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Revised 11/16/08
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Abreaction
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Authoritative Deception
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Because I Can
Being Careful
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Bigger is Better
Billable Hours
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Boundary Ethics
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Business Ethic
Buttonhole
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Change Games*
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Com
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Customary Ethics*
Cutting Corners
Darwinian Ethics
Deal Breaker
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Fine Distinctions
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G&T Ratios
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Going-Off
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Good Faith Dealing
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Hatchet Job
Having an Agenda
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Histrionics*
Human Nature
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Impulse Ethics
Incompetence
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Initial Point
intimate
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Learning Curve
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standards
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straight shooter
struggle
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swept
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taking advantage
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Types of Businesses
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What If?
What the Client is
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Wheeling & Dealing
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Whimsy
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White Lies
Winners & Losers
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Work Ethic
Working Slowly
WTD
Young Blood
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Small Business Ethics
S. E. Bromberg
The evolution of ethics chronicles a
long history of problems related to the use (and misuse) of power,
money and emotions.
Some businesses
create conflict in the process of making money, while others create
a peaceful environment in which a business can grow and prosper. Being
ethical means having fewer problems, less stress and more respect from
the buying public. Respect and acceptance in a community derives certain
rare "nectars of civilization" that can make the business
experience rewarding beyond monetary considerations. A fundamental
choice business people must make
is whether to focus on short-terms gains or the long-term stability
and growth an ethical business produces.
The object of an ethical business is to build a stable environment
that minimizes unexpected problems and maximizes peace, prosperity
and productivity.
Philosophical ethics is a world away from the practical ethics of
business. Ethical rules have evolved (in real-time, not in theory)
from the effects
of bad management, greed, immaturity and inefficient actions. Business
ethics are a function of experience, of what works and what does
not. Real-time circumstances sometimes force a businessperson to
bend the
rules in order to survive. There are demands on the businessperson
other than raw survival that shape business ethics. The term "flow" for
example is a consideration in the practical ethics of business. If
a defect is discovered on an assembly line that degrades a product,
though not seriously, one does not simply shut down production so
that the product can meet the ideal.
There are many intervening problems in day-to-day business that prevent
business people from being totally ethical, consistent and fair.
The idea of ethics is a dynamic concept, so it is difficult to determine
in the moment what is ethical and what is not. What is more important
to know from an ethical standpoint is whether a deviation from the
ideal is temporary, frequently repeated or a permanent business strategy.
It must be remembered business ethics is about the human qualities
of a businessperson — not the angelic qualities. As such, when
a businessperson is overwhelmed, one must expect the possibility that
ethical rules will be temporarily bent. For example, you are overwhelmed
with work, your child is sick and you need to get home right away … but
you must finish billing out some work you performed for a customer
in order to receive the check. You do not know exactly how much they
owe you, but it would be un-businesslike to simply let the client leave
and collect later. So, you pick a high number that covers all the possibilities.
The bill technically is not consistent with your reputation for fairness
and price, but it is a price you simply must charge to plow through
you work and get on to more important tasks. This is known as an "ethical
lapse" — a short-term and rare occurrence in your business
experience. This is to say, ethics for a businessperson is not about
some philosophical idea of the mind. Rather, it is about trying to
attain a reasonable balance between the need to survive (and make
a profit) and meeting the ideal of ethical action.
The Business Ethics Learning Curve
Business ethics are more complex than they appear to be. Buying and
selling requires knowledge, intelligence, savvy and experience.
There is a learning curve to business. When a person goes to the
supermarket,
he or she enters into a business world where a certain knowledge
of produce and products is necessary to make sensible choices.
Young consumers
start at the bottom rung of a learning process that extends throughout
a lifetime. For instance, a supermarket marks goods in a way
that creates confusion and inspires “impulse” purchases. The buyer subsequently
learns to look more carefully at labels. The next rung of the business
experience ladder extends to the supermarket’s own buyer. The
grocery store manager might himself be an inexperienced buyer of produce.
His supplier promises him good fruit but instead supplies him with
marginal or tasteless fruit. Subsequently, the supermarket’s
buyer takes the time to open each box of fruit at the wholesaler
and taste the fruit. The wholesaler, who is in the next rung,
is also always
learning about business (but at a higher level of risk). He pushes
the tasteless fruit because of a farm that went to great lengths
to deceive and swindle him, threatening the survival of his company.
The
next time he makes a big purchase, he makes sure his representative
is not naive and distractible.
