business.
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 24th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Bad bosses, poor supervisors, inept managers create negative impact on the bottom line including less production, higher turnover and increased operating costs. These individuals all share one common trait poor business ethics and values.
An organization is a group of people working together to achieve shared goals. Everyone should have the same high personal ethics and personal values respective to each other, the customers, the vendors and even the community. However, when supervisory or higher employees continually demonstrate negative values and ethics, the organizations performance suffers from the bottom up.
Unfortunately, many of these same organizations believe the answer for these employee related issues is improved training for their employees and waste thousands of dollars focusing on the symptom instead of the problem. These organizations are living Einsteins definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again hoping for different results) on a daily basis
Florida State University just released a study (January 2007) of more than 700 people within a variety of industries and at different employment levels revealed some interesting facts:
Almost two out of five bosses (39%) fail to keep their word
One in four supervisors (27%) insulted those they supervised to fellow co-workers
One in five (23%) blamed others for their mistakes
Almost one in three (31%) used the silent treatment to show displeasure
All of these behaviors demonstrate that these bosses lacked personal values and personal ethics. This lack of ethical behavior may be attributed to top management because upper management has probably modeled the same behaviors. Finally, there is probably no core values adopted by the organization within the strategic plan. Even if there is a values statement, it is much more for show.
With all the national attention on corporate malfeasance to corruption politicians, we, as Americans, should not be surprised by the results of this study. Poor ethical behavior attracts poor ethical behavior and becomes the justifying reason for continued poor ethical behavior.
To stop this negative drain on productivity and the U.S. workforce in general demands that organizations adopt a values statement of non-negotiable behaviors within the strategic plan to be demonstrated to all external and equally important internal customers. Failure to adhere to these values is a reason for termination and termination will happen.
Ethics and values are part of the performance for all individuals. If management fails to treat everyone with respect, then how can management expect loyal employees?
Leanne Hoagland-Smith, M.S. is a business coach who multiplies results for her clients beginning with the creation of executable strategic plans. With offices near Chicago, IL and in Indianapolis, IN, she writes, speaks and coaches individuals and business to achieve greater results by focusing on those obstacles that prevent improved performance.
One quick question,if you could secure one new client or breakthrough that one roadbloack holding you back from success, what would that mean to you? Then, take a risk and give me, Leanne, a call at 219.759.5601 to experience incredible results.
Visit http://www.processspecialist.com/ and explore everything from free articles to connecting with Leanne.
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 24th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Many workers and consumers distrust CEOs (in part due to recent scandals like at Enron) and believe that they are overpaid. Many look at it as a moral issue saying that you cannot justify paying millions to one person when so many people are working for minimum wage and in poverty.
Sensational headlines add fuel to the fire. In Canada, there was a report published in most of the daily newspapers saying that by 10 am on January 2nd, the 100 top paid CEOs in Canada have already earned more than what the average Canadian makes in an entire year. A few more facts on this story: The average income of the 100 top paid CEOs in Canada is $9 million per year. The income of the average Canadian worker is $38,000 per year. Look at it this way By the end of the fourth day of each year, these CEOs make more than twice what the average person makes in the entire year!
Stories like this are sensational. Sensationalism hurts reputations. Nothing was published about whether these CEOs earn their keep or how anybody would go about measuring their worth. Sure, some of these people are probably overpaid. But some are not. Some of these CEOs, I’m sure, risked everything to start the companies that they now preside over. They risked a lot. They now enjoy the rewards that come with success. Not to mention, many of these CEOs are probably responsible for the creation of many jobs.
In the end, nothing is really told except a headline saying that CEOs make a lot of money - Headlines written in a method to grab peoples attention and sell newspapers. There is more to sensational headlines than meets the eye. The unsuspecting public naturally comes to the conclusion that these CEOs are overpaid and immoral. In most cases, I dont think thats true.
Tino Buntic created his website, TradePals, to provide free sales leads without cold calling to business professionals across The United States and Canada. Visit the site and create a free professional profile to get started.
