Can you teach ethics?

SHARED From;

Evening Standard, Thursday 26 September

Integrity Is The New Must-Have Skill For City Bosses

 

Reputation is everything when it comes to finding a job and progressing up the career ladder.  Can you teach ethics?  Charles Elvin, CEO of the ILM, believes you can teach people to understand what could turn into an ethical dilemma.  Complex ethical dilemmas are not black and white.  Nobody sit in an office and planned to be scandalous: these things evolve.

Managers need to look two or three steps down the line to see if their organization could be compromised or a particular decision could later become an ethical dilemma.  This is important as the boundaries keep moving.  Just because you are able to do something does not mean it is ethical, and just because its legal does not mean it is moral.

Managers need the tools to identify ethical dilemmas, to think ahead and know when to intervene and how to prevent problems.