#ethical behavior

By Linda Fisher Thornton How we think about other people is an important part of ethical thinking and leadership. In this post I’ll explore how our thinking can go wrong and how it can go right, depending on how we think about “The Other.” What Can Go Wrong Thinking about ourselves as “better than” others can quickly lead us to make unethical decisions and display unethical interpersonal…

Scott Douglas Jacobsen In-Sight Publishing, Fort Langley, British Columbia, Canada Correspondence: Scott Douglas Jacobsen (Email: [email protected]) Received: January 14, 2025 Accepted: N/A Published: January 15, 2025 Abstract This interview explores the insights of Rick Rosner, a seasoned television writer and producer, in conversation with Scott Jacobsen. The discussion delves into…

A Note on Diverse Beliefs Christianity is a rich and diverse faith, encompassing a wide range of beliefs and interpretations. This post aims to explore the relationship between faith and actions as seen through the teachings of Jesus and various scriptural references. It is shared with respect for all perspectives and an invitation for open, thoughtful dialogue. Our goal is to deepen our…

Become More Accountable Accountability is the responsibility that you assume for your actions, decisions, and performance. It involves being answerable for the consequences of your actions and fulfilling commitments or obligations. In various contexts, such as personal relationships, work environments, or governance, accountability ensures transparency, trustworthiness, and integrity. It’s…

In the book, it was pointed out that the ethical judgement of a person does not equate to his or her ethical behavior. To reinforce this, the author uses a case about Wells Fargo where the company opened millions of unauthorized credit cards in the name of its present customers. Looking at it, the act is easily identifiable as fraudulent however, the fraud was able to escalate to a point that at least 5,000 employees have participated in it, and Wells Fargo was able to sell up to 3.5M USD financial products to its customers without their consent. 

Analysis by investigators were able to uncover the horrifying reason why this has gone undetected for several years: that the management was aware about it, and encouraged the fraudulent activities. There was even evidence that senior executives knew about the practice even before it became public. 

It’s unbelievable to think that a company so big is capable of uniformed fraud and yet this only reinforces the importance of a concept we previously tackled - corporate culture. 

As defined in the book, corporate culture is the shared pattern of beliefs, expectations and meanings that influence and guide the think and behavior of the members of an organization. It was through Well Fargo’s culture of incentivizing greedy practices and setting higher than average targets to its employees that the fraud was able to fester and grow, with employees thinking that it was okay to continue cross selling as long as they got to keep their job and the company profited from it. 

Thankfully, I’ve never been with a company yet that encourages horrible practices just to meet targets. While the audit field is very exhaustive, I still felt that my company cared for my well-being, especially when my then manager implemented a rule where we weren’t allowed to do overtime, and was forced to go home on the clock two out of five days of the week. This then evolved to a company-wide effort to reduce overtime hours by setting the cut-off for overtimes at 12 midnight. While this initially disgruntled a lot of coworkers, insisting that the problem was with their workload, and that they did not choose to clock in a lot of hours by choice, I focused on the the message that my previous company was saying: that work was not something important enough for their employees to lose sleep over. 

Ever since that first taste of corporate culture from a company that truly cared about its employees, corporate culture is now always the first thing I look for in a company. Currently, I’m with a company that exhibits positive corporate culture, in my opinion, with flying colors. The first day I’ve joined, I was personally escorted by my manager, and was introduced to everyone in the floor. Everyone had big smiles, and I’ve observed that the interactions between coworkers were light and almost playful. 

My manager then (he has since resigned) conducted weekly meetings just to check on us and make sure we weren’t overworked, or if we had any difficulties adjusting to the work from home set-up. I actually fully realised that this was really the company culture and not just one work of an individual when a few days ago, a manager for a business unit I was supporting (translate: not my immediate manager) randomly called me just to check up on me and make sure I was happy with my current responsibilities.

These experiences emphasise the importance of a leader, and just how much they influence the corporate culture in a company. It’s not enough that policies are written or memos are in place, as is the case with Wells Fargo, but that the leaders also show with their own words and actions the values they want to instill in each employee.

Under the Influence: Trust Issues #Trust #Ethics

Decency and order. Trust. Do such things still exist? I believe decency, order, compassion, and ethics still outweigh its opposition. I believe people are better than the lies and deception we see occurring more frequently than we’ve seen before. So I choose to be an influencer of love, hope, charity and uplifting the soul and spirit of humanity.

Sometimes I detest watching the news regardless…