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Law and Ethics

Many organizations have turned to their lawyers to ensure proper conduct by employees, only to have the U. S. Sentencing Commission redress the focus on law with a call to take into account the influence of the ethics and culture of an organization on its employees’ decision-making and conduct. It may be useful to ask, just what is the relationship between ethics and the law?

Prevent Misconduct? First, understand the causes: Why do companies spend so much time and money teaching their employees about laws, regulations and company policies? Is it because executives believe that serious misconduct is the result of ignorance of the rules? Or, is it because they want evidence with which to absolve themselves when employee misconduct occurs—it’s not their fault, they told employees the rules. Why do employees break the rules, anyway?

Employees won’t tell you about the misconduct they observe, because they don’t believe corrective action will happen, they don't trust the company to keep their report confidential, and they fear retaliation from management and other employees. Most companies respond to this by outsourcing the hotline service, in the hopes that employees, knowing that their identity is protected, will tell all. Unfortunately, this is the wrong answer to the wrong question.....

Why do employees continue to remain silent in the face of corporate ethical lapses?