home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Educational Software Cooperative 4
/
Educational Software Cooperative 4.iso
/
ethik
/
why.dat
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-02-28
|
2KB
|
55 lines
A JWT survey [reported in "The Day America Told the Truth]
documents that both managers and workers cite low
managerial ethics as a cause for competitive problems in
our economic system.
"Managers intimidate employees,violate safety standards,
discriminate against minorities and women, make products
that endanger lives and commit outright crimes."
[Business Week, June 3, 1991]. Amitai Etzioni, professor
of sociology at George Washington University concluded
that in the last 10 years roughly 2/3 rds of America's 500
largest corporations have been involved in some form
of illegal behavior.
Ethics have not been taught in the schools. The schools
have been value neutral. As Peter Drucker has pointed
out:
"Ethics stays in the prefaces of the average business
science book".
Excessive greed,accompanied by dishonesty was a
hallmark of the 1980's. But, how much greed is too much
greed? Certainly some is essential to motivate people
in a free enterprise system.
"The foundation of trust and ethics has been seriously
eroded by today's mobility,materialism, and by lust for
power. It has also been devastated by the shocking
collapse of family life." [Richard Capen,Vice Chairman of
Knight-Ridder,Ethical Values : Trust Cannot be Legislated] .
FACTORS CAUSING LOWER ETHICAL STANDARDS have been
reported as follows [Steven Brenner, Harvard Business School
Press,1989,"Ethics in Practice: Managing the Moral Corpora-
tion"]:
"Society's standards are lower; social decay; more
permissive society; materialism and hedonism have grown; loss
of church and home influence, less quality, more quantity
desires.
Competition; pace of life; stress to succeed; current
economic conditions; costs of doing business; more businesses
compete for less.
Political corruption; loss of confidence in government;
Watergate; politics; political ethics and climate.
People more aware of unethical acts; constant media
coverage; TV; communications create atmosphere for crime.
Greed; desire for gain; worship the dollar as measure
of success; selfishness of the individual; lack of personal
integrity and moral fiber.
Pressure for profit from within the organization from
superiors or from stockholders; corporate influences on
managers; corporate policies. "