Everyone who participates in the buying-and-selling dynamic needs
knowledge, experience and savvy to maximize their gains. Everyone
in business “pays
their dues” as a result of inexperience. To simply brand a grocery
retailer who misrepresents the quality of his fruit as “unethical” understates
the complexity of business.
Ethical and unethical actions can be broken down into smaller pieces:
[Ed, note Describe each piece here.] Customary ethics may define mixing
good fruit with bad fruit as a harmless business tactic of a grocer.
But
this does not negate the fact that it is ethically questionably behavior
and a shady business practice that would not have needed to occur if
the grocer were more competent and experienced.
The Benefits of Ethical Practices
Why ethics in business? Ethical guidelines tend to maximize profits
while minimizing the conflict and disruptions that slow business growth.
Ethical practices also protect against legal trouble, sustain good
health and keep away the kinds of financial predators that can scar
an individual and destroy a business. When one is acting from as ethical
base, it is easy to recognize and experience contrast when dealing
with those acting unethically. Learning to recognize (and thereby avoid)
dishonest and predatory business people is one of the advantages of
ethical behavior.
The ethical nature of a small business can be broken down into three
categories: the legitimate businesses, the criminal enterprise and
those that operate in the gray areas between the two. Those who would
lean toward the latter two categories risk allowing deception to become
a way of life. Going down this path can ultimately ruin a business
as occasional temptations subtly transform a business into a criminal
enterprise.
Although a business may appear to be successful and prosperous,
there are harmful ramifications when behaving unethically. One
might appear
to be a successful contractor, when in fact that person’s focus
is on cheating the customer. That may result in more income, but the
associated negatives include damaged health, client hassles and legal
actions — not to mention a highly undesirable reputation within
the local community. While crime may pay, those who aren’t
good at it will suffer severe repercussions.
Of the nearly two hundred categories to be listed to the left
as links, the ethicality of business actions using a variety
of subcategories
to
highlight a particular activity. A business activity can be reputable,
disreputable or shady. Some actions are predatory, while others
are outright criminal. Some activities that seem unethical, such
as a
grocer
selling low-quality vegetables while creating high-quality expectations,
are customarily acceptable practices. This brings to light the
fact that there are standards of the industry in all business
categories that mitigate the ethicality of a sales tactic. Part
of the ethical
evaluation of an action might be whether it is a “professional” or “unprofessional” one.
EXAMPLE 1
Blustering
Blustering is a method used by unscrupulous business to
power their way through negotiations. It raises the conversation
from a rational level to an emotional one. Unless a client
has considerable experience with this tactic they run the
risk of ensnaring themselves in an ugly situation. Learning
to be a capable negotiator is like learning the martial arts.
Once a client enters into a heated argument they put themselves
on an emotional plane where they can be easily manipulated
and driven to overreact. Determining the ethically of blustering
is a complex undertaking particularly because negotiating
goods and service understandably takes intelligence, savvy
and skill. One cannot always blame the business person for
personal weaknesses. If a customer loses their grip on their
emotions it might seem it is their own fault. There were
likely clues in the character of the business person that
should have alerted the client to trouble down the road.
In theory, this tactic might be considered unethical because
it is a premeditated exploitation of a client. In down to
earth terms it is an ethically questionable action, there
are too many variables to firmly state it is unethical.
Links related to blustering
- Predatory business practices
- Intimidation
- Manipulation
- Fear Mongering
- Exercise of power
- Conflict
- Opportunistic
- Provoking/exploiting
- Threats
- Unprofessional
- Marginal business practice
- Overpowering
Consequence of blustering:
Loss of reputation, loss of business; reinforcing and
perpetrating aggressive attitudes clients can sense,
law suits, retaliation, outright violence, health issues
and emotional scaring that comes of repeated conflict.
A business cannot optimally grow and flourish if its
energies are diverted into repeated conflicts.
Blustering is not an optimal business practice. It
deviates from the maxim "do business in a business
like way." Business people who are professionals
follow standard protocols when trouble arises, and
they do it with decorum that gives their arguments
power in negotiations with clients
.
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Example 2
Concealing
Concealing information is a form of deception. This has been
a morally questionable activity as long as societies have existed.
Soft concealment involves activities that customary ethics
regards as acceptable within limits. Nevertheless, in order
for a society to evolve even customary ethics must change to
accommodate the civilizing process at work around the world.
Practical considerations are the source of much concealment.
