What Ethical Standards Should Guide Business Practices?
Posted: Thursday, December 08, 2005
by Rose-Marie Chaperon
Chaperon Consulting, LLC
Ethics is defined as the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation, it is also called moral philosophy the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. (www.Brittanica.com, Peter Singer) According to "John C. Maxwell, ethics 101" The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles. However the term ethics is a more complex term than defined, it is a very complex issue that many businesses are faced with implementing ethical standards guidelines. Ethics is never a business issue, a social issue, or a political issue. It is always a personal issue. People say they want integrity however they are uncertain about the true meaning of integrity. But at the same time, ironically, studies indicate that the majority of people don't always act with the kind of integrity they request from others."
Companies have to differentiate between what is ethically correct or incorrect the concept of ethics and its influence on organizations has not been addressed to its full potential. (The Oncologist, Vol. 9, No. 1, 37, February 2004) Business owners, employers, and consumers have different views when it comes to ethics. People have a fear of the unknown, if something is not working properly instead of finding different approaches they tend to let it slide. When a company is aware that a person is ethically challenged, they need to take a different approach, such taking corrective action when needed. They must also work to identify the issues and prepare a plan of actions should the issue arise in the future. Change is a complicated process, organizations change in an incremental fashion, although there may be regulations that change overnight, as a result of judicial or legislative decisions, organizations must find a way to follow these regulatory compliances.
In the world of CMS (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services) Healthcare corporations must report to their fiscal intermediary any on a quarterly basis of any money overpaid to them erroneously, no matter the amount of the overpayment. (www.cms.gov, Med-learn Matters) Now is the issue the person who must report the overpayment is also the person in the company who is responsible for increasing the company's net account receivable. Now raise the question of an ethical dilemma that can be defined as an undesirable or unpleasant choice relating to a moral principle or practice. What is that person supposed to do in such situations? Does she or he do the easy thing or the right thing? For example, what should that person do when a clerk from CMS gives me too much money on a patient account? What should I say when a convenient mistake can raise her accounts receivable intake tremendously?
An ethical dilemma can be defined as an undesirable or unpleasant choice relating to a moral principle or practice. (John C. Maxwell Ethics 101) As human beings, we seem prone to failing personal ethics tests. Why do we do something even when we know our decision is wrong? Do we cheat because we think we will not be caught? Do we give ourselves permission to cut corners because we rationalize that it is just one time? Is this our way of dealing with pressure? Sometimes the account receivable manager knows his or her approach is wrong, however by not bringing enough cash on a monthly basis, can result in a job loss. Also there are other factors can cause people to behave unethically, such as the fear of loosing one's job, the potential of improving cash flow and defrauding the government. The author assumed people do not report ethical issue because of fear, although the assumptions maybe correct, however it maybe far more complicated. People feel as is they are rats, they are afraid of the six pillar of characters, trustworthiness, respect, responsibility, fairness, caring and citizenship. (Josephson Institute 2001)
Who has the ultimate responsibility to report an ethical issue to the government? (Pugwash workshop science and ethics) This information, however, raises the question of whose values should prevail? Because ethical issues today are of unprecedented complexity, developing a global consensus on values and, eventually, a shared morality-is especially challenging. We discussed a proposal to avoid both relativism (which provides no means of making normative judgments) and absolutism (which can hide power relations or lead to totalizing structures when minority views are eliminated).YOU DID? Did I miss something, where are the two proposals. The goal is to make the process of reaching ethical positions transparent, so that all the relevant parties know what is at stake and can contribute to the process however they are uncertain about the true meaning of integrity. This was a vary biased assumptions, not everyone is uncertain about the true meaning of integrity, people do not want to come forward in reporting issues, because they take the rat race approach, even if you race , you are still a rat. (Josephson Institute 2001)
