March 11, 2009

Edited and Written by Ira S. Wolfe

Published by Success Performance Solutions. Major Sponsor,

2008 Best Places to Work In Pennsylvania

What's Inside this issue of The TotalView:

1.  Questionable ethics or just bad behavior? You decide

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings

3.  Ethical Behavior Assessment

4.  Link Me, Tweet Me, Nudge Me Webinar

5.  Quotes from the Hire Authorities

1.  Questionable Ethics or Just Bad Behavior. You Decide

Everyone knows right from wrong. Right?

Establishing a code of ethics for your business might be clear as mud to some people. Based on responses to a post I made to my blog last week, what's ethical and what's not seems to be subject to a lot of personal bias. What do you think?

Think about these business ethics scenarios that happen in organizations every day.

• An employee surfs the Internet shopping for personal items on company time.
• A plant manager decides to ship product to a customer even though he knows the parts have a quality problem because the problem doesn't affect part function and the customer probably won't notice.
• An employee spends several hours a week on her cell phone talking with her children and their associated caregivers, schools, and friends.
• A salesman marks parts as "sold" in the company data base thus depriving others of the ability to sell the parts, even though his sale is uncertain.
• An employee takes extra office supplies home to stock his home office.
• A small business owner reports entertainment expenses for clients under advertising to get a full deduction.
• An accountant tells a supplier that their "check is in the mail" when he knows he hasn't written the check.
• The administrative assistant tells a caller the boss isn't in when he's standing very near.
• Extending vendor payments from 30 to 60 days and longer when you agreed to pay promptly.

Do any of these situations sound familiar? Sure they do. You encounter these and others like them regularly if you spend any time in organizations. Are these decisions being made by "bad people" or "good people" making questionable ethical choices?
I've received dozens of off-line comments and few on-line ones, too. 

Comments on-line and off-line to this post have ranged from "this isn't an ethical concern. It's just inappropriate behavior" to "it depends."  One commenter stated that ethics was black and white but went to explain why company culture may alter what is ethical and not. The varied responses in themselves indicate that establishing a code of ethics may not be that easy.

What do you think?  Please post your comments on my Perfect Labor Storm Blog  (but don't hesitate to reply to me direct if blogs aren't your thing!)

2.  Perfect Labor Storm Warnings   

Subscribe to the Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 blog and receive skilled worker shortage updates like this:

Last month LinkedIn hit 36 million members and is adding new users at a rate of about one member per second. According to ComScore, it has gone from about 3.6 million unique monthly visitors a year ago to 7.7 million today.

Source: Workforce Magazine

Learn more about workforce trends. Purchase the NEW Perfect Labor Storm 2.0 books (soft and hard cover versions) at PerfectLaborStorm.com.

New Perfect Labor Storm videos added. Watch now!

3.  Ethical Behavior Assessment

Ethics is not just about individuals near the top of the organization but every individual, in every team at every level. People's values as individuals are critical to success as is their understanding of the ethical standards and values of the enterprise they belong to.

This questionnaire helps individuals to determine whether or not they are behaving in an appropriately ethical way in four specific categories of: Ethical Leadership, Ethical Commerce, Ethical Relationships and Ethical Controls

Learn more about your ethical behavior at our new  

Ready-to-Manage Webstore

or check out our March Free Trial Offers

The Affordable Training Solution for every size business.....and individuals too!

4. Link Me, Tweet Me, Nudge Me Webinar

WEBINAR - March 24, 2009 - 11 AM EDT
FREE Registration - Only a few seats left!

Keen to harness online networking and other Web 2.0 technologies, many organizations are experimenting with the tools or deploying them on a trial basis.

• How can your business apply social networking to your employees and customers?
• What are other businesses doing to leverage the new technologies?
• How will online networks change the way you do business?

There are many options and several legitimate applications. This seminar will help participants understand how social media will change the way they do business and how to leverage the applications to their advantage.

During this webinar, you will learn about:

• What the heck is social media (or Social Media 101)
• The new marketing toolbox: from blogs to Twitter
• Why you should consider using social media now more than ever
• Where and how to get started

Register today for Link Me, Tweet Me, Nudge Me

Or contact us to schedule a Link me, Tweet me, Nudge me presentation, keynote, or workshop at your next association, chamber, or in-service training!

5. Quotes from Hire Authorities

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years."
 
Mark Twain

Permission is granted to consultants, managers, business owners and HR professionals to reproduce content from this newsletter for your internal publications, or to distribute copies to your workforce, on the condition that you reproduce the credits and contact information as follows: "Reprinted with permission from Ira S Wolfe and Success Performance Solutions. Copyright 2008 Ira S Wolfe."  We also hope you will forward the newsletter in its entirety and recommend to others that they subscribe.

Ira S. Wolfe Copyright 2009 - All Rights Reserved. Reprints and other distribution by permission only.