Is it ever acceptable not to keep your word? What if you were coerced into giving it? And what constitutes coercion? Does another person’s dishonesty exempt you from being honest? Or did the other person create the need for dishonesty by not being upright to begin with? The way we prepare for making ethical decisions is to contemplate possibilities before they arise. Consider this scenario. What would you do?
Please add your thoughts to join the conversation.
Great talk Yonason. Makes you think. The cabbie was slimy, but the man did agree. Ethics and integrity are not things you cannot turn off and on – you have them or you don’t. I grew up in an area where many people talked about values and ethics and integrity on Sunday and then did the opposite the rest of the week in their business. It may have served them for a while, but these people are eventually discovered and discounted. Those that talk the talk and walk the walk are respected and valued in life and business.
Setting and keeping standards is the hero’s journey, Frank. We’re tested again and again.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
The starting point is that ethics can never be considered a brake on the competition that exists on the market and in life. We must dispel the stereotype of the cynical and “trafficone” manager. Ethics, al
on the contrary, it is an essential element in life, a positive bond and a guide. It is having full awareness and taking responsibility towards others in the role and profession, whatever it is.
I don’t think you can’t have a unity of life, I mean having an ethics at home and an ethics in the shop. The man who in his way of thinking and behaving is divided between home and shop reaches hysteria! Furthermore, we must learn to influence the environment we are in, at all levels. Not only from above, top-down, but also bottom-up: a secretary can influence the behavior of her boss. But you have to be prepared, trained, you have to believe in it.
When people behave differently it means that there is a personal training gap about what we believe in and the strength with which we believe in it.
Consistency is part of integrity, Aldo, which comes from the word “integer.” Either we’re whole or we’re not.
Thanks for the note!