EvilCorporationsEthics3-3-01pg2

"Evil" Corporations: Ethics at the Core? (page 2)

Just as a pebble thrown into a pond creates ripples that can alter the pond as part of the evolutionary process of that pond, each individual can send ripples, however small, through an organization and its culture with their actions. Their actions may reinforce the culture, or they may alter them forever. With each individual act to alter the culture of the organization, the current culture is broken loose for alteration. The first steps may be harder to take, and the impact of them may not be easily seen, however, don�t be mistaken, the culture changes.

Is there need for change? Just as with any group, corporations have some good corporations and some bad ones. Each corporation has some good people and some bad people. However, the focus on economics in America and the actions of corporations nationally and internationally, do lead one to believe that a shift in corporate culture may be needed. With corporations dumping waste illegally, with penalties that are only a small percentage of the profits that will be made on that day, there seems to be a need for change. Dumping is just one of many symbols of corporate profits being held as a higher value than societal good.

While capitalism and the drive for profit is one of the key factors that keeps corporations growing, keeps people employed, keeps driving innovation, and gives us many benefits, it seems that values of ethics within corporations have been lost. Individuals make these decisions, and seem to be lost within the corporate culture in many cases. One has to wonder, when a corporation dumps waste into an ocean that provides food for people, when a corporation uses toxic pesticides in the growth of foods, do they even think that their family may be impacted by it? With food imported and exported globally today, even the exportation of toxic pesticides to Latin America may return to the United States inside the food imported. There was a time where DDT, a toxic pesticide, was banned from use in the United States, but was manufactured and exported for use in other countries that imported food to the United States. The only thing that ended this practice was government.

While Ralph Nader has made many comments over the years about the need for people and government to end these practices, his statements about the democrats and republicans being influenced by corporations say more than most realize. If corporations have such a huge impact on governmental decisions, then how can government be assumed to be able to police corporations? When one looks at the Constitution, one sees the ideas of societal welfare as important enough to be seen in the preamble. However, is it and should it be a governmental power to police and regulate organizations in how their businesses are run? Why is it even needed?

The answer is, governmental influence should not be needed in the running of corporations. Individuals have allowed a corporate culture that ignores ethics in their practices. This is certainly not every individual, nor is it every corporation by any stretch of reality. However, it is pervasive enough to see everyday, if one looks. Even in the basics of price gouging or maintaining true competition so that market forces can work, corporations continue to search for ways to not only maintain their existence, but also to ensure it through the elimination of competition. Some of these, such as trying to eliminate the competition via pricing, product innovation, and personnel, are key to the maintenance of capitalism and its greatest strengths and benefits. However, corporations do have responsibilities to society.

Corporations have responsibilities to provide goods and services to society. These goods and services are the key to their business, as well as the need of society for those goods and services. However, just as a society has a responsibility to their local businesses, those same businesses have a responsibility to society and their communities. It is a symbiotic relationship. Both are reliant upon each other for their needs.

What are the corporate responsibilities to the community besides the obvious providing of goods and services? The first should be honesty. Corporations have the responsibility to be honest with the community so that the community may address any problems between them. If a corporation dumps waste, it should be honest in doing so. This gives the community a chance to adapt where possible, move where necessary, and respond where possible to the corporation. This also forces corporations to be more responsible in their practices for fear of negative public relations.

The second is the corporations should respect themselves and others around them. Corporations should practice business in a way that does not infringe upon the lives of others in a negative way. Irresponsible disposing of waste should not be a practice by a corporation because it may have a negative impact on the communities around them. It may contaminate water tables that impact drinking water and food for the communities and the individuals that work for them.

Finally, corporations should not harass individuals in the community around them. While this is a very rare practice, the attempts to bully people to get what the corporation desires is not one that respects the rights of others, the free choices of others, or cares about the community at large in terms other than their own economic contribution.

These core ethics should be added to the organizational culture of corporations, especially if they want support to end government regulation of their industries. In doing so, they will remain a step ahead of regulations in their practices, thus eliminating the need to be regulated. However, this can only happen if the individuals within the corporations realize their roles in the actions of the corporation and their impact on the organizational culture of the organization.

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