Balancing ethics with winning

 

Balancing ethics with winning

No one is telling companies they must balance being ethical and winning in business. The only real issue is social norms suggest companies provide a valuable, and honest product, otherwise they run the risk of a public relations nightmare. Being ethical is also a great safe, and realistic way to run a business, but it certainly is not a requirement. The functional area most closely related to ethical abuse in firms is marketing (Dincer & Dincer, 2014, p. 151). Companies have found that marketing can stretch the truth in very unethical ways, practically to the point they are outright lies.

Unbalanced Subway shoes

Take for example the marketing issue that surfaced with Subway a few years ago. Subway was using ingredients in their bread that were found in the production of running shoes and was known to cause cancer. Yet, Subway’s response was to run a series of advertisements that called attention to their use of “real bread” in their sandwiches. Although it was later proven the ingredients were not normally found in bread, Subway stood behind their efforts to disprove this in the public eye. Not only is it gross to think I eat the same ingredients that are in my running shoes, but that Subway lied about it. It’s sick to think about, and it’s the reason I no longer eat at Subway.

Delta’s blockade

In a more positive approach to marketing, Delta Airlines embarked on an advertising strategy that was centered on safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. One of Delta’s main objectives was to rebuild confidence in not only Delta’s network, but across the entirety of air travel. Within this strategy was Delta’s commitment to block the middle seats on all their aircraft, thus providing passengers more social distancing between each other. Delta continued to overemphasize their commitment to safety in all forms of print, and digital media. Even to this day, Delta is still blocking the middle seat, and I’ve yet to see or hear anything different from their initial opening salvo that centered around safety to passengers, and Delta employees. I look at this as a positive marketing solution that offered an honest answer, even if it meant millions of dollars in lost revenue. Codes of conduct and ethics policies, top management’s actions on ethical issues, the values and moral development and philosophies of coworkers, and the opportunity for misconduct all contribute to an organization’s ethical climate and that determines whether or not certain decisions are taken with an ethical view or not (Dincer & Dincer, 2014, p. 154). It appears obvious to me that Delta’s decision to block the middle seat on their airplanes was done with ethics in mind. I see it as the right thing to do, considering just about every other airline was packing their planes full, even if it was at the expense of social distancing.

Examples in leadership

With regard to leadership, the approach must be positive, and ethical. If it isn’t, then we’re left in a pseudotransformational situation where leadership is being used for the wrong reasons. Pseudotransformational leadership is considered personalized leadership, which focuses on the leader’s own interests rather than on the interests of others (Northouse, et. al. Bass & Riggio, 2018, p. 163). A leader must balance their desires with the outcomes that support the organization’s values, beliefs, and goals. If the goal is to make money, a leader should ensure that profit isn’t prioritized over ethical behavior, and decision making. We’ve seen what happens with companies like Enron when unethical behavior goes unchecked, while profits take center stage. In today’s world, there is always someone to take advantage of, and the only question is if you will do it. Strange as it may sound, there are millions of people, and thousands of companies that would do it in a heartbeat. Although our environments shape our habits, the resulting habits are not beyond our control (LaFollette, 2007, p. 96). Rise above them and set your sights on doing what is right.

References

Dincer, C., & Dincer, B. (2014, November). An Overview and Analysis of Marketing Ethics. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences November 2014, Vol. 4, No. 11 ISSN: 2222-6990. DOI: 10.6007/IJARBSS/v4-i11/1290

LaFollete, H. (2007).  The Practice of Ethics. Blackwell Publishing

Northouse, P. G. (2018). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7^th Ed.) Los Angeles, CA: Sage Publishing.