Professional ethics doesn’t have to mean “ethics lite”

The close association between compliance, risk management, and ethics within the professional world can sometimes seem like it is compromising the integrity of ethics.

Rather than being truly concerned about what is right or good, professional ethics can appear to be concerned only with maintaining regulatory compliance and mitigating potential negative economic consequences

If an organization is so concerned with the financial and legal consequences of its actions doesn’t this dilute the attempt to do the right thing, to live a good life, and to support the flourishing of all people? In short, don’t financial and legal concerns erase the very identity of ethics?

The answer to this question is a resounding “NO!”

While regulatory compliance is, of course, a crucial benefit of professional ethics in all of its forms, to say that it is reducible to regulatory compliance is reductive and misses the potential for what professional ethics can be.

When an organization takes a check-box approach to professional ethics it really does reduce ethics to yet another irrelevant regulation, an administrative burden to be tolerated only to avoid penalty.

When an organization views ethics as fulfilling the moral responsibilities that the organization and its representatives hold towards themselves, the world, and other people, that organization becomes more than an economic player.

It becomes an active force for improving our communities.

Corporations and other organizations have the power to take part in this work by choosing to make ethics part of their organizational identity. This isn't just a business decision, it is a choice to take part in building a better world for all of us.

If you or your organization are ready to move beyond the check-boxes and to begin taking ethics seriously, reach out to us via email or our contact page to start a conversation.