To Change Business Ethics Starts By Changing Beliefs

Are the business work ethics and values in your organization suffering? Would you like to improve these critical skills necessary for business success? Consider, then looking at the beliefs that are supporting these values and ethics.

Lets get to the heart of the matter? What do you believe is keeping your employees from the bottom to the top or the top to the bottom from consistently demonstrating high business ethics?

First, lets take care of some logistical issues so to speak. You must have a written values statement that is explained to all new employees when they hire in. This values statement must be demonstrated by everyone to everyone, both internal and external customers (employees and clients).

Your employees must be held accountable for their ethical behavior or lack thereof. There must no be any exceptions because exceptions only reaffirm the current internal belief systems of your employees. These belief systems started why back in school or within the family when so and so received special treatment.

Then and only then can you begin to address the real obstacle to changing business ethics the foundational belief systems of everyone within your company. And, no, by belief systems I am not referring to spiritual or religious beliefs even though they may be part of this overall system. But, rather, belief systems are the mental schema from which we take action regarding current events.

Every human being has a foundational belief system. This system is comprised on 3 key elements: Knowledge, experience and emotions.

In the 1960s a Swiss developmental psychologist by the name of Jean Piaget released his findings from a comprehensive study of his children in how they learned. Many so called other professional psychologists debunked his study because of the limited pool. Yet, Piaget revealed a lot about how we as humans make sense of what we are exposed to within what we call learning.

Human beings learn by matching new knowledge with existing experiences with the goal to make sense of it or learn it. If for some reason, the new knowledge does not make sense, the human being casts it off and learning was not successful. This is why some young people or adults get it while others do not.

Within our belief systems, we have learned knowledge and hopefully have grown through these experiences. Yet, without understanding the impact of emotions within this process, is where many miss the boat.

For example, how we felt about our experiences is very much ingrained within our memory. My father modeled reading and showed great emotion when sharing a favorite book or explaining something he learned. I became an avid reader for two reasons: His physical modeling of reading and the emotional joy from reading. Therefore, I embraced a belief reflected through an attitude demonstrated by my behaviors that reading was an incredibly good thing and had tremendous value.

My mother on the other hand did not enjoy reading. Consequently, my younger sister saw my mothers behavior and to this day she is not a great reader because she truly does not enjoy it. Her belief is that reading is not as valuable as my belief. In neither case, no one is wrong or right, but the belief needs to be identify.

A recent survey released by PopCap Games demonstrates how beliefs affect business ethics. The results of this survey suggested that white collar executives believed it was OK to waste up to 1 hour per day playing video games while on the clock. Their reasons for several from needing some down time to just relaxing. However, their beliefs were telling them that is was Okay to take this time away from the company. Again, until you identify the beliefs, you will not change behaviors.

There are many more examples regarding the impact of belief systems on business ethics. People for the most part know what they need to do to get to where they want to go. However, until the beliefs which are reflected through attitudes are changed, your people will still not want to change. And it is this want to which ultimately drives business ethics.

P.S. And if you do not believe that beliefs are the key to changing behaviors, how many times in a day do you hear someone use the word believe or belief compared to know?

Would you like to increase the productivity of your employees? Then you may find the FREE Leadership Audit of interest at http://www.processspecialist.com/od.htm

Are you where you want to be for your business or even yourself? Then, please feel free to contact me, Leanne Hoagland-Smith, Your Chief People Officer and Business Coach for individuals and organizations that are tired of not being where they want to be and want more for themselves. 219.759.5601

To Understand the Lack of Business Ethics Look to Education
So you want high business ethics? Well, that may just be a pipe dream if the data from existing universities is confirmed th...

Are Poor Business Ethics From Your Management Team Costing You Business Relationships?
Much is written about the lack of integrity, poor work ethics and business ethics of the rank and file employees. Yet, is yo...

How Do You Define Integrity Within Your Business Ethics Or Business Values Statement?
Recently during a radio interview, one of the hosts made this statement:Integrity is putting your values into action. Robin S...

Business Ethics Training - Why Important?
Many people wonder if business ethics is just a buzzword that has been tossed around lately, due to some of the aggressive ta...

Your Business Ethics May Be a Litmus Test to Increase Sales or to Land a Job
During a recent business networking event, a colleague told me that the two of us were a dying breed. This comment intrigued...

At a Crossroads with Management - A Discussion of Ethics
There is a lot of information pertaining to discussion of ethics around us, and ethics are a part and parcel of our day to da...

Corporate Ethics - Ensuring Business Stability
For businesses to reach financial stability, good morale and client satisfaction, corporate ethics must be a guiding policy f...

Self Importance Reveals Your Own Business Ethics and Unimportance
How many times have you attended a business networking event and observed the following: People talking on the cell phones wh...

Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines just rules and principles within a commercial context; the various ...

Building An Environment Of Ethical Behavior Ten Tips From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach
Business ethics has become and has remained a popular news topic in todays world thanks to Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Adelphia, e...

How To Build A Business Ethics Program
Recent corporate financial scandals have highlighted the importance of business ethics and legal compliance. Yet a recent Nat...

Business Ethics - High Ethical Standards In Business 100% Of The Time - 5 Principals Of Success
Business ethics maintained as a high standard in your business 100% of the time should not be an option, it should be your ru...

Business Ethics: Would You Buy From You?
You can never find yourself until you face the truth. Pearl BaileyAT the beginning of the twentieth-first century, it seeme...

Poor Ethics Reflect Poor Business Professionalism & Potentially Poor Business Results
Years ago, when earning my Masters, I came across What to Do If Youre Riding a Dead Horse?and put it into one of those save f...

Ethics Training Programs For Employees
Due to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations of 1991, several companies comply with the requirements which requ...

The Critical Importance of Business Ethics For Effective Leadership
How important are business ethics to being an effective leader? According to the American Management Association, it is an i...

Work Ethics - A Paradigm Shift
Work ethics is a hot topic in todays business and educational worlds. Yet, how do we define this hybrid phrase with the word...

What is Business Ethics?
The word ethics comes from the Greek word ethos meaning conduct, customs or character. Ethics addresses the implementation of...

Pragmatic Ethics; Are You a Liar in Disguise?
Have you ever met someone who puts themselves out as ethical at every turn, always talking about ethics like a Catholic Pries...

Business Ethics: Functional Choices
Years of experience have taught me there is no such thing as Business Ethics. If a person isnt ethical in the rest of their l...