Some call it wearing your heart on your sleeve; others call it carrying your emotions. If the discussion is about values and ethics, leaders must use them openly, constantly encouraging, mentoring, and coaching others to operate within the values-based and ethical standards the leader expresses. Values and ethics exist in a philosophical realm and are often confused as the same thing. Values explain that who you are is what you were when. Ethics demonstrate values through behavior. This article assumes the position that values exist on a higher plane than ethics.
Dr. Gyertson6 shares a perspective on value and ethical sources. He says that throughout human development, there are sociocultural influences on family and tribe. In prehistoric times, these values meant survival and extended family. Exploring present value development offers a very different view of family and tribe. The family is now nuclear and the connection with the extended family is often limited to the family picnic in July. Tribe, community, is multifaceted people that has small neighborhood tribes, work tribes, social tribes and others. They move between tribes and behave differently in different environments. While core values remain, behaviors change as you move between groups. Interacting in work groups is an example. Consider a group of college administrators who work to meet the needs and wants of applicants and students. Administrators work to make applicants and students feel comfortable when they enter classes. The faculty works with students by reading and facilitating the growth of students’ knowledge. The student is the same person but is interacting with the different elements of the university.
Value deals with value, utility, moral virtue, aesthetics and can be singular or collective of each. Values are at the core of what a person believes. In a June 2006 article in USA Today, Colorado Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings tells the reporter that the baseball club’s players hear the value of character and the good life from the top of the organization down the line. the lowest levels. In the changing room one does not see photos or pornographic magazines. There are sports magazines, racing and car magazines, and bibles are prominently displayed throughout the locker room. This ball club believes in Christian values and Christian ethical behavior. One fan says he hasn’t heard of the usual crap or player bragging among the Rockies. Leadership in the Rockies organization provides evidence of expected behavior in the clubhouse, on the field of play, and among players on other teams. The Rockies aren’t the “winningest” team in major league baseball; however, they show a behavior ethic close to the highest.
Ethics comes from the Greek ethikos, which means that it arises from habit. Ethics is a study of life, a study in which we discover that things are right or wrong or true or false based on how we know them. Therefore, ethics is the external manifestation, the performance of a belief.
Values versus ethics
Values and ethics do not exist apart from each other. However, they can develop differently over time. A child’s values grow from the parent’s values. A child’s ethical behavior is developed by observing what parents do. Confidence in parents grows as the child sees that their parents obey their beliefs (values) through their ethics (what they do) on a consistent basis. It is the responsibility of a leader with an organization, workers and with himself not to do less. A leader’s followers will quickly lose trust if they observe attitudes and behaviors that do not match expressed ethical standards and values.
Values must identify or embody who is a leader. Values are the basis on which leaders make judgments about what is important. Ethics identifies a leader’s moral compass, the leader’s understanding of what is good and right. Ethics is a set of moral principles.
Leaders must commit to personal values and organizational values seeking a fit between the two. Furthermore, leaders must manifest values in a way that leaves the observer fully aware of the leader’s commitment.
A leader studies the community in which an organization exists to learn what the community values. Another consideration is ethical behavior that leaves a leader questioning whether the community is acting as it believes. These observations of what a community believes and how it behaves tell a leader the extent of the normative order within a community. However, organizational leaders must operate on a higher plane.
One consideration for reviewing leaders when establishing a code of ethics is that ethics and values do not fit into a neat categorization into areas of specialty. Melissa Ingwersen1 of JPMorgan Chase Bank espouses the foundation of ethics at home and school before applying it to business. She says that JPMorgan Chase does not want to compromise its banks or bankers by doing business with questionable clients. Therefore, JPMorgan Chase selects clients carefully while trying to maintain its reputation and the reputation of its clients.
What does the above example tell us about values and ethics in an organization? For Chase Bank, value is honesty, integrity and building the character of customers by selecting customers who have values similar to those of the bank. Chase Bank does not compromise its core values for the sake of winning business. Another view of this provided by Brenda Joyner, et al2, is a sense of corporate social responsibility (CSR). CSR includes elements such as economic, legal, discretionary and ethical activities. She says that these exist within what are the values of the public.
Work standard – values and ethics.
Said earlier, ethics is the outward manifestation of values. In some organizations, leaders are content to accept the ethic of responsibility to shareholders. Although this was generally accepted behavior in the boom years, most long-running companies recognize that the bottom line is not an ethically symbolic way to participate.
Joyner, et al, relate the work of Paine (1994). In this, they attempt to put value on following the letter of the law versus following the spirit of the law. While obeying the letter of the law is legally and ethically correct, seeking the greatest courage to obey the spirit of the law drives a leader to greater confidence, reducing cynicism and ultimately adding value to the ethical standard. The ethical standard is the integrity strategy of a leader and an organization and the values are the fundamental beliefs that drive the strategy.
Ray Coye3, writing in 1986, saw the need to differentiate between values and ethics. In his opinion, there are no values for an organization apart from the collective values of the leaders and members. He provides a definition of values as, “…serving as the authorities on behalf of which decisions are made and actions are taken.” In greater depth, this 1986 definition is based on the prevailing attitude towards values and ethics considered correct – at that time (Coye, 1986)
• A value is freely chosen after considering alternatives and consequences
• Publicly affirmed, appreciated and valued
• Pattern of action that is consistent and repeated
conclusion
Values exist at the core of our nature; they are our core belief system. Ethics, our behavior, reveal our values within an operating environment. If we say we love (value) our children but behave abusively, value and ethical behavior are inconsistent. Within a leadership role, the same goes for our attitude toward workers. The recent history of organizational failure adds to the common knowledge of how personal greed over expressed organizational values ruins the business and, worse, the faith that workers have in the business and the leaders.
Not every organization is the Colorado Rockies Baseball Club, but trends start with one person and one organization at a time. Be a trendsetter.
Works Cited
1. Nightengale, B. (2006, June 1). The Basball Rockies are seeking a renaissance on two levels. USA Today. Retrieved on September 20, 2006 from [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/nl/rockies/2006-05-30-rockies-cover_x.htm].
2. Cook, JR Interview: Melissa Ingwersen, President of Central OH, JPMorgan Chase Bank, NA. Ethical Leadership, Council on Ethics in Economics (1.1)
3. Joyner, BE, Payne, D., & Raiborn, CA (2002, April). Building values, business ethics and corporate social responsibility in the developing organization. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship(7.1), p. 113.
4. Coye, R. (1986, February) Individual values and business ethics. Journal of Business Ethics (5.1), p. Four. Five.
5. Watson, S. (2006). Personal Values in Business: How Successful Companies Underpin Their Success with Clear Values. Retrieved on September 20, 2006 from [http://www.summitconsultants.co.uk/news-detail.asp?fldNewsArticles_ID=126].
6. Gyerson, DJ (2006). Ethical Frameworks. Presentation at Regent University DSL Residency September 13-22, 2006