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 23rd, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Charismatic leaders lead with concern for people and don’t concern over production. They are concerned with the needs of their subordinates and accept inputs from them. They are determined to create a comfortable, friendly organization and believe such environment will lead to efficient work and results.
Examples of such charismatic leaders are Adolph Hitler, Winston Churchill, Bill Clinton, Mother Teresa and Cult leaders. They all lead by reaching out to human emotion and grasping their trust, gaining their respect and loyalty, maybe even encouraging them to do whatever the leaders tell them to. Charismatic leaders are confident that such leadership methods will work.
They keep the vision of the companys future on-par with employee satisfaction towards their jobs. They are dedicated and willing to take on unconventional methods, sacrifice financial safety, raise risks, employee and personal time to reach their goal. They participate in actions that will create or impress subordinates.
For charismatic leadership are not always needed to achieve high work performance from employees. They are mainly required when launching a new product, bringing company through a crisis. As they may bring the company better employee esteem but not improve company profits permanently.
Charismatic Leader is not always desirable. Firstly, such leader might not always be needed to achieve high levels of employee performance. They are most appropriate when the followers. Charismatic leader may not handle the entire production process for production industrial company. It may only handle the major crisis issued.
For more information please click on following link :
http://www.charismatic-leaders.blogspot.com/
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 23rd, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Have you ever been asked to do something unethical by one of your prospects or clients? Have you ever been pressured by a supervisor, manager or owner at your business to do something unethical? Have you ever observed unethical behavior by a prospect or client?
In todays business world, there are daily instances of unethical behavior occurring all around us. What a sad commentary on business and society today. Over the more than 35 years in my own professional career, there have been instances where I have been approached by unethical prospects and clients and was fortunate to have had strong ethical mentors and supervisors, managers & owners that supported my actions to turn away from the unethical requests and to report them to my superiors.
And later in my own business, I have made decisions to forego doing business with unethical prospects clients that meant turning away some very significant assignments. One must always ask what price do I put on my ethics? How can one justify a compromise of their ethics? It is essential to have some good advice on how to reduce the chance of an improper request from a client or prospect and how to respond when actually approached by an unethical prospect or client. Your strategic thinking business coach offers the following advice.
+ Always present and project a professional image that reflects your integrity and your personal and company core values.
+ Respond directly, clearly and confidently by saying NO to unethical prospects and clients.
+ Continuously reinforce company and personal core values to everyone in your organization.
+ Continuously reinforce the code of ethics of your company to all employees.
+ Never compromise your ethical standards in response to an unethical request.
+ Remember, it is impossible to waive your ethics, in spite of what Enron tried to do.
+ Be proactive and report the unethical behavior, prospect and/or client to your supervisor, manager, business owner or other appropriate people.
+ Use the lessons learned from previous experiences of responding to unethical prospects and clients to help reinforce your ethical standards and as a mentoring and training opportunity.
+ Provide positive reinforcement to those who say NO to unethical prospects and clients.
Your strategic thinking business coach encourages you to be stand firm and be firm when it comes time to dealing with unethical requests and unethical prospects and clients.
If you would like to learn more about dealing with unethical prospects and clients and how a strategic thinking business coach can facilitate and guide you in that endeavor, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at http://www.businesscoach4u.com/
or by email at jgecoach@aol.com.
Glenn Ebersole, Jr. is a multi-faceted professional, who is recognized as a visionary, guide and facilitator in the fields of business coaching, marketing, public relations, management, strategic planning and engineering. Glenn is the Founder and Chief Executive of two Lancaster, PA based consulting practices: The Renaissance Group, a creative marketing, public relations, strategic planning and business development consulting firm and J. G. Ebersole Associates, an independent professional engineering, marketing, and management consulting firm. He is a Certified Facilitator and serves as a business coach and a strategic planning facilitator and consultant to a diverse list of clients. Glenn is also the author of a monthly newsletter, Glenns Guiding Lines Thoughts From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach and has published more than 250 articles on business.
