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Ethical Choices: When Values Collide

The Management of Covenants in Ethical Conflict If business ethics were merely a matter of "doing the right things," organizational leadership would be comparatively easy. Effective leaders, however, must balance competing claims on "what is right" from various constituencies, all of whom have legitimate interests in their behavior and in the behavior of their organizations. Implied and expressed covenants with an organization's members, with other levels of management, with shareholders, with customers, and with elements of the outer socio-political world often conflict when critical value decisions must be made. It is in this ethical arena of competing covenants that leadership is tested more severely than in any other aspect of organizational life. The choice among competing alternatives is often unclear with respect to their ethical and practical consequences. The penalties for violating society's formal legal and ethical standards are costly, both financially and in terms of lost prestige and damaged organizational credibility. The violation of intra-organizational covenants can be equally disastrous, even though the consequences are not always played out in the legal arena. Ethical Choices: When Values Collide is a case-driven program designed to help key members of organizations make sound ethical decisions without unthinkingly jeopardizing market strength, public image, and organizational integrity and credibility. Selection A large selection of case studies is available, covering key ethical dilemmas that business leaders confront daily, making it easy and cost effective to tailor the program specifically to client needs: Environmental Protection Equal Access Promotion Unscrupulous Competitors Expense Report Abuse Gifts and Gratuities Conflict of Interest Schedule vs. Quality Diversion of Business Assets Protection of Confidentiality Substance Abuse Pricing Insider Information Collusion in Purchasing Budget Manipulation Whistle Blowing Competitor Information Falsifying Sales Reports Product Safety Bribes and Kickbacks Preferential Hiring Customer Relationships Product Misrepresentation "Grease" Payments Distributor Favoritism Nepotism Sexual Harassment Plant and Public Safety Customizing Custom cases can also be developed specifically for your own organization. Normally the following skill sets are addressed in Ethical Choices: When Values Collide: defining ethics as managing competing covenants, identifying ethical dilemmas in organizational life, sharing organizational principles and values, identifying and clarifying core organizational values, applying core values to ethical dilemmas, ethical challenges in the international arena, and establishing a framework for managing ethical dilemmas.

Table of Contents Generic Training Basic Management / Leadership Development Performance Management Topical Issues Downsizing Cultures Ethics Strategic Planning Organizational Alignment Needs-based communication