This article is designed around two keywords:
– business ethics, abbreviated as BE and
– staff morale, abbreviated as SM.
Business Ethics.
There is a difference between morale and ethics and the best way to show this, is to add: “staff” and “business”. Business ethics is in general more specific and focused on good-practices in business; like that of a company’s practices in market behavior, in sales practices (intimidating clients) or accounting practices, etc. Business ethics is about scoping your business in an ethical way. All these (BE) are related to the employee representing a company and how it acts in name of this company. So are you going to permit your sales employees to sell cigarettes to children (under sixteen) and things like that? Where are the limits in achieving performance? Where do you draw the (business) line?
Staff Morale.
Staff morale is a different topic. It is more about how people (management, employees) work together in the organization. BE guide employees in the external market in contact with clients, SM should guide internal employees in activities, contact and communications. For instance; lying (from management to employee) is something that lowers staff morale. If a manager is not sincere he cannot expect the employee to be loyal and cooperative, etc. That is on the individual (manager-to-employee) level. On an organizational level, the culture of the organization influences staff morale; … a lack of trust in the organization, the morale will be affected.
Than in times like these with possible reorganizations, staff morale will be influenced too. Again sincerity defines who employees respond to lay-offs. If there is a credible approach that supports the reorganization than people will agree, and resistance can be handled. But if there is no rationality behind the lay-off the morale diminishes. Employees feel they are a target.
Business Ethics and Staff Morale.
Yet both affect each other. A company that is involved in bad business practices will influence the morale of the internal staff (a company that sells guns will attract employees who favor the use of guns…)
“Employees feel united and motivated when their company engages with its community and becomes involved with a cause.”
An example:
We recognize that our staff’s morale and enthusiasm is fundamental to reaching our goal of becoming one of the top … in the world. We are therefore committed to … a high standard.
Should a company use “staff morale” as a corporate value?
I wouldn’t recommend it, as it is very vague what it all means. It’s better focusing on a specific (corporate) value.
In the news:
– “By promoting business ethics, we hope to increase awareness not only among students, but also in the community.” (insideindianabusiness.com/newsitem.asp?ID=34786)
– Editor: There is a growing movement on the Internet that is trying to hold one Internet service provider accountable for its business ethics (mercedsunstar.com/perspectives/story/767312.html)
… And let’s not forget the Failure of business ethics in Finance over the past years… Maybe as a corporate value statement they (both BE and SM) are not needed, but business ethics as well as staff morale will gain in importance over the next years. The whole climate change topics is also about business ethics (our culture) in relation to mother nature…