Values and ethics are a part of our everyday lives. We wake up to these values and beliefs each day as they are the “rules” that govern us. Ethics is not just about morality; it is a complex dimension of personal and corporate life that can lead to higher performance by both business and society. Individual experiences of values and beliefs stem from the personal point of view, a cultural perspective all the way to an organization perception. Although we hear a lot about immoral and unethical practices from various quarters – corporate, societal and personal, I am lucky to have worked with some great managers who stood by their value systems and challenged unethical behavior risking their own jobs. In this paper I will focus on an ethical action taken by Mr. Madison, Director of Higher Education Consulting, XYZ Corporation to illustrate how possessing good ethics can have a positive effect in the workplace. XYZ Corporation was known in the industry for fairness, integrity and credibility. I was part of the team managing the project schedule and implementation effort on this project.

While heading the implementation of a new financial application at Oregon University in 2001, Mr. Wilson faced a difficult ethical dilemma. As part of the new IT infrastructure, a web based application was developed using a new programming technology. The company engaged consultants and utilized most of the funds allocated for building this application. The software was not yet proven to work seamlessly as per the client’s requirements. In addition, there were many quality issues – design flaws, programs failures under simulated conditions, data corruption etc. If the software got deployed to production, there would be major operational issues and severe financial damage to the client. The client was deliberately insulated from these issues to prevent any re-work connected with quality issues. Because of the over-extended commitments made by XYZ corporation during the contracting process, the company was obligated to deliver this application on the agreed upon date and the date was nearing. The company vice-president gave the approval to go ahead with the deployment. At the time this decision was made, XYZ Corp. was struggling with falling revenues and shrinking markets due to the dot-com bust. The company could not afford to lose any existing contracts to competitors, but at the same time executives were instructed not to exceed any estimated budgets and look for additional revenue generation. Mr.Madison was surprised to hear this decision and knew how it would violate the company’s ethical principles and negatively affects their client relationship, employee productivity, job satisfaction and trust in other fellow employees. A devout Christian with strong cultural and family values, Mr.Madison felt that the decision also conflicted with his own personal morals – of being truthful, honest, caring, fairness and loyalty.

Being a certified project manager, Mr. Madison has to abide by the code of conduct from the Project Management Institute. Turn a blind eye to evil, and you may not be an accomplice. But you’re an enabler. Regardless of how the decision impacted, Mr.Madison could not compromise his principles. He took on the challenge of questioning the executive management about the unethical decision made and was willing to risk his job than act unethically.

After repeated attempts to convince his company not to deploy the software, Mr.Madison ended up disclosing the serious flaws prevalent in the web application to the client. He brought this matter to the immediate attention of the client since it violated contractual terms and his professional ethics. XYZ executives were more interested in the financial stability of the company and ignored the calls for strict quality checks. Mr.Madison took the decision in the interest of his company and moral self –to withhold company’s ethical values, maintain credibility and stay true to his personal values. The client immediately responded with a thorough review of the application development process, forced the company to fix the design issues and perform joint integration testing with the client. Even though the experience initially was uncomfortable, by complying with the client requirements and being outspoken about the glaring defects and taking the client into confidence, the project got extended and the contract was renewed for two more years. We often make small ethical compromises for “good” reasons: We lie to a customer because our boss asked us to. By relying on his moral principles and professional ethics, Mr.Madison prevented XYZ Corp. from ending up having a sour business relationship with the client. The company was able to reinstate trust and confidence among employees and adherence to ethical code of conduct was made mandatory.

Ethical Dissonance

In this particular case, Madison’s ethical principles were in conflict with the organization’s policy. His decision to expose the quality flaws were based on his own value system and ethical principles rather than on the organizational norm. Hiding the truth, lying blatantly and deceiving someone are gross violations of good practices. His belief in right or wrong can be traced to his family roots, religious and cultural influences. As a loyal employee bent on upholding the company’s reputation, he revealed the problems to the client because any reconciliatory measures taken as a consequence will create positive outcome for the company. Though in the near term the company will be forced to spend more to fix the software which will put additional financial stress on a struggling company, but in the end, being fair, honest and candid led to a sustainable business relationship.

On the contrary, the executives argued that their actions too were in the interest of the company. They were under tremendous pressure not to exceed budgets and not to incur any additional costs due to quality issues; they tried to hide facts and instead pushed for delivering a faulty software product. To them, saving the company from additional expenses was the right thing to do. They turned to unethical behavior and denied their own moral principles to take effect. Their perception of “good” has a different meaning and they tried everything in their means to oppose the views of Mr.Madison. Instead of contradicting Mr.Madison, the company should have addressed this issue on ethical terms and changed the way it does business in this situation. Minor ethical lapses can seem harmless, but they instill in us a hard-to-break habit of distorted thinking. Ethical decision making is the foundation for any sustainable business that will help realize the best values present in employees and transform business relationships.

Many people find their personal, cultural and/or organizational ethics conflicting and must reconcile a course of action that will mitigate cognitive dissonance. To uphold these values, one must reconcile these conflicts on a daily basis and continually move forward while maintaining personal integrity and balance. Ethical decision making provides opportunities to most affect our own happiness and to have the most positive effect on those around us and achieve the peace and happiness that are so threatened in these tumultuous, ethically-challenged times. In the long run, a company will reap great profits from a customer base that feels it is being treated fairly and truthfully.