Fourth in a series on ethics in business communications for IABC Toronto's Communicator

"Because hundreds of thousands of business communicators worldwide engage in activities that affect the lives of millions of people, and because this power carries with it significant social responsibilities, the International Association of Business Communicators developed the Code of Ethics for Professional Communicators." - Introduction to the International Association of Business Communicators' (IABC) Code of Ethics.

ETHICS    

"In these times when public confidence and trust have been shaken,
I've learned the hard way that perception matters more than ever."
- Jack Welch, retired CEO for General Electric, New York Times

 
Between a rock and a hard place? Make the best of the situation.
by Dean Williams, Williams Savvy & Associates, Strategic Communications Counsel and Support
 
thics has certainly become fashionable.

As the powerful baby boom generation sees their retirement investments evaporate under a cloud of corporate scandal, the intensity of today's outrage is unequalled in the long history of corporate scandals.

In the mid-1990s, it wasn't easy to sell stories on corporate ethics. Corporate ethics  --  good or bad  --  was not a sexy topic.

But in today's post-Enron environment, the media can't get enough of it. Every wrong move by a corporation is magnified and sometimes distorted by special interest groups, the media, academics and other so-called experts. For example, who would ever have expected Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric, would be mentioned in the same breath with Enron's Kenneth Lay or Tyco's Dennis Kozlowski, and that GE could be compared with Enron?

  
 
 
           Is it fair for Welch's luxurious retirement perks to elicit the same degree of outrage as the accounting scandals linked to Lay or the fraud charges against Kozlowski? Welch was initially -- and some would say, justifiably -- defiant: "I fulfilled my obligations …G.E. did fantastically. Increased market cap $250 billion over that time frame [of his leadership]. Became No. 1 market cap in the world. Most admired global company five years in a row. I gave it all I had."

Welch subsequently wrote in a column to the New York Times that he would pay for the perks: "In these times when public confidence and trust have been shaken, I've learned the hard way that perception matters more than ever."

Perception matters more than ever indeed. And while PR is too often only about creating the right perception, in this environment of distrust, where even relatively good actors can get tarnished with the same brush as the very bad ones, business communicators had better try harder to ensure that there is substance behind the message.

More than ever, organizations have to do even more to keep customers and shareholders happy. They also have to spend more time courting employees, federal and international regulators, the media, non-governmental organizations, corporate-governance watchdogs, retirees, suppliers, and the local communities across the globe in which they operate -- many of which distrust large corporations.

        

"Looking over the history of corporate social responsibility,
I can see it as consisting of 95 percent rhetoric and five percent action."
 Milton Moskowitz, co-author of Fortune magazine's annual list
The 100 Best Companies to work For in America
    For decades, 'corporate social responsibility', or CSR, has been the favourite bandwagon for corporations to demonstrate their ethics and win trust. But veteran observers of the CSR movement such as Milton Moskowitz, co-author of Fortune magazine's annual list The 100 Best Companies to work For in America, has reluctantly concluded that CSR has just been a public relations smokescreen.

In the July/August 2002 edition of Business Ethics, Moskowitz writes "Looking over the history of corporate social responsibility, I can see it as consisting of 95 percent rhetoric and five percent action. Companies are adept at drawing up high-sounding mission statements. Changing the way they do business? That's something else."

While I don't believe that things have been as bleak as Mr. Moskowitz portrays it, I do believe that the future of corporate responsibility may be brighter than the past.

The latest rash of scandals and the intense public outcry has virtually guaranteed significant government intervention. Gone are notions that the Enron scandal would blow over within a year and corporate leaders are realizing the need to do more than put up public relations smokescreens.

The pressure is on. This was evident at a recent event in Toronto where Thomas d'Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives worried about a Canadian over-reaction to corporate scandals in the United States, while Paul Tsaparis, president of HP Canada argued that you can't legislate trust.

This maybe so, but as The Economist rightly points out, "Rules and laws never eradicate wrongdoing entirely. But they can constrain it, and some of America’s new measures may well do that…. Capitalism requires clear rules and credible markets and, if the evolution of financial markets over the past decades have taught anything, it is that the price of credibility is eternal vigilance."

If corporations want to head off excessive government intervention, corporations must not only be seen to be regulating themselves, they must actually regulate themselves  --  empty proclamations or a CSR campaign designed just to score some PR points won't cut it.

Our culture has changed and corporate culture must change with it. Ultimately, the responsibility begins with the CEO, but it does not end there.

Running any large organization means balancing a multitude of interests that aren't always reconcilable. Contrary to what some may think, CEOs, like everyone else, have deep-seated ethical values. But in trying to balance a multitude of interests they have also have a multitude of choices, and sometimes they end up choosing a decision that they have to rationalize to themselves and others. Sometimes a rationalization can spell trouble.

CEOs need to be more vigilant about the potential consequences of every rationalization. Aside from sowing the seed for potential negative publicity, CEOs set the standard of behaviour for their executives down through managers and frontline workers.

Leadership by example isn't enough. To be able to withstand scrutiny from the outside, any organization must live and breathe the same standard of ethics. Buy-in from employees at every level of the organization is essential. Employees can be your organization's best ambassadors or worst detractors; they can also be an excellent source of information and feedback on what works and what doesn't.

For business communicators, changing the corporate culture can mean the difference between performing issue management and crisis management; between promoting the brand or defending the reputation; between being heard and being trivialized.

Br vigilant for rationalizations that make you uncomfortable  --  chances are that the rationalization may not fly with your stakeholders either. Just as important, work at communicating your organization's code of ethics to all levels of the organization. And if you don't have a code of ethics that has credibility with the employees, then push to create a code that involves the employees in the process.

And while some business communicators feel they work in an environment where speaking up might be interpreted as "bucking the system", the fact is that your value to an employer or client isn't just based on how well you can write or how good your relationship is with the media. The value of the work that you do and the advice that you give includes your good judgement, your finger on the public's pulse and a keen sense of your audience's culture, standards, and expectations.

And if anyone still believes that they can get away with ducking the issue or settling for superficial PR, just remember that part of Enron's successful brand, emblazoned on everything from T-shirts to buildings, were the four words: "Respect," "Integrity," "Communication," "Excellence."

 
 

 

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