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 22nd, 2007 with comments disabled.
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To say that we as human beings have ethical values implies something quite profound. It literally means that we are, in a manner of speaking “hardwired” with such values. If we were not we would not have the ability to ever gauge when something was “right” or “wrong”.
You see, before you can make such an assessment you need to have an “internal measuring stick” by which to make such measurements.
So where does this internal reference or “measuring stick” live inside of us? Well many would say that it is something we learn through our lives say from our families, religion, courses on ethics, involvement with or awareness of the legal system and so on. In other words that the “ethical measuring stick” is just a set of rules we have acquired and is represented by the many beliefs we have about what is considered “good behavior”.
If this were the case then that ethical measuring stick would be quite vulnerable to being altered the next time some new rule was espoused by some “authority”. In other words the whole foundation of what is or is not ethical would be again on very shaky ground. This of course might also bring into question the reason we have ethical values at all as they would have no place from which to originally germinate.
Now if you consider for a moment a situation that you would consider transcends your ethical values notice where within you you make such an assessment. If you notice it closely I think you will ultimately agree that apart from any beliefs you may have about the matter deeper down inside you also have some feelings about it.
For a moment notice these feelings. Notice where you feel them most intensely as you consider the situation that I asked you to focus on. Now do you “think” that these feelings were generated by you or did they just happen to emerge spontaneously without you having to do anything other than hold the situation in mind?
The next time you return to “thinking” about the situation at hand do you think that these feelings will “feel” any different? Likely not because the situation is what it is and you being human will “always” feel the way you do about it and nothing can change that.
So here we’ve come to an awareness of something inside you that appears immutable i.e. your feelings about the situation at hand.
Unlike one’s beliefs these are unchanging and hence hardwired in each human being. Isn’t this what we have been calling the “internal ethical measuring stick”, that which we rely on to guide us to the ethical high ground.
So if we all have this ethical hardwiring then why is it that we have any ethical problems to deal with at all on this planet? Shouldn’t we all automatically be in alignment with them and living the good ethical life? Well if you look around it’s clear that this is not the case so something must be seriously wrong.
What do you know is this problem here? Well when you look at what we rely on to guide us in life it has very little to do with this internal wisdom. Feelings in fact have been maligned for too long and the “mind and what we have chosen to “store” there through learning has attained predominant mastery over our lives. How does that feel to you?
The whole idea of ethics is supposed to be about what is right and what is wrong, but for whom? Well for you! In other words this inner wisdom is the repository of information and guidance about what is right for you. That is what will lead you to a happy, successful, fulfilling life. What are the consequences to you of discarding or even denying this inner wisdom?
Well it means that you will feel lost, alone, confused, vulnerable to being manipulated and exploited, and therefore unhappy and unfulfilled. In other words your life and your success will be stolen from you.
If all that education of yours has left you feeling this way and you would like to find your way back to some clarity then kindly visit the web link below where you can download a free audio from me with a special message that will permanently alter your life.
Dr. Nick Arrizza is trained in Chemical Engineering, Business Management & Leadership, Medicine and Psychiatry. He is an Energy Psychiatrist, Healer, Key Note Speaker,Editor of a New Ezine Called “Spirituality And Science” (which is requesting high quality article submissions) Author of “Esteem for the Self: A Manual for Personal Transformation” (available in ebook format on his web site), Stress Management Coach, Peak Performance Coach & Energy Medicine Researcher, Specializes in Life and Executive Performance Coaching, is the Developer of a powerful new tool called the Mind Resonance Process(TM) that helps build physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well being by helping to permanently release negative beliefs, emotions, perceptions and memories. He holds live workshops, international telephone coaching sessions and international teleconference workshops on Physical. Emotional, Mental and Spiritual Well Being.
