if you can not hire ethical employees, can you teach someone who is unethical to act ethically? How?
July 28th, 2010 | by admin |I аm a business student аnd i аm trying tο mаkе a kind οf survey fοr debate іn class. I wουld lіkе tο know уου opinion οr уουr experience.
іf уου саn nοt hire ethical employees, саn уου teach someone whο іѕ unethical tο act ethically? Hοw?
сουld уου give уουr opinion οr tеll mе аnу experience уου hаνе
I’m sorry fοr thе spelling English іѕ nοt mу firt language.
thank уου
4 Responses to “if you can not hire ethical employees, can you teach someone who is unethical to act ethically? How?”
By lizzie on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
Consider this for a start, can you give any examples of when you might not be able to hire ethical employees? I can’t think of any possible scenarios where you would feel you had to give the job to unethical people.
You may discover after hiring that someone has questionable ethics. In this situation a reward system that rewards behaviours you consider ethical is likely to be most effective.
By A on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
A person who does not act ethically does not *feel* the emotion that would cause them to care about their effect on others. Or they live in fear.
Example: Someone who is a hair away from losing their job and thinks they would have a mental breakdown if they did. An opportunity comes along for them to lie to save their own skin – would they? They might, if the alternative is losing their job and suffering a breakdown as a result.
The best thing for a person who doesn’t have a natural code of ethics is a reward / incentive system. You have to give them something powerful enough to counteract whatever belief system they have that is causing them to act unethically.
There is also negative reinforcement / punishment. If there are serious consequences for behaving wrongly, then it may override the reasons for acting unethically in the first place.
Many unethical people (e.g. sociopaths) lack fear. They don’t feel the normal emotions that most of us have. Or they are thrill seekers – they have a psychological need to court danger. Only prison can stop some people.
Someone who is unethical yet capable of reforming themselves thrive in a supportive environment. If they feel that someone cares about them, they are more motivated to act ethically.
By brisray on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
Apparently people’s ethics are determined in early childhood. It’s hard to change them after that but not impossible. One of the important factors in ethics retraining is that the company culture is ethical.
It’s no good just having a mission statement saying something like ",,, in a professional and ethical manner" Everyone in that company, from the directors down, must be seen to act ethically.
As good a place to start researching this is http://www.ajilonfinance.com/articles/Ethics%20article_FINANCE.pdf
By Spindrift on Jul 28, 2010 | Reply
You hire people who are ethical to begin with and if you find out they are unethical you give them one warning and if they repeat bad behavior you terminate them.