Modern day approach to management is too methodical. Almost everything, tangible or otherwise is tried to be quantified and set within a mathematical formula, and every other business function is derived by said formula. Want to know how much raise to give to an employee? Use a particular formula! Want to know why an employee isn’t being so productive? Use a formula! Such behaviour really makes one think of corporations as human robot breeding machines, no wonder there is a term “corporate drone” in existence.
In the quest to quantify everything as a measure to perfect operational efficiency, qualitative ethos such as morals, integrity, loyalty etc are codified in most large corporations. While it does look good on paper, it seriously undermines the human aspect of work. On the one hand, such a measurement rewards the hardworking, regular and punctual employee, while on the other, it can wrongfully penalize someone for doing something they thought was right at the moment, without taking into consideration the entire situation. After all, ethics is an extremely subjective topic to deal with.
Let’s take an example of this. Mr X works as the safety inspector at a power plant. He is responsible to check whether everything is running smoothly or not, and if anything is wrong, a sharp red light flashes on his computer screen, at which point he must notify the concerned repairman immediately. As such, in theory, he’s barred from leaving his chair even for a moment. There’s a window in his office that gives a nice view of the street.
One fine evening during the night shift, Mr X sees a girl being harassed by some goons some meters away from the office on the street. He being an aware citizen leaves his desk and goes to help the girl. After all is said and done he returns back and resumes work. (The red light didn’t go off in his absence.) The very next day he’s fired. Why? Because he wasn’t supposed to leave his desk without notice while at work even though nothing went wrong.
Thankfully, the manager of Mr X stepped in and rehired him after hearing the real story behind his absence. As such, Mr X in the end was left at the mercy of the manager, hence the Code of Conduct didn’t really matter now did it? An eccentric sadist manager would have stood on the decision so finally everything is still up for subjective human judgment, further supporting the argument that ethics and code of conduct are merely words.
This is just one example of what could happen, for all we know the world is a large place with more things than we can possibly imagine. As such, it is a scary thought that your whole career revolves around a sheet of paper.
Another glaring example is the ethics regarding sexual misconduct in today’s offices. Admittedly, a lot of the supposedly well educated, well cultured guys still eve tease and harass women from their offices, and there are rules and regulations to stop that misbehaviour, but still, a lot of times the women won’t approach the HR out of fear of being judged by the society and the office colleagues. Once again, the Code of Conduct is rendered useless.
At the same time, there are a few women who would take advantage of guys by threatening them with charges of misconduct. The guy, out of fear of getting fired and being labelled a molester, falls into line. This time though, the Code of Conduct is used in a manner entirely opposite to what it was supposed to.
In conclusion, ethics should not be codified and examples need to be evaluated on individual merit. It would be a lot of work, yes, but the topic at hand is too subjective to be dismissed as a mere equation. Ethics aren’t like laminar flow, they’re more like turbulent flow, treat them like one.
Thank you for your continued support dear readers. If you want to, you can connect with me on Twitter.
Much love,
–SG
So true, in India this a is a big issue with an ongoing debate about what should be done, and the action finally taken gets lost ultimately.
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Yeah, most of the time. Sometimes people are too ignorant.
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Nice one S.G.
Ethics is lol lol lol.. Hope you get my point..
Thoughtful post..keep the ink flowing my friend 🌹🌹🌹
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Thanks Jayshree. I will keep the ink flowing. As a social sciences person, your input on this post is invaluable.
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Oh my..is it? Im in not too good state to think, im unwell 😔😔😪😪
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Still if I have to say…then, yes ethics.. code of conduct is just a word. Infact everything is just a word we don’t prove it with our action.
Keeping your example in mind it’s a dilemma for Mr.X to choose among what is fulfilling to his soul or what fills in pocket..
And certainly paper controls our life. Corporate drone is draining ethics.. Be it petty office politics or how women are treated at work.
That’s a fact!!!
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I fully agree with your post here. But the problem exists is that we are so caught up in the politically correct and risk “offending” various representations of people in life.. that we tag this ridiculous.. “zero tolerance” absolute nonsense idea… mostly in our (American) schools and that alone removes common sense from administrating ethics and allows for no room for making judgement calls.
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I guess one could say people are getting too soft.
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This is so true. I hope things get better because that direction is certainly a frustrating one. Ethics are losing it’s value and I think the world needs an intervention!
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Rightly said. It’s sometimes disadvantageous to simplify such values.
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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
― Mahatma Gandhi
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Ethics and moral values are things which people around the World needs, but so often it’s hard to see it.. just living day by day thinking about different things which seem to be more important. Only what lead us to a better life?
Ethics and moral values are the things which people around the World always needed…
Ethics…
Moral values…
just words carrying by the wind…
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So true.
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This is a great post!
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Nice post! And your timing couldn’t have been better. I have such questions popping up in my mind every now and then where I work. I mean there are no boundaries. Once you get in to the corporate, you are just a slave who works for the company for peanuts. I mean enough already. And would you believe it if I told you that it gets personal as well? There is one word for the corporate that says it’s an open door policy – fake. Fake is the word. I got nothing except boiling lava inside of me when this is the topic.
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Come on man you’ve got to relax a little. Everybody knows these corporations are faking one thing or the other. Even I as an observer can merely write a blog post about what’s going on, but these large corporations would continue to have their way.
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True. But you know, the guys on the top are still right. The middle ones are the ones you should look out for. Oh the way peoples’ minds work.
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I couldn’t agree more – great post. Yes humanity can’t always be measured and pigeon holed into a performance indicator!
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Really good. Correct point
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Yes in India..itz just a word…..
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Hi there, I really enjoyed your blog and am wondering if you would like to take a look at my recent blog that references personal ethics
happynotsogolucky.com/2017/11/17/the-humanity-formula/
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Sure. I’d take a look. 🙂
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I agree. When we look around it’s absent. Ethics and Code of Conduct are very important and should be practised. Its with organisation as well as with the employees. The employees in our organisation are chosen who matches those of our company and to be frank it makes the difference. As a key person to check this we had many issues earlier. By compensating on this our company selected some and had to pay with our good will and brand. So I would like to say each individual should have this and should preach this whenever he/ she gets a chance. If each one decide so it can really make the difference.
https://pilgrimagetemple.wordpress.com
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Really good read! 😊
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