Business URL #1: http://www.telecoaching4u.com
Personal URL: http://www.telecoaching4u.com/Spirituality_And_Science.htm
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 22nd, 2007 with comments disabled.
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First, a definition of Ethics: principles of human duty, rules of conduct and the duty of being honorable . Simply put: Being ethical is doing the right thing.
Much is said about Ethics and we all agree we have them. But just what is them? Lets tackle the business ethics first for it is simple and straight forward. The problem comes when you are asked by your supervisor to do something that you are not sure if it is the right thing to do.
There are two parts to the business ethical question:
What to do when you are asked to do something, would your action be ethical?
When you personally have to make decisions: How do you make them ethically?
Following Orders
This part is simple. You must understand your loyalties:
Be loyal to yourself.
Next, be loyal to the company
And finally, be loyal to your supervisor.
Remember the sequence: Yourself, the company and then your supervisor.
Texas Instruments has a simple three-step rule to follow if you question the ethical merits of a directive:
If you know it is wrong, simply dont do it.
If you are not sure, ask.
Keep asking until you get an answer.
What if you are asked to do the unethical and there is no way out? You should always have Go to hell money available to say just that. Go to hell and let the chips fall where they may. Resigning is far superior to lowering your standards.
Making Ethical Decisions
This is a short article I wrote when I was studying ethics. First a brief history, followed by a brief outline of the ethical school I live by (Utilitarian Ethics) and then the how-to of making ethical decisions. It is an easy read as Word rates the article as suitable for grade eight readers.
Those who specialize in the study of and write about ethics are called Ethicans. By any definition they are a strange lot. Their main occupation is criticizing other ethicans and every ethical school of thought except the ones they favor.
Ethicans attempt to create an ethical school that applies to every occasion. The search is for a unifying ethical system is much like the search for the unifying theory of physics. It may happen in physics but not in ethics. Ethics is an emotional identity attempting to present itself as a logical and rational discipline. It fails miserably.
In addition, the ethical thinkers are not logical thinkers. They squabble amongst themselves and pass themselves off as great thinkers. If you want to read classical examples of poor writing, corrupt logic and pettiness, read the classical ethical writers. Yet they were brilliant.
For example, John Stuart Mills (1806-1873), regarded as the great proponent of Utilitarian Ethics was brilliant. By the age of seventeen he had completed advanced studies in Greek literature and philosophy, chemistry, botany, psychology and law. As a member of the British parliament he was considered a radical, as he supported such outrageous measures as public ownership of natural resources, equality for women, compulsory education, and birth control. He was one of the founders of the womens suffrage movement.
His 1863 essay on Utilitarian ethics is regarded as the cornerstone of the Utilitarian principles. It is a disgraceful example of writing. For example the opening sentence is sixty-two words long. And things only get worse. Word processing grammar checkers get serious indigestion trying to analyze it.
Since 1863 I doubt if a dozen people have read the 24,000 word document from start to finish. I am not one of them. It is a masterpiece of confusion, bad grammar, and poor punctuation while making little sense. The concept is correct, but Mills explanation is so inept, it borders on the criminal.
In truth, the concept can be well expressed in less than five hundred words. Throw in a few examples and two thousand words would be about right. Strange, that is about the length of this essay.
I said they were crazy lot. Consider the founder of Utilitarian Ethics, Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832). He was quite a fellow: he was a child prodigy, reading serious works at age three, playing the violin at age five, and studying French and Latin at age six. He entered Oxford University at age 12, studied law, and was admitted to the bar. Quite a fellow.
In 1771, thirty years before the industrial revolution, Jeremy Betham invented the Panopticon. A Panopticon was to remove all privacy from prisoners by placing them behind a transparent wall encircling a guard tower.
Jeremy was so impressed with his invention he was determined to have a Panopticon as his casket and be place on public display. Certainly and odd request. But there is a difference between being odd and being disgusting.
