List of Ethics In The Workplace Starts at the Top

If you have a personal code of ethics that is centered on the Bible you’ll try to do what is right in all situations. As an employee, this could be illustrated this way. A customer may give you money to pay their bill. They may say here’s $30.00 keep the change. As you look down you realize that instead of a twenty and a ten they gave you two twenties. You could keep it and they might not notice.

Your personal code of ethics will not let you keep the money. Sure it was their mistake, and you may need the money, but it simply wouldn’t be right.

Business owners must grapple with ethics in the workplace as well. They could change your time card and cheat you out of your just wages, but they know it’s wrong, as well.

Have you worked for a boss who cheats the customer? It may require you to change jobs just to keep a clear conscience. A builder could have the steel for a concrete slab on site and then only install half the required amount. He may get by for years, until something breaks.

A restaurant could advertise a product as being one way, and simply cut back on ingredients, to make it cheaper. They may think, they’re getting one over on the customer, but their thievery will be evident as product quality suffers.

Customers aren’t stupid. The Japanese proved this by making their cars a little better every year. During the same period American cars were not improving as much. The Cani Principal of the Japanese let to their cars taking a huge chunk of the worldwide automotive market.

Ethics in the workplace starts at the top with management. if they are committed to excellence and can communicate this the organization will be ethical. If management chooses to mistreat and cheat employees, they can expect that to be reflected back to them and to their customers.

The personal code of ethics of one company founder can influence thousands of businesses, managers and employees. A good example of this is Truett Cathy, founder of ChicfilA. His company refuses to open on Sunday even though they could do more business.

I am sure their employees appreciate the day off to go to church and enjoy their families. Truett allows people to become a store partner with a simple $5,000.00 deposit. ChicfilA spends all the money to open the restaurant. The operator pays a franchise fee and profits are split with corporate. Probably the best opportunity I know of in a traditional business.

All business owners could take a ethics lesson from Truett Cathy.

The company’s corporate purpose statement says that the business exists “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with ChickfilA.”

Jay Vandenhoff has been a small business owner and entrepreneur most of his life. His network marketing career started 12 years ago. As the internet has evolved he has been evolving too. You can visit Jay’s blog here Check out his web site Work From Home

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