Winners Never Cheat ?

Why write about ethics, morals and trust? Is it possible to write a blog on a subject which can be turned inside out? A subject which everyone has a point of view about, not only that, a subject that many people believe they do not have a problem with. 

Throughout my many years in the business world, as an executive and in recent years as a consultant for thousands of professional negotiators in all kinds of companies, I have noted something quite disheartening. Trust, morals and ethics seem to have diminished.

59% admit to having cheated in one way or another at an exam when they were students.        

Since work is an integrated part of life, this behaviour, this jungle capitalism is ‘catching’. As the founder of IKEA, Ingvar Kamprad, puts it “on the private side of life: on upbringing, on living together, on relationships and on one’s own integrity and values.” At the same time I have noted a lack of attention to the subject. In the business world not much has been spoken about it. In the media not enough space has been given to it and in the schools not enough has been taught on understanding of the subject. 

Pacta sunt servanda (Agreements must be kept)

In many areas there is a discrepancy between what people say and what people do, a discrepancy that is often governed by greed, the desire to earn more, faster or put pressure on an already stretched budget.  The constant striving after cheaper and cheaper services, products and bonuses is like a vicious spiral which unfortunately has its knock-on effects in increasingly low morals, poor ethics and undermined trust. There is no doubt that we need to stop and look at the ’old´ values: a word is a word and one does what one promises. Financial goals must not outcompete trust and relationships and greed must never replace ethics and morality. 

Funnily enough, most people who I talk to do not think that they are the ones with a problem with their own morality, ethics or credibility. But they share my view that morality and trust are declining in the business world and on the political scene generally. In a survey that I conducted, 76% of all respondents believe that senior managers and politicians today are rather rough around the edges and that senior managers and politicians do not run their company according to ‘the golden rule’ or with focus on morality and ethics.  At the same time this group finds that senior managers and politicians are responsible for the decline in ethics and morality. In the same survey 59% admit to having cheated in one way or another at an exam when they were students.  The whole thing begins with you and I.   

An era is making its way into the business world.  Out go glitz and stardust, big wage packets and the perks; in come ethics, morals and the ‘good old values’ 

The good news is that I have found out that ‘winners never cheat’.  That is to say, companies, organisations and individuals that have integrity, a set of values and a sense of social responsibility which they observe succeed better than people who take the easy option.  Many studies and surveys have shown that companies that have an ethical code and abide by it produce better results than companies that take short cuts. 

Now companies cannot as such have low morals or high morals. Generally, companies cannot be trustworthy or untrustworthy. But people can, and people make up the constituent parts of a company. In negotiations which I have been involved in for many years, I have noted the same effect. People who are sincere generate credibility and comply with ethical and moral codes; they produce better results than those who think that everything is permissible.  Disappointingly enough, our surveys indicate that up to 47% of all negotiators believe that it is okay to ‘bluff’ in negotiations. In the United States the tendency indicates however that people have started to take on consultants who are there to help raise awareness on ethics, give people training in good ethics which involves a change in behavioural awareness.  

I am not able to write a manual on good or bad ethics and morality. I am not a judge of what is right and what is wrong. I am exactly the same as you. I know what it is like to have a gut feeling that was saying ‘no’ to me, but I went ahead anyway despite it being in conflict with my values. 

This blog is meant as an ’awareness raiser’, a plea to generate attention to trust, ethics and morality. To get people to understand that trust between people is the focal point of all relationships, private as well as work; and no agreements and contracts on this earth have any value without those involved being trustworthy and understanding how to respect the ethical and moral code. 

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For more information on the value of trust, ethics and morals in negotiations, please visit www.103steps.com