Ladies, if you are a bit squeamish you may not want to hear this so please close your eyes. In accordance with his wishes, his body was dissected before his friends. His skeleton, fully clothed and provided with a wax head (the original being mummified), is kept in a glass case at University College, which he helped to found. He may be viewed on the Web with the picture updated every fifteen minutes.
His head was embalmed and is kept by the University.
There are about fifteen schools of ethics. Including minor variations there are untold numbers. After reviewing many of the mainstream schools, I can honestly say I have little idea of what they are talking about except for Utilitarian Ethics.
Fool that I am, I delved into Utilitarian Ethics as it made sense to apply it to my life style.
My ethical system is based on Utilitarian Ethics: the doctrine that what is useful is good, and consequently, that the ethical value of conduct is determined by the utility of the result. Loosely put, its proposition is that the supreme objective of moral action is the achievement of the greatest good for the greatest number. This objective is also considered the aim of all legislation and is the ultimate criterion of all social institutions including businesses.
Like all other ethical systems, it fails if you expect it to solve all ethical problems. No one ethical system can solve a wide range of problems ranging from government to business to individual ethical questions.
Fortunately, I have serious limitations for which I am thankful. I seek answers to my problems and opportunities. I do not have the ability nor the need to solve such issues such as abortion, euthanasia, and suicide. Nor can I solve the problems of the world. As I said, they are beyond my capabilities and for that I am thankful for my limitations.
One beauty of Utilitarian Ethics is that it has only two definitions: Good and Evil. Good is defined as any individuals good feeling ranging from pleasures of the flesh to extreme self-sacrifice. Between these extremes there are included such things as material rewards. Evil is defined as harm to any individual ranging from such minor irritants such as a sliver in the finger to the evils of Hitler. Again, somewhere in there is material loss.
One last consideration: morals. You come to the table with your morals and religious beliefs. Ethics does not teach or propose a moral credo. You are who you are. If you are morally corrupt, a thief or completely uncaring, ethics is of little use to you. The only way one can improve their moral values is probably through some form of revelation.
Living by an ethical system is not in conflict with your religion or lack of it. All the mainstream religions, whether based on love or law, urge you to be good to others while minimizing evil in all its forms. Ethics simply provides a method to assist you in achieving your religious obligations of doing the right thing while minimizing evil. A religious belief is not a requirement of being ethical.
Resolving ethical problems using Utilitarian Ethics has a logical almost mathematical, step-by-step approach to it.
Lets assume you want to make a business decision. If it does not affect people, there is no ethical consideration. Ethics only concerns itself with people. That does not mean your can abuse animals. Nor does it permit you to burn down you house even if you own it. Wanton destruction is unacceptable.
Is slaughtering animals for human consumption ethical? How about using animals for testing which causes them pain? I have no idea how you feel about the subject. But I do know I could not be employed in such industries, yet I benefit from their practices. As I said, I have serious limitations of my thought processes when it comes to resolving such fundamental issues.
Fortunately all those tough problems do not face me. In truth, I am not sure I could face up to them let alone resolve them.
So on to the reality of everyday life:
Lets assume we are contemplating installing some form of safety or pollution device.
We think of three possible methods, A, B, and C. And we throw in a fourth possibility D, simply doing nothing. We make a list showing all the benefits (Good) to both ourselves and others. Now consider disadvantages (Evil) to yourself and others. Evaluate both the good and evil, not just to us, but to everyone involved. Consider employees, the shareholders, suppliers, the community, and the government.
The first test is do you benefit from any evil side effect? The test is resolved by considering what, if somehow, the evil side effects did not happen, would you still benefit? If you would benefit only if the evil event occurred, then the act is unethical. It is unethical to benefit from some form of evil inflicted on others. This test quickly determines that theft, murder, cheating, and most forms of lying are unethical acts.
With the list made, consider what method has the least evils. Assuming all three methods meet your goals, only the method having the least evil is ethical. To select a method that does not minimize the evil consequences is unethical.