Contractors, for instance, do not reveal every detail of error
they have made. Since the buying public does not understand
the complexity of the work being performed, they can emotionally "go-off" over
practically nothing. Business people learn over long periods
of time not to overload the client with every detail of their
work. It causes more trouble than it is work. In politics the
thrust of this argument is put forth in the sausage paradigm.
It goes to the effect that if you love sausage, don't watch
how it is made. The day to day practicality of the political
process is made up of element that are not always pretty, but
are necessary in today's political activities.
- Predatory business practice
- Omissions
- Deception
- Initial Point
- Customary Ethics
- Constructive Taking
- Marginal Business Practices
Consequences of deception:
Short term deceptions appear to be an ordinary part of business,
particularly where it is necessary to conceal the cost of materials
and products from the customer. There are deceptions of the
moment that are perpetrated and errors made due to lack of
attention.
Long-term patterns of deception can generally be said to lead
to a whole array of manipulations, monetary extractions, and
aggressive billing tactics. Maintaining al long-term business
more often than not requires striking a balance between honesty
and profits.
.
. |
Example 3
The Ethics of Whimsy
A whimsical action can sometimes be an unethical action
but right and wrong are sometime different between the theoretical
world of ethics and the down to earth world of work and struggle.
When a business person becomes overwhelmed with work they
adopt certain strategies to get of the mess. For example,
there is a pile of billing invoices to send out but there
simply is not time enough to be exact when writing down the
material costs .There may not even be time enough to remember
what the materials were that went into say the repair of
an automobile. But a professional service writer knows fairly
accurately the time involved in the job and materials used.
Being under pressure and exhausted the service writer might
be more demanding about making sure he is fully paid, making
the bill slightly more expensive than normal. Sometimes the
service writer might be interrupted by a particularly annoying
customer demanding a bill right now. Well, they get a bill
but with a few extra charges included. Here the owner whimsically
twisted the knife deriving some satisfaction in the process
brightening his dreary world of work. Whimsy can occur as
an emotional release from extraordinary tensions of the day.
Think of it this way, you have been overwhelmed and badgered
by demands all day. You head out to lunch in your commercial
vehicle. There are no parking spots but there is a place
in a yellow loading zone open to you. You whimsically assert
your power to commandeer the space for non commercial purposes.
There is an emotional release that helps sooth the pain of
the day in this exercise of power. The infraction of taking
the space is in theory unethical but in practice it is legal
and no one can do anything about it. Whimsy is such a rare
event as to be a minor problem in business.
Consequences:
Few if any. Whimsy by definition is a rare phenomena in
business. Even in a large multi national cooperation whimsy
has its place. Here whimsy might cause a bill to be increased
by $100,000. But the client played a part in pushing the
whimsy button of the corporate executive. The source of the
overcharge derived from a violation of protocols and decorum
on the part of the client. There are reasons why "business
must be done in a business like way" using the most
cordial of communications—things cost less,
and the arbitrariness of whimsy is put to rest. |
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These are ethics that are culturally acceptable while at
the same time being in violation of contemporary ethical
reasoning. In other words real-time ethics conflicts with
ethical theory. For example, supermarkets will sell fruits
and vegetables that look good but are of inferior quality.
They do this many times in response to their own buyer making
bad choices at the wholesaler. In most cases of customary
ethics real harm is not intended. Some aspects of life are
learned by experience. Buying a house is another place where
first time buyers pay more than they should, and ask to few
questions. In real time ethics (because of intense competition)
, total honesty works to the disadvantage of an honest broker.
It
is not
customary
nor
required by law that business people have to disclose every
detail of a contractual agreement. Customary ethics might
say these are acceptable practices but a conventional ethicist
might claim they are not. After all there is no public outcry
towards realtors or supermarkets concerning their business
practices. There are a couple of significant problems with
perpetuating some forms of customary ethics. First, there
is the problem of business becoming a competitive game in
which the "glorification of struggle" becomes the
ethical standard of conduct. Here cheating becomes a virtue
and success at cheating a badge of honor. Second, traditions
and customs of a predatory nature hold the society down and
keep society from reaching higher forms of social evolution.
This is to say social organization moves from self-serving
predation towards more enlightened forms of self-interest
and social cooperation. .
- Learning Curve
- Constructive taking
- Plausible Denialbility
- Going sideways
- Forthright
. . |
key words business ethics, consumer scams, corporate
scams
see www.business-ethics.us
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Dianic Publications
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