Our employees, officers and volunteers are ethical, so we don’t need to worry about values.
Fostering our core values doesn’t presume personnel are bad people or lack values. Let’s face it – organizational life is complex, and good intentions only get you so far. If decision making was always easy, and workplace life predictable, there might well not be as great a need to talk about our values. But the only thing predictable about organizational life is that it’s unpredictable, and we need all the help we can get. Values provide us with a common language, and a solid point of reference as to whether the going is tough or smooth sailing.
Values and ethics are best dealt with by theologians (and the Ethics Centre).
Organizational values and management ethics are critical to a healthy workplace. Sure there’s theology and philosophy on the back-end, and the Ethics Centre is always available to help, but it’s where the rubber hits the road that makes the difference. You are the face of The Salvation Army. It’s non-negotiable that you understand the important role that our core values play in organizational life. You take them off the page and put them into practice.
“Don’t just print, post & pray.” Good advice from another ethics resource centre in a list they entitle “Ten things you can do to avoid being the next Enron
Values and ethics are superfluous – of course The Salvation Army is a good organization.
Back to point number one – good intentions don’t always lead to good results. There’s no question that we’ve got an enviable reputation. It’s in our hands to maintain that reputation, and there’s no easier way to do that than to ensure we’re an organization that lives our core values. They’re definitely not superfluous.
Values are more important for a social services ministry unit than a corps.
Interesting that we often think that church is less vulnerable to unhealthy values or poor ethics than other ministry units, isn’t it? But that’s not true. All of our ministry units are complex – whether there’s one employee or hundreds, whether they’re led by an officer or a lay person, Salvationist or non-Salvationist. Our core values must be lived and evident in everything we do, everywhere we do it – the pulpit on Sunday and the counselling session at a Harbour Light, the thrift store warehouse and the moms & tots weekly gathering.
Values and ethics can’t be managed.
In fact they’re always managed – but not always intentionally or directly. The manager’s behaviour, the leader’s reputation, the policy manual – they are all influences on workplace values and ethics. So consciously and unconsciously, we’re managing our organizational ethics and values. It makes a lot more sense to do it intentionally, don’t you think?
We haven’t broken the law, or contravened policy, so we’re ethical and living our core values.
Operating within the limits of the law and policy ensure actions don’t contravene the rules. But one can easily exhibit poor values or unethical behaviour while following those rules. Breaking the law or violating policy often begins with poor value judgements or unethical behaviour. The boiling the frog concept is a good example of this. If you put a frog into a pot of hot water, it jumps out immediately. But if you put the frog in a pot of cool water and slowly heat it, it won’t jump, and it will end up cooked. We don’t want to be the boiled frog!
Managing ethics and values in the workplace has little practical relevance.
If good management practice and healthy workplace culture are irrelevant, then that statement is correct. We know otherwise, however. Ensuring our core values guide our behaviour is one of the easiest ways to ‘manage’ ethics. Behaviour and values – they’re always intertwined.
Values and ethics are the flavour of the month and will go away soon enough.
Did you know that Cicero wrote about business ethics 2,000 years ago? Strong organizations are built on strong values and solid ethics. They are not going away and that’s something to celebrate.
Hey, did you remember that celebration is one of our core values?!
