An ethics office/program amounts to paper ethics; tends to relieve individual responsibility for behaving ethically; distances accountability; and gives a sense of impunity for unethical behavior. The same could be said, by the way, about corporate social responsibility and philanthropy offices and programs.
6. Structured Flexibility. I coined this term decades ago to stand for the right balance between too much and too little organization, between two many and too few procedures, and between too many and too few policies. The hierarchical structure is a perfect place for structured inflexibility. The reason, incidentally why I regard structured flexibility as a cultural feature is that people need to see it as "who we are, what we value, and how we operate."
7. Total Accountability. Besides being the guardian of all universal ethical values, a minimum level of accountability is absolutely necessary for any organization, or any society for that matter, to function. A model corporation requires the maximum level. For it to exist, corporate performance and that of its members must be managed totally and properly. How that is done is the subject of the next article.
[1] Toffler, B. Final Accounting: Ambition, Greed, and the Fall of Arthur Anderson. NY: Broadway Books, 2003
[2] My account of Boeing's troubles is drawn two sources: Gates, D. & Mundy, A. Boeing Lawyer Warns of Company's Legal Peril. Seattle Times,
[3] Josephson, M. (1988). Teaching ethical decision-making and principled reasoning. Ethics: Easier Said than Done, 1, 27-33.
[4] Robinson E. Toni Morrison's Measured Words. The
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