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-
- A JWT survey [reported in "The Day America Told the Truth]
- documents that both managers and workers cite low
- managerial ethics as a cause for competitive problems in
- our economic system.
-
- "Managers intimidate employees,violate safety standards,
- discriminate against minorities and women, make products
- that endanger lives and commit outright crimes."
- [Business Week, June 3, 1991]. Amitai Etzioni, professor
- of sociology at George Washington University concluded
- that in the last 10 years roughly 2/3 rds of America's 500
- largest corporations have been involved in some form
- of illegal behavior.
-
- Ethics have not been taught in the schools. The schools
- have been value neutral. As Peter Drucker has pointed
- out:
- "Ethics stays in the prefaces of the average business
- science book".
-
- Excessive greed,accompanied by dishonesty was a
- hallmark of the 1980's. But, how much greed is too much
- greed? Certainly some is essential to motivate people
- in a free enterprise system.
-
- "The foundation of trust and ethics has been seriously
- eroded by today's mobility,materialism, and by lust for
- power. It has also been devastated by the shocking
- collapse of family life." [Richard Capen,Vice Chairman of
- Knight-Ridder,Ethical Values : Trust Cannot be Legislated] .
-
- FACTORS CAUSING LOWER ETHICAL STANDARDS have been
- reported as follows [Steven Brenner, Harvard Business School
- Press,1989,"Ethics in Practice: Managing the Moral Corpora-
- tion"]:
-
- "Society's standards are lower; social decay; more
- permissive society; materialism and hedonism have grown; loss
- of church and home influence, less quality, more quantity
- desires.
- Competition; pace of life; stress to succeed; current
- economic conditions; costs of doing business; more businesses
- compete for less.
- Political corruption; loss of confidence in government;
- Watergate; politics; political ethics and climate.
- People more aware of unethical acts; constant media
- coverage; TV; communications create atmosphere for crime.
- Greed; desire for gain; worship the dollar as measure
- of success; selfishness of the individual; lack of personal
- integrity and moral fiber.
- Pressure for profit from within the organization from
- superiors or from stockholders; corporate influences on
- managers; corporate policies. "
-