Research on moral standards and business ethics is sparse. Weber in 1998 found that 85.9 percent of managers claim that they draw their moral standards at work from the expectations perceived in the work environment. Trevino (1990) adds that organizational norms that are embodied by the corporation's culture are strong determinants of individual thought and behavior in the workplace. Gillespie (1997) notes that corporate culture is recognized as a key contextual influence in establishing and maintaining norms. (www.ethicsandbusiness.org/strategy.html - The Center for Business and Ethics at Loyola Marymount University)
The purpose of improving healthcare business ethics worldwide officers should be committed to acting with integrity and in accordance with the highest ethical standards. They should establish several corporate resources to support their employees in fulfilling that commitment. Healthcare facilities Values and Purpose statements should reflect fundamental beliefs about who they are and what they do. Especially in a large and diverse organization that operates in an ever-changing environment, their Values, and purpose statements should provide consistent guiding principles. "Doing the Right Thing" should be a worldwide code of conduct. It sets forth, in general terms, company expectations of acceptable behavior in a variety of areas including healthcare regulations, conflicts of interest and data privacy protection. It also informs employees about where they can obtain additional guidance. If a healthcare facility incorporates "doing the right thing" motto as part of their culture of doing business, they should have no room for mistakes. (www.ache.org ethical decision for healthcare executives 2003) The author's statement seems like a very strong statement, I especially like the part about "no room for mistake" what the writer seemed to leave out is that mistake will always happen, no individual is perfect in their decision making processes unless everyone in such corporation has a law degree.
Doing the right thing, may have different meaning to different individuals. The writer's argument has a weak point because it's based on a presupposition that as long as all the perks and policies are in place, everything will be perfect. A strong argument would be the same as Paul Lambert's philosophy (how to make mistake) It would be a mistake to try to avoid all mistakes. Indeed, it would be a colossal blunder to attempt doing things right the first time, every time. The only people not making mistakes are ones playing their game without risk and without novelty - and I might add - without progress. If your company cannot accommodate, even reward, failure - in the long run, you cannot succeed. Why? Doing things wrong is the number one - perhaps the only - source of innovation. David Kelly, CEO of design firm IDEO, says, "...enlightened trial and error beats the planning of flawless intellects...The reason is simple: the best solutions to most problems are rarely the most obvious."
James Joyce said it poetically, "Mistakes are the portals of discovery." Think about it. What did you ever learn by doing something right the first time? Within ten years. But we need these failures - without them there would no companies to survive. If you are in the surgery business or fly airplanes for a living, you may not want to make any mistakes. But for the rest of us - especially if you are in a technology business - doing things wrong is prerequisite to doing things right. As the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, "If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done." In the spirit of failing quickly, here are a few ideas and tips for you to try out. Some will work for you. Others will not. Try and fail. Forget about total quality and zero defects. You can't afford it, especially in this day and age. Think of the 80/20 rule, or extend it to 90/10. There is a level of quality beyond which "mistakes" are a viable economic alternative. Unless the outcome of your product or service impacts life or death. The cost of perfection can not be justified. Use the errors you generate as opportunities to improve your production process and practice great customer service. Remember, the hallmark of progress is making mistakes. (www.lemberg.com)
The irony with all these different solutions to the dilemma of ethics is that they will not help solve the problem facing business ethics. There are two major approaches, which the federal government uses in handling ethical dilemmas. One is to focus on the practical consequences of what we do, and the other focuses on the actions themselves and weighs the rightness of the action alone. The first school of thought argues that if there is no harm, there is no foul. The limitations and drawbacks to this approach maybe implement only one approach to ethics (e.g., utilitarianism). Some try to determine moral relevance too early in the process. Some do not recognize destructive interactions between steps (e.g., when later steps invalidate earlier steps). Some fail to offer a quick resolution once a pivotal consideration has emerged. Some do not allow a fact or an assumption to be withdrawn once it has been introduced. Some have steps that appear to be out of order, in violation of prerequisites.
