与其採纳正规的企业伦理守则，我们不若开展宣传攻势

 

No. 85. The writer is a pessimist who plays up the downside risks of the issue and overlooks its much more productive upside gains. Having an official code of ethics can actually make the company morally powerful and competitively strong.

 

When the leadership of a company puts together a vision and a workable strategy to accomplish that vision, a mission is defined and the direction is clear. The remaining jobs of leadership are to align the workforce in that same direction through a common culture and to motivate employees to accomplish that mission by appealing to human needs at different levels, such as illustrated by Maslow's hierarchy of needs.

 

The culture of a company is defined by its shared values, beliefs and assumptions. It aligns employee decisions and makes delegation and empowerment so much more effective because everybody in the company has guidelines to check against when making individual decisions on behalf of the company. Empowerment is an empty word without the cultural guiding light of core values. But when empowerment is effective, the company is so much more competitive. Employees are also proud to be associated with an ethical company because company identity is an important part of their identity.

 

An official code of ethics puts the company's ethical values, beliefs and assumptions in black and white. It is a summary of the company's ethical culture in writing for the whole world to see. Such a proclamation is powerful not only because it is the printed word that shows legitimacy and permanency, but also it is a public statement that shows official commitment to make it stick. It takes a lot of dedication for a company to adopt an official code of ethics, but it takes even more dedication to ensure its disciplined follow-through. If the company fails to live up to that expectation, it is shooting itself in the foot. It is like putting all the eggs in one basket and not taking good care of it. The company's leaders only have themselves to blame. In handling such a powerful ethical tool capable of commanding public respect and internal alignment, the committed company has no choice but to exercise utmost care, motivation and discipline, in ensuring employee buy-in and effective implementation of the code. And it all starts with leadership by example from the top down. If the official code of ethics is carefully designed and implemented, the embodied ethical actions on protecting the environment and assisting charitable organizations will speak louder than words, or any publicity campaign ever put together.