Company Culture

Ethics-Based Culture The author of this report has been asked to define and encapsulate the things that must be done, the actions that must be taken and the people that must be in place for there to be an ethics-based culture at a place of business. As the prior sentence implies, it takes more than one thing for a business to become, remain and stand tall as an ethics-based business.

It is not something that happens overnight, it is not something that happens by itself and it is not something that remains the case by accident or simple chance. While ethics-based cultures and businesses are all the rage in the scholarly sphere, actually delivering on the promise is easier said than done. The start of any ethics-based business is the man at the top.

If the man that runs an organization is not the pillar and example by which he wants the rest of the firm to model itself by, then things can go very sour quite quickly. For example, hyping an ethical culture at Tyco during the days of Dennis Kozlowki would have hit a sour note when it was known how he was pilfering and plundering his firm for his own merits.

The same could be said for Jeffrey Skilling (Enron), Kenneth Lay (also Enron), Richard Scrushy (HealthSouth) and some notable other ones. The latter of that list actually was acquitted the first time but was later convicted on a bevy of other ones. (Chicago Tribune, 2005). Once the right person is in place, whether it be the owner/operator or a hired executive, there has to be an establishment of a mission statement, a vision statement, core values and so forth. They cannot be poppycock and meaningless tripe.

They have to define and refine the very core of why the business operates, how the business operates and so forth. For example, if a business is highly centered value-wise on Christian beliefs and so forth, it would be less than wise to ever allow anyone to speak about Christians in a negative light, use profane language or otherwise directly contradict and nullify what is supposedly current policy (Staney, 2014).

Third and finally, the people that are hired into the firm have to match the company culture that a firm is trying to convey. People that are very hostile about Christians and such should probably not be hired into a firm that is Christ-centered, although one should be careful about discriminating based on religion. On the other hand, intolerance is intolerance and hostility is hostility and neither should ever be a desired trait of a prospective hire.

In any event, there needs to be a defined corporate and business culture with a firm and it needs to be exemplified and shown from the top down. People that are not on board with the precepts a firm follows should probably be passed over for other applicants. Current hires that fall off the proverbial tracks should be coach and/or released, depending on the nature of the infraction or dissonance (SIOP, 2015).

Conclusion There will surely always be corporate scandal in much the same way that there always has been evil and there will always be. Indeed, the victims of scandals are not.