Manager Ethics.

Whether via creative accounting, discrimination, harassment, wage inequality, or health and safety violations, organizations periodically experience ethical challenges.  In 2013 the National Business Ethics Survey reported that managers are to blame for workplace misconduct the majority (60%) of the time.

In December 2017 the ECI (Ethics and Compliance Initiative) continued its longitudinal study of the U.S. workforce, collecting data from over 5,000 employees.  The data reflected "pressure for employees to cut corners is on the rise, along with retaliation for reporting."  Patricia Harned, CEO of ECI.  Additional highlights from the U.S. data reflected:

• 16% of employees experienced pressure to compromise ethical standards, a 23% increase since 2013. 
• 84% of those employees also observed misconduct.

In many ways the field of business ethics appears irrelevant for managers as ethics and business interests can conflict.  The issue here is not when the conflict occurs, but how the manager responds.  Managers need to be able to reason through ethical decisions, just as they would reason through any managerial problem facing them.  Many times, ethics-laden situations involve issues that are clearly right or wrong when judged by the organizational values or the code of conduct.

Ethics are moral principles that drive our behavior.  The policies, rules and regulations within an organization should be the same for every employee regardless of their role, title or status. Business leaders, managers and supervisors should set clear guidelines for ethical behavior in the organization.  They should embody the principles of ethics.