Employee Attraction and Commitment

Organizations are concerned about their ability to hire and retain the best workers. The evidence suggests that employees are more attracted to and more committed to ethical organizations. ‘‘People who know that they are working for something larger with a more noble purpose can be expected to be loyal and dependable, and, at a minimum, more inspired.’’

Graduating students at nearly 150 colleges and universities now sign or recite the ‘‘Graduation Pledge,’’ in which they promise to ‘‘take into account the social and environmental consequences of any job’’ they consider. They also pledge to ‘‘try to improve these aspects of any organizations’’ where they work. Elite universities such as Harvard and Cornell are participating. Prospective employers should be very interested in these graduates and their concerns that go beyond just making a living.

Recent surveys confirm that it may be important to consider how potential and current employees are affected by an organization’s ethics. In a survey conducted by Working Woman magazine, ‘‘a strong majority of those polled said that they would not work for a company with a history of environmental accidents, insider trading or worker accidents, or a law firm that defends known racketeers.’’30 In another survey conducted by a national opinion research firm, ethical corporate behavior, honest company communications, and respectful treatment ranked among employees’ five top-ranked goals—before good pay, which was 11th on the list, and job security, which ranked 14th. Ethical corporate behavior was ranked so high because ‘‘workers translate the ethics of the company into how they’re personally treated.’’ People ‘‘want to be proud of where they work.’’ They ‘‘don’t want to work for bandits, and when companies get negative publicity for their activities, workers suffer.’’

Managers Care about Ethics

Managers care about ethics in part because they face the thorny problem of how to prevent and manage unethical behavior in their ranks. Ask any manager for examples, and be prepared to spend the day listening. More than their jobs depend on this concern—managers can be held legally liable for the criminal activities of their subordinates.

Further, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimates that workplace theft costs U.S. businesses between $20 billion and $40 billion each year, and employees are thought to be responsible for much of it.32 In addition to self-interested behavior, employees may engage in unethical behavior because they think (rightly or wrongly) that it’s expected or that their behavior is justified because they’ve been treated unfairly. Or they simply may not know they are doing something that’s considered to be unethical.

Whatever its source, subordinates’ unethical behavior is a management problem that won’t go away. It becomes even more of a challenge as restructuring continues to reduce management layers, thus leaving fewer managers to supervise more workers. With more workers to supervise, the manager can’t directly observe behavior. Restructuring also increases the number of part-time or contingency workers. These workers are likely to feel less loyalty to the organization and may be more prone to engage in unethical behaviors such as theft.

Furthermore, more workers may cross the line between ethical and unethical behavior in response to fierce business competition and strict focus on the bottom line. Employees may believe that they can help the company succeed (at least in the short term) by fudging sales figures, abusing competitors, or shortchanging customers. Those who are potential layoff candidates are also more likely to flirt with impropriety.  Many perceive the message to be: ‘‘reaching objectives is what matters and how you get there isn’t that important.’’ Therefore today’s managers may have to work even harder to communicate the idea that ethical conduct is expected, even in the midst of aggressive competition.