Companies are organizations that seek profit, while many institutions pursue social goals. Both use metrics to assess whether they meet their short-, medium-, and long-term objectives. But do those objectives conflict with ethics? If not, how can corporate ethics and business profitability be measured together? What benefits does ethics bring to your organization?
The value of corporate ethics
The view that organizations can be sustained solely by financial gains—or solely by social values—has changed. Organizations now need another kind of added value: ethical value. Stakeholders have broader and easier access to information about companies and institutions. Meeting the challenge of transparency can bring significant benefits.
Corruption and business profitability
The growing visibility of corruption cases within organizations has exposed problems of corporate governance, business ethics, and organizational values. The twenty-first century has often been described as a continuing economic crisis. Yet there are more companies, more employees, and more wealth generated by consumption; alongside that wealth, greed and corruption have also grown.
What if the crisis were not only economic but ethical? Unrealistic targets, incentives based solely on money, disregard for established practices, limited concern for outcomes, and lack of transparency can all contribute to more cases of corporate corruption.
Business profitability can therefore become entangled with corruption when one element is missing: corporate ethics. This applies not only to for-profit organizations, our main focus, but also to institutions pursuing social goals.
Actions that support ethics and profitability
Identifying, correcting, or resolving problems is not enough. Organizations also need a culture of prevention that supports ethical profitability. This means creating products, services, benefits, and experiences on a solid ethical foundation.
An integrity program and a comprehensive ethics hotline system can strengthen corporate ethics by bringing best practices into business operations.
At EthicsGlobal, we want to add that value to your organization. Our 360 Model can help strengthen policies and processes and manage each ethics-related incident with the ease and confidence your team needs.
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