EthicsBite™

In this weekend’s Sunday New York Times, the lead article concerns an investigation of bribery and corruption in Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiary. Read that article and then read this one from Sports Illustrated on the Jerry Sandusky scandal*.

The Sandusky Penn State scandal and this expose involving Wal-Mart are just two of many examples of the impact of corporate culture on the ethical behavior of individuals and the organization itself. In both cases, when faced with the fundamental question of “What is the ethical thing to do?” executive management appears to have decided to “protect” the organization rather than report the situation to law enforcement. In Penn State’s case that would have been the local police; in Wal-Mart’s case it is the federal government. I placed the word “protect” in quotes because in so many of these major scandals the truth eventually surfaces and more damage has been done to the organization by that very attempt to protect than if they had turned the issue over to legal authority at the outset. The same is true of the major church who hid its child abuse problem from view for decades only to have it out in the open in the end. So when someone says to you “we must protect the organization” race to the nearest exit. In terms of keeping secrets, we have been in the digital age ever since Ollie North’s attempt to erase his emails failed.

———-

*btw, Sports Illustrated had the best investigative journalism article on that scandal.