Business ethics and privacy in the workplace

T here seems an enormous difference of the opinion between views held by my business contacts regarding the importance of business ethics and that held within most academic circles. Indeed in an earlier paper [36] I analysed why so many employees question the very existence of business ethics. My own experiences in business lead me to feel some discomfort with much of what I read in the academic literature because it somehow didn't seem to address the real concerns of anyone having to make their way in working life. The denial of the existence of ethics in business by employees takes many forms. Many feel that following the letter of a company ethical code is all that is required of them; there is no requirement for any additional responsibility. Others share the view of Friedman that the only "social responsibility of business is to increase its profits" [1]. It is clear however, that we all have moral standards, whether we recognise them or not. Many employees believe that, whilst they themselves do not wish to be absolved of responsibility for their actions at work, neither they or anyone else in business is required to be morally responsible. Bird and Waters [2] have written about the phenomenon of managers refusing to acknowledge the moral content of their thought and behaviour, preferring to explain apparently altruistic acts in terms of utility to the company. The Moral Muteness of Managers is the term they use to describe the phenomenon. Business itself however tends to take a much more actively responsible role with regard to business ethics. In the UK, the Business In The Community organisation is made up of 400 of the largest British companies, 300 of which contribute 0.5% of pre-tax profits to charitable projects. Further, whilst it may be true that there is little awareness of ethical issues among managerial and clerical staff, there does seem to be an increasing readiness of companies to attempt to change this situation. Between 1987 and 1991 a quarter of companies surveyed internationally had sponsored new ethics programs and there was a 40% increase in the number of European company CEOs making ethical pronouncements [15]. The reason why companies seem to be coming more ethical (or least seem to be trying to do so) whilst their employees appear to believe that the organisations for which they work and the people with whom they work are interested only in profits is quite simple. It is attributable to the values implicitly communicated by the organisation itself. By emphasising the need for measurable financial success above the methods used to achieve it, many companies have created environments in which ethical considerations are regarded as no more significant than the choice of plants in the office. In addition the fact is that the methods used by organisations to communicate and reinforce the values of efficiency and profitability to their employees are far more advanced and sophisticated than those used to promote ethical awareness. Messages encouraging ethical neutrality in decision making are generally far stronger than those imposing ethical constraints. In the words of Saul Gellerman, "Ethics must be managed .... Setting a high moral tone at the top levels of management is necessary, but not sufficient" [16]. Techniques must be employed to balance the potentially conflicting goals of financial success and high moral standards. When this does not happen the individuals in the organisation are likely to believe that the only goal of the corporation is profit maximisation. In turn, if it is true that the only goal of the organisation is to maximise profits then the only responsibility of the individual in that organisation is to contribute towards higher profits. It is normal for the contribution an individual makes to an organisation to be measured in this way with no consideration given to the morality of the methods used to achieve results. The Protestant Ethic tells us that to be a good person we must work hard to achieve success and the business organisation tells us that success means profits and nothing else. Against this background, even the morally sensitive come to believe that ethics does not apply to business because the organisation provides no motive for any moral consideration. Due to the difference between the stated values of the business organisation and the personal values of the employee, manager or executive, it is also possible that individuals come to think themselves less worthy than their colleagues of their place in the organisation. There is a growing body of literature and research indicating that the ethical standards applied by individuals at work may be different [3] and probably significantly lower [4], [5], [6] than those they follow in situations outside the business environment. There is general agreement that social factors such as the ethical climate of the organisation and conformance to behaviour of peers and superiors play an important part in mediating ethical reasoning. An