Business Ethics are Human Ethics

The rules are pretty simple really. Treat other people fairly. Don’t cheat, steal, lie or cause harm to another person.

Most people play by these rules. They are good rules.  If other people are honest in their dealings with you, things are pretty good.

The reason we have to keep clarifying what is ethical and the reason we have to discuss it is because some people like to cheat to gain an unfair advantage. They view life as a competition and compete. And that’s not an entirely bad thing.  A competitive streak helps us strive to be better and to do better.

But even if we are just playing a game of Candyland, even the most cutthroat game of Candyland (and yes my family plays by our own rules - http://stuffjenlikes.blogspot.com/2012/07/hancock-house-rules-candy-land.html), we still have rules we have to follow.

The rules make sure everyone is treated the same and has the same chance of success. People who cheat rob others of the chance to succeed. It does real harm. Well, not if you are playing Candyland, but real harm if it’s in business. You get my point.

Ethics only really becomes complicated when people bend the rules a bit to see if they can get away with a little cheating. If caught, they argue, well, it wasn’t exactly against the rules, even if it was against the spirit of the rules. We as a society then have to employ lawyers and judges to judge and rule whether what happened was technically against the rules or not. (I don’t entirely understand the lawsuits involving the NFL at the moment, but my husband assures me, it’s about this sort of skirting the edge of the rules to gain an advantage sort of behavior by all parties.)

What I want to encourage you to do, as a human being, is to understand this: business ethics are human ethics. If you would consider it unfair if it happened to you, it’s unfair and therefore unethical, even if it’s technically legal.

And no, I do not respect those who bend the rules to their advantage. Just as I would consider such a person a cheater if I was playing a board game with them, I consider them a cheater and unethical if they employ such rule bending tactics in the world of business. Such behavior robs other people of the opportunity to succeed.  If you can’t win by playing fair, then maybe you don’t deserve to win.

To cheat or not to cheat

You can win by cheating,
but at what cost?

Obviously – I am a Humanist – so I am not inclined to cheat as I view it as not only an ineffective way to accomplish my objectives, it would also likely cause me more trouble than just pursuing my objectives honestly.

However, my friend Kent responded to one of my posts about why not to cheat in school by saying he disagreed.

“Consider the business cheat - he/she robs those that are honest by stealing money from customers, suppliers, and from competing business.  Consider the tax cheat - those honest pay more in taxes as a result.  The person that cheats at cards robs his fellow players. ... They cheat because it works.  Why invent time and effort into something when you can talk short cuts? Only those that understand the effect of their behavior on others can understand why we can't cheat, and must play fair.”

And, well, I agree with him. My original post was limited to the subject of education. That’s the problem with writing short posts. They can’t possibly be totally inclusive of all possible situations. Humanism is a situational ethic and so, different situations require their own ethical analysis.  

Kent is quite right – cheating in most situations does indeed hurt other people. The reason good people don’t cheat is because they understand the negative effect it will have on others and being the compassionate people they are, they don’t want to cause others harm.

However, there is still an additional self-serving reason not to cheat. It is this reason that I teach my son.  Cheating makes other people not want to have anything to do with you. If he cheats at monopoly for instance, I stop, get up and leave. He can win that way – but not really since I refuse to finish the game with him. What I want him to learn is that the best way to win is to win honestly. First: cheating victories aren’t very satisfying because you didn’t earn them. But even more important than winning is your social relationships. If you want people to like and trust you, you have to play fair. 

Image: Card by Luigi Diamanti -  FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Our Cheating Culture

I was contacted by a researcher who wanted me to share an infographic on cheating. Apparently because I talk about morality- she thought I would have an interest. Well, after looking at the graphic, I do.  If the information in this graphic is correct, cheating is very prevalent.

As I've said before, the only person who is really hurt by your cheating is you. (see blog post here). And that is something I firmly believe. You might achieve some short term gains, but ultimately, if you cheat, you miss out on learning and that is a tragedy. From a humanist perspective, education and knowledge is the key to living a happy and productive life. Cheat yourself out of learning and knowledge and you are essentially cheating yourself out of a happy and productive life. And why would anyone choose that path for themselves.

Anyway- here is the graphic - it's a bit long - but worth looking at:

Created by: OnlineMastersDegree.com

I'm too lazy to cheat

Was discussing teaching ethics to kids today on Whole Living with Terri Trescpicio - which is a Martha Stewart Radio program (and yes, I did just gratuitously name drop). Anyway, one of the topics was cheating, why not cheat?  My answer is that I don't cheat because I am too lazy to cheat.

I realize that might seem counter intuitive, but seriously, that's my reason.  First, the only person you really hurt by cheating in school is yourself.  Your teachers don't really care and are not hurt by it. Your parents aren't hurt, though they may be disappointed in you.  It really does turn out that the only person affected by your cheating is you.

Ok - so why isn't it a good idea to cheat if the only person affected is you?  Well, let me tell you a little story.  I was a level 1 student in high school.  One time I had to make up a test I had missed during the level 3 class.  I was shocked.  Those kids put more effort into cheating than I put into studying. So, right off the bat, the lazy person inside me was wondering why they were willing to work so hard to cheat, but not willing to work less hard to just, you know, study. Because, the lazy route to good grades, really is studying.

The 2nd thing that struck me was that for all the time and energy they put in, which was again, was significantly more than it would take to just read the friggin book, it didn't actually help them get better grades.  Their grades, with the cheating, were still crappy, which is why they were still in level 3.

Rationally, what they were doing doesn't make any sense.  They were working harder for bad results. They could have worked less hard and gotten better results just by deciding to learn the material instead of trying to cheat. So, not only did they not learn the material, they worked harder to not learn the material and their grades were still crappy. The mind boggles.

When you think about whether to cheat or not, take the lazy route and just read the darned book.