A good indicator of high levels of corporate, and, hence, employee ethics is how well employees protect their company's assets. TIers who take pride in this company's ethical standards reflect that pride in a respect for TI assets.
Employees who are treated with dignity and respect, who take pride in their organization and its ethics, tend to respect the assets of that organization. One of the most evident indicators of the employees' opinion of their organization is their conduct at work. Employees who have respect for their organization and co-workers will avoid such practices as
There are many forms of theft. In addition to lost supplies and equipment, an employee with little self- or organizational pride can subject that organization to losses in time, production, overhead charges, initiative, professionalism, customer respect, reputation, attitude, spirit and drive.
Every TIer can play an important role in creating an environment where people are valued as individuals and treated with respect and dignity, fairness and equality, where people perform with unquestionable ethics and integrity. In such an environment, employee pride blossoms and theft losses disappear.
Much time and effort are spent discussing those obvious ethical problems and situations. Sometimes, however, our work relationships, our productivity, job satisfaction, and trust in our fellow TIers are damaged by the subtle and subversive games that people play.
Ethical scandals in today's businesses quickly make it to the national spotlight. Almost every newspaper highlights some situation or issue reeking of unethical behavior, questionable business practices, or outright law violations. However, Frank Navran writes in a recent issue of Training and Development magazine that those spectacular scandals account for only about 10% of the business losses attributable to poor ethical behavior.
That other 90% accounts for billions of dollars annually across the U.S. and appear in the way we treat each other when we try to protect our own turf, or get ahead at the expense of others, or do the wrong thing because we believe that is what our company wants us to do.
Mr. Navran lists these examples of the silent saboteurs.
The cost of these activities is high...in the areas of motivation and morale, stress, quality, turnover, productivity, pride, and customer satisfaction, all of those areas that we want to emphasize in a highly ethical company.
Misuse of time was highlighted by TIers in response to our recent survey. Not long ago we asked you what kinds of unethical acts you would expect to be most common within an organization. Mischarging or misuse of time was one of your most frequent responses. It is one of those issues that tends to anger co-workers when they perceive that another is trying to take advantage of the system. And they may not feel comfortable discussing the issue with the violator or the supervisor.
Time is an asset and the misuse of that asset is just as wrong as the misuses of any of our assets here at TI. In the performance of a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense the mischarging of time is a criminal violation with very serious personal consequences.
Here are some of the examples and issues that you cited. These are the perceptions of our co-workers. And even though our actions and intent may be quite appropriate, this is the way they can be viewed...and reacted to.
The waste of time, intentional or not, is wrong. It cuts into our abilities to do the job, to be productive and competitive. And in today's marketplace, being competitive is the key to survival. It may seem like a small issue, but as one TIer stated it, In the individual instances it's a miniscale loss, but in the aggregate (across the company) it would be a major loss of productivity.