Ethics, values and decision-making (Part One)

By Nwamaka Nwobi Okoye

Defining your values and ethics as a business is critical if you want to run an ethical and sustainable organisation. Let me explain.

An organisation bid on a project. The project was for a multinational organisation and a long-time client of theirs. In the initial stage of their business relationship with this client, they dealt directly with the CEO, who was impressed with their product and work ethic, so he kept sending business their way. Earlier in the year, he was transferred out of the country to lead the business in another country. This time, the organisation encountered the procurement team. The lady in charge of procurement, upon reviewing their bid, demanded a commission in exchange for awarding the project to them. In case you haven’t recognised it, she was demanding a bribe. Things were tough. Many businesses were closing down, in the aftermath of COVID and the subsequent downturn in the Nigerian economy. Under normal circumstances, the value of the project was not even worth considering such a proposition. However, in tough times, many people and consequently, organisations put their ethical stances on hold. The sales team desperately needed to close the sale to keep things afloat. They began to rationalize that it was just a commission, like a finder’s fee. After all, if they worked with an external agent, they would have paid them a commission anyway. What should the sales manager do? What would you do?

PLUS Framework
Because this scenario is common in Nigeria, it will serve an organisation that aspires to be ethical, to spell out what to do in a situation like the one above. WG Evans defines ethics as the guidelines for conduct, that address questions of morality. In addition to clearly spelling out ethical policies, and providing a framework for dealing with nuttier issues, consider introducing the PLUS framework in your organisation. PLUS is a mnemonic for Policies, Legal, Universal, and Self, proposed by the Ethical and Compliance Initiative (ECI) as a set of alters to help parse through decisions involving ethical issues. The framework involves 4 questions:

Policies: Is it consistent with my organisation’s policies, procedures, and guidelines?

Legal: Is it acceptable under the applicable laws and regulations?

Universal: Does it conform to the universal principles/values my organisation has adopted?

Self: Does it satisfy my personal definition of right, good, and fair?

The beauty of this framework is its robustness. Depending on the society, and the individual, the Self alter may provide a higher standard and call for deep introspection. However, because an individual’s ethics are derived largely from their personal principles and values, if they are ethically challenged, they would likely arrive at a course of action that may be deemed unethical when examined under different lenses. If a person has high moral standards, even if they answer yes to the other alters, if the proposed action does not pass the Self-test, then they should not proceed with that course of action. If their moral standards are low, then they must still subject the situation to the policies, legal and universal alters.

Values and Ethics
For the PLUS framework to work, the organisation must have a clear set of policies and guidelines on ethics. The organisation must also have a cohesive set of defined values. These values are not something that is just put in an HR manual and company website, but an actual description of the core principles and behaviours that are exhibited by members of the organisation. The values serve as a filter and an inspiration to act in a certain way. Pat Lencioni in his book: The Advantage, suggests using the descriptive phrase: “How we behave” in place of the word “Values”. He also advocates, using terms that are specific as opposed to vague terms when describing the behaviours that typify the organisation’s core values. For example in Housessories, instead of “Integrity” it describes the behaviour, “We do the right thing even when no one is watching”.

Values are subjective and inspire a person toward desired action, while ethics are prescriptive and constrain a person from engaging in an undesired course of action. Though ethics and values are not the same thing, an organisation’s ethics should not be misaligned with the organisation’s values.

While it is generally not essential that an organisation’s values explicitly refer to its ethics, one would go as far as to propose that in a country like Nigeria, where there are ethical land mines at every turn, an organisation that desires to be ethical, should boldly enshrine ethical behaviour into its core values. Doing so creates a Northstar to guide your team toward. It will attract people seeking to work in organisations that prioritise ethical behaviour. Including ethical behaviour in your values also signals to potential customers that they can trust you because they know what sort of behaviour to expect from your organisation.

To embark on this journey, look at your core values. Are they specific and descriptive behaviours that are easily identifiable? If they are not, consider reviewing them to arrive at values that spell out behaviours that are recognisable to your team members and stakeholders. Secondly, create an ethics policy guidebook. In the guidebook, define your bribery and gift-giving policy and address other ethical issues. Thirdly, train your team members on its content and continually emphasize its importance. The values will inspire them towards the desired ethical behaviour, while the ethics policy guidebook will set the boundaries to deter unethical behaviour when faced with issues.

.Nwobi Okoye is a thought leader on Ethical Leadership and Sustainability.