Lets consider the ethical merits of laying-off people for lack of work. It happens all the time. Now lack of work can range from receiving fewer orders than expected to simply running out of money, i.e. a builder lays-off his construction workers because he has run out of money. The house is still there to be completed, but there is no money. Employees are certainly harmed by the layoff. We pass the first test, as we do not benefit from their hardship.
Now consider what happens if the layoff is not made. Eventually the company will lose money, become less competitive and the problems multiply for the lack of layoffs. The result can only be that many others such as the employees, suppliers, shareholders or the community will be seriously harmed when the business fails. However unpleasant, the layoff for lack of work is ethical, not nice, but ethical.
So the method is simple. Consider all the alternatives and select the one with the least harm to all. Easier said than done.
Time passes, the act is carried out, and you or someone else thinks of a better, less evil solution to the problem or opportunity. Was the original act ethical? Yes. You tried your best to be ethical. Not being clever enough is no sin. You must learn to live with and rejoice in Gods gift of your limitations.
More time passes. Given the identical problem there is no guarantee that the ethical decision you made in the past would be ethical now. Times change the priorities. What was important then may not be important now. What was a minor consideration then may be a major concern now.
In business we are trying to find the best balance for all: the employees, shareholders, customers, suppliers, government and the community. Demands of each change with time. For example, in recent years the governments drive for improve workplace health and safety, minimizing and controlling pollution have come to the fore. Twenty years ago they were just being thought about. Forty years ago, they were non-issues. Times change. The new balance must be found with the changing times.
If we pay too much for supplies and wages, our costs become excessive and we loose our competitiveness. Layoffs and perhaps business failure occurs harming all employees, the shareholders, our suppliers, customers etc.
If our wages are to low we loose good employees and their skills, endangering the business.
Our family life goes through similar changes. The balance of your influencing your children changes, demanding a rebalance of your private life. Consider the balance when the children were small to when you will have an empty nest. Both logic and Ethics demands you treat your children well. Be good to your children. Always remember: they pick your old age home.
I can understand if you object to my ethical system. But to object to mine while having none of your own is foolish.
This was written to clarify my thoughts and develop an ethical way of reasoning suitable to my life style. Over the years I have found it to be a great problem solver when dealing with personnel problems both at home and at work.
Jim Roe
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To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 21st, 2007 with comments disabled.
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For most people, money makes the world go round and business bears that money. Businessmen will perhaps do anything just to achieve the ultimate goal of having a business, and that is to earn income. Net profit or income financially means a surplus of sales or revenues after deducting costs and expenses. Whether you are engage in profession, occupation, work or trade, you are in business and you speak income. When you earn an income you suffer taxes, the worst nightmare for every income earners. Income tax is your punishment of doing well in business. This sounds ridiculous but this is the reality, you pay when you earn. Because tax is legislative, noncompliance to this would results to crimes. This thing called income tax had already made billions of liars around the world. Some governments imposed taxes which are already too much to burden the flow of business. Others make tax laws that are already beyond the ability of taxpayers. However these facts must not result in the existence of enormous number of dishonest people in the world.
Ethics in business rarely exists nowadays. Perhaps it is because for most people, profit will come without the need of business ethics. This, I dont agree. The word ethics is derived from the Greek word ethos, which means “character,” and from the Latin word mores, which means “customs.” According to the encyclopedia ethics is the branch of philosophy that defines what is good for the individual and for society and establishes the nature of obligations, or duties, that people owe themselves and one another. Maybe ethics is not needed to earn profit if you define profit or income as money. But deeply speaking, business is not just for money. Yes it is definitely for profit, but profit is not just financial profit. We need profit that will not just sustain our pocket or our stomach. Significantly, we also need profits that will feed our hearts and soul. Considering that we are great businessmen, we should extend our minds to this principle. We need business ethics to earn these high valued profits. We must be concerned to the virtue of our character and to the common good.
