Ethics Management and Ethical Management

Abstract

It is a truism that putting in place an ethics framework does not guarantee ethical conduct. Many organizations, in both the public and private sectors, have, for example, well-crafted, comprehensive codes of conduct, or sophisticated corporate governance requirements. Too many of those same organizations still manage to create cultures within which unethical behavior is practiced, or at least condoned. Thus, it is argued that compliance mechanisms are not enough and that ethics training, leadership, and culture change program need to be introduced to ensure that ethics frameworks are implemented and embedded within the fabric of the organization. Often these different approaches to organizational ethics are presented as opposite ends of a complianceintegrity continuum; at one extreme is a reliance on regulatory mechanisms, at the other a reliance on the personal integrity of individuals to act ethically. In one sense our initial distinction between ethics management and ethical management mirrors these polar opposites. Ethics management will include all the control mechanisms that we are familiar with including the creation of ethics agencies, codes of conduct, and sanctions for breach of a code. In contrast, ethical management is about how individual managers behave with integrity, how they may set a personal example, and how they treat others both within and without their own organizations. However, our argument is that ethics management finds its expression through ethical management. Ethical frameworks are mediated through the actions of individual managers who treat others with respect. Of course, many managers will do that anyway, but ethics management makes it more likely that it will become the norm. Ethical management is ethics in action; ethics management is ethics in organizational context and control. The two are neither directly opposite nor different ends of a spectrum of possibilities. Rather, ethical management is where ethics is practiced. It is practiced in a number of ways including, first, in personal behavior as in setting an example for others to follow and,second, in terms of the treatment of others. Of course, ethics management and ethical management do overlap. Thus, ethical management expresses itself in the day-to-day practices, in the minutiae of organizational life. Ethics management focuses on the organization as a whole rather than the day-to-day practices of individual managers.