The second claims that some actions are simply wrong in and of themselves. Step One: Analyze the consequences, who will be helped by what you do? Who will be harmed? What kind of benefits and harms are we talking about? (Some are more valuable or more harmful than others: good health, someone's trust and a clean environment are very valuable benefits, more so than a faster remote control device.) How does all of this look over the long run as well as the short run? Step Two: Analyze the actions. Consider all of the options from a different perspective, without thinking about the consequences. How do the actions measure up against moral principles like honest, fairness, equality, respecting the dignity of others, people's rights? Do any of the actions "cross the line?" If there is a conflict between principles or between the rights of different people involved, is there a way to see one principle as more important than the others? Which option the least problematic actions? Step Three: Make a decision Take both parts of your analysis into account and make a decision. (Cynthia A. Classen - Solving Ethical Problems in Medical Settings during Psychological Assessment: A Decisional Model)
What should the guidelines be?, first is to give full quality for what is paid for and according to what is advertised in the healthcare world what was billed. We must accept responsibility for both the quality and the amount of our product or service. (Ray Cotton from the Probe Ministry) As a business owner, we should ask ourselves, as an employee of this institution do I fairly represent the company in my decision-making? As an employee, do I give a full day's work for a full day's pay? Second guideline should be total honesty as it is easier said than done, although, we will frequently fail, our intent must be total honesty with our employer, our co-worker, our employees, and our customers." This is a difficult principle to adhere to especially if the involved party knows that sometimes there is no possible way for anyone to know. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through." We must ask ourselves, are we very honest in reporting our use of time, money, and accomplishments? Third guideline is personal responsibility, we should practice what we preach and do as we say. We must take full responsibility for our own actions and decisions.
We should not try to excuse our actions based on pressure within our business or organization to do what we know is not right. We all fail at times to do what we know we should do. We must then accept the responsibility for what we have said or done and not try to pass that responsibility on to someone else or try to blame it on some set of circumstances.
Theoretically speaking, these would be great ways to solve the ethical problems. Last year in the U.S. alone 257 public companies with $258 billion in assets declared bankruptcy. This was a huge increase over the previous year's record of 176 companies with $95 billion. This year will certainly be worse in terms of big companies going bust. Big Fortune 500 companies are not expected to collapse. Taking a look at what went wrong and why these companies failed reveals moral and ethical shortcomings. (Peter Koestenbaum, 2002 Leadership facing moral and ethical dilemma) Although, there maybe many approaches to fixing these dilemmas, we cannot forget that there are certain limitations to the solutions presented, there is a wide variety of limitations such as people cannot deal with situations that change rapidly while they are under analysis. Some make no provision for regression (backtracking) or for re-doing a step. Some expand too many thousands of small steps when used in complex situations. Some need elimination, simplification or other types of problem-reduction steps. Some cause conflicts and ambiguities to surface but offer no effective way to deal with these problems. Some require a high level of situational ethical awareness in the very first step. Some provide no way, in later stages, to update information developed at earlier stages. Some could benefit from doing certain steps in parallel. Some do not degrade gracefully under pressure of time.
www.Brittanica.com, Peter Singer According to "John C. Maxwell, ethics 101" (The Oncologist, Vol. 9, No. 1, 37, February 2004 www.cms.gov, Med-learn Matters John C. Maxwell Ethics 101) (Pugwash workshop science and ethics www.ache.org ethical decision for healthcare executives 2003) (Cynthia A. Classen - Solving Ethical Problems in Medical Settings during Psychological Assessment: A Decisional Model)
Josephson Institute 2001
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More commentsgreat article
I think it was a great article
Rose, I think you did a wonderful job on this article, maybe you should consider a career in healthcare ethics. Please contact me I would like to speak with you. Thank you. My name is Peter Olivett, I am an attorney in Los Angeles
I love it
yes it was very helpful.
Hi Rose, this article was a great article, so what do you think of the issue with Tenet Healthcare Corporation? Do you think that 900 million dollars was a slap in the hand?
I am one of VP for Catholic Healthcare Initiative, I think that $900 million was a slap in the hand for Tenet. The government should have closed them down.
Lady, great article, I used it in one of my classes, I received an A+. Thanks
Wow, my friend was right, you are beautiful.
Response to the VP of CHI - I would not say that $900 million was a slap in the hand for Tenet. Tenet had o sale a few of their hospitals to pay the fine. A lot of good people ended up loosing their jobs. I think it was a lot of money, I do not think it was fair.
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