Your business is not just for the survival of your life on Earth but it can also be your road to the survival of your soul. If youre in business and had a company, you can help your employees by providing them enough salaries and other benefits that will make their lives better. You can be honest and pay your exact tax for the government who will eventually use it for your countrys development. (Assuming your government is straight and not corrupt) But dont mind them, be honest even others are not. We are talking here your soul survival and not theirs. You can also serve your customers by providing them their needs and giving them convenience. Customer care is so important for your customers as also important for your business to earn public trust and loyalty. If you build infrastructures for your company you contribute to the development of your place in terms of buildings and infrastructures. When you got ethics in business you practice fair business competition. Fair business competition is a challenge for every business to improve the qualities of their products and services, and the end benefits are to the consumers.
Doing business with clean conscience is doing business with good night sleeps. It is also doing business with gladness of your heart and soul. Gratitude will come to you and you will become a stress free businessman if you do business with ethics. These and other spiritual profits will straightly come to you and the good thing on this is you are not taxed on this kind of profits. As an extraordinary businessman, you do not only set your long-term goals for 10 years or for a life time. You must also consider eternity and set goals to achieve profits that will benefit your soul. You need profits that last forever, profits that will give us everlasting life and happiness, and profits that will earn us the key to heaven. These profits will benefits us in the short run, midterm run, long run and eternal run, as God is great from the beginning and unto the never-ending.
Do business and believe in God. Building our business in Gods place is like building it in rocks which are in great foundations. Let us be kind and grateful to our employees as they are our best assets. Lets give them bread and they will give us a ham sandwich. Let us have huge care to our customers as they are our best revenue generators. Lets give them good price, high quality products and best services and they will give us their respect and loyalty. Let us be fair to our competitors as they are our great motivators. Let us give them fair game and they will give us the true meaning of winning. Let us be thankful to our Father Almighty God as He is our greatest business partner. Lets serve Him and He will give us joy and peace of mind.
Victorino Q. Abrugar is dedicated in spiritual
philosophy. He is the author of
TheOldMind.Com
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 21st, 2007 with comments disabled.
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Education qualification is one of the intrinsic factors on which an organization bases the eligibility and remuneration of an employee.
However, the bubble of sanctity is fast bursting in this arena. In the last 18 months, the frequency of frauds connected to fake certificates have increased drastically.
The latest fraud blockbuster was released when the Cyber Crime cell of the Mumbai Police, India arrested a 48 year old women for supplying bogus education certificates, mark sheets and experience certificates through a recruitment agency to candidates who sought jobs.
Police discovered blank certificates of SSC and HSC from Pune and Mumbai Boards, duplicate copies of Science stream certificates from Kerala university.
Fuelling The Fraud
There are two factors that fuel these frauds. The first issue is that the demand for qualified human resources exceeds supply. This increases recruitment pressures on HR departments, a perfect environment for risk to enter the organization.
The second is the issue of technology falling in the wrong hands. We see advertisements that offer to teach Photoshop for Rs. 300 all over the city. Its indeed commendable that computer application is penetrating India at affordable rates. But, like most boons of science, this could prove dangerous in unethical hands. Add this to this equation and you have the bullet in the barrel.
The first thing for organizations to do is accept this reality. India is on the fast track and we have to consciously acknowledge the flipside of progress. Secondly, we have to ensure that our risk management processes are one step ahead of the fraudsters.
How Pre-Employment Screening Can Help
Pre-employment screening is a robust tool to authenticate education documents submitted by applicants. In most cases this validation is done at source; either with the university or the college records.
Our experience shows more than 16 percent of candidates provide fake or misleading information on their resumes. This figure is alarming. But what is more alarming their attitude that theyll get away with it. If not combated, this attitude will slowly become a cultural mindset.
Our incessant and passionate plea to industry is to Create processes to send a clear message about your organizations ethical standards. This requires an uncompromising commitment to risk mitigation.
A Watchful Eye Mitigates Risk
An ethics survey revealed the fact that most people are dissuaded from wrongful conduct when they feel that someone is watching. Need meeting Opportunity is the genesis of fraud.
