Nobel Economics Laureate Milton Friedman mentioned that a business, which is only artificial, cannot have responsibilities, only people can have responsibilities¹. Besides, in a free-enterprise system, it are mainly the corporate executive, the business managers and their decisions in coordinating the company that creates the identity and culture of the corporation. Taking those two facts into consideration, it seems that the commitment of a company to ethical codes of conduct, strongly depends on the corporate leaders and their ethical behavior.
Recent study² has proven that stress and workplace pressure affect both ethical acting and leaders’ recognition of ethical dilemmas. In addition, it seems that decision makers sometimes compensate themselves in an unethical way caused by a lack of reward and frustration over poor teamwork. Eventually, acting unethically towards your staff, other decision makers and clients leads to negative corporate relations within and outside the company, consequently affecting the corporate culture, efficiency and therefore its financial results. This means that maintaining good business interrelations is of great importance. A way to do so, is for instance more positive feedback on what has been accomplished and enforce the bond and loyalty with the corporate executive and its staff.
Recent study² has proven that stress and workplace pressure affect both ethical acting and leaders’ recognition of ethical dilemmas. In addition, it seems that decision makers sometimes compensate themselves in an unethical way caused by a lack of reward and frustration over poor teamwork. Eventually, acting unethically towards your staff, other decision makers and clients leads to negative corporate relations within and outside the company, consequently affecting the corporate culture, efficiency and therefore its financial results. This means that maintaining good business interrelations is of great importance. A way to do so, is for instance more positive feedback on what has been accomplished and enforce the bond and loyalty with the corporate executive and its staff.
In my opinion, I can fully understand that moral issues and extensive negotiations combined with stress, brings the corporate leader to a certain level of unethical behavior.
For example, imagine you are a crisis manager and it is your responsibility to remove employees from their job in order save costs. In this case, I believe that acting strictly is a ‘must’, although this implicates an ethical burden on the crisis manager.
I’m convinced that great leaders are those who have high stress tolerance and are able to operate effectively in stressful situations.
I’m convinced that great leaders are those who have high stress tolerance and are able to operate effectively in stressful situations.
Kenn Crombé
¹ Friedman, Milton, ‘The Social Responsibility Is To
Increase Profits’, New York Times Magazine, September
13, 1970, pp. 32–33.
² Ethical Decision Making in Organizations: The Role of Leadership Stress, Marcus Selart, Svein Tvedt Johansen,2010,
http://www.springerlink.com/content/545337233h013508/fulltext.pdf
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