Since we have only a limited control on need, it would be more prudent to focus our energies on creating risk prevention processes. Take a dispassionate look at your processes and ask yourself, Are we behaving like an alert organization?
Hitesh Asrani is Director of the Risk Management Firm, CRP Technologies, and has a deep-rooted passion for nurturing ethical governance in India Inc. Visit the CRP Blog for more Risk Management updates.
This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 20th, 2007 with comments disabled.
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G. Richard Shell, author of Bargaining for Advantage: Negotiation Strategies for Reasonable People, identifies three primary schools of ethics in negotiation. To me, they are equally valuable in examining ethics in the context of business in general.
1. The Poker School - “It’s a Game”
To poker players, business is a game and anything that can be done to gain advantage within the rules of the game (generally speaking, the laws of the land), is fair and just. If you love negotiating “gambits” (lowballing, goodcop/bad cop, red herrings, nibbling, etc.), and sales “tactics” (101 effective closing techniques, 30 tricks to getting past the gatekeeper,etc.) you may well belong to this school.
2. The Idealist School - “Do the right thing, even if it hurts.”
To the idealist, there is no seperation between business in life. If you would not lie to your loved ones, you do not lie to your clients. If it’s OK to tell a “white lie” to protect the feelings of a friend or prevent a tragedy, it’s OK to tell a “white lie” to protect a corporate ally or prevent a business tragedy. While two idealists may differ in the specific set of rules they live by, they share the rigidity of doing what they believe to be “right”, even when it seems contrary to their business goals.
3. The Pragmatist School - “What goes around, comes around.”
The behaviour of a pragmatist may be inseperable from that of an idealist,but the motivation is different. While the idealist tells the truth and treats people fairly because it’s “the right thing to do”, the pragmatist tells the truth and treats people fairly because they believe it is the most effective way of getting things done. However, they will not hesitate to use deception as a necessary tool in pursuing their aims. Because pragmatists value their reputation (being seen to be honest), they will tend towards “misleading” statements over outright lies.
There are also combinations of these schools. “Pragmatic idealists” dothe right thing because of their ideals but are not above pushing the envelope of truth when the pressure is on and the chips are high; “pragmatic poker players” tend not to bluff in order to evolve their reputation as trustworthy, but will take advantage of that reputation when it really counts. “Idealistic poker players” are those among us who recognise business as a game, fully expect everyone around them to do their best to lie and cheat, but will only involve themselves in games they believe they can win by doing the “right” thing.
Possibly the most important thing to realise is that not everyone plays by your rules. Your being honest does not ensure others will be honest with you; similarly, your willingness to lie, cheat, and bend the rules does not mean the people you are doing with will do the same.
Here are a few things you can do to put these theories of business ethics into practice:
1. If you haven’t already, identify what “school” you belong to. Remember,your motivation is as important an indication of your ethics as your actions.
2. Identify at least one person that you know or have read about that seems to embody each of the three primary and three secondary schools of ethics. Once again, be aware that knowing someone’s actions without understanding their motivation will not necessarily reveal their ethical bent.
3. Discuss this tip with friends, and see what else you can discover that will enable you to be who you are while dealing ever-more effectively with others.
Have fun, learn heaps, and remember - a good poker player will inevitably tell you they’re an idealist!
Michael Neill is a licensed Master Trainer of NLP and has written over 450 articles on in the areas of business success, money, relationships, health, happiness, well-being, and spirituality. His weekly coaching column is reprinted in newspapers and magazines throughout the world, and can be found online at http://www.geniuscatalyst.com
To Blame or Not To BlameA man can fall many times, but he isnt a failure until he begins to blame somebody else. (John Burroughs)Fire her, she set me up! John yelled quite loudly. He was incredibly angry and for good reason. However, he was really angry at the wrong person. What he was really saying was […]
Written by info on November 19th, 2007 with comments disabled.
Read more articles on ethics.