SIGN #7: Goodness in Some Areas
Atones for Evil in Other Areas
"Managers and Companies overall feel they are good citizens because they contribute to the community, but maybe back at the company, employees are taken for granted, paid low salaries, easily dismissed (fired). Their contributions help the community, but their own internal community is in trouble. "
Did we just say that we didn't see one of the signs of ethical collapse on the reservations? Well, this one more than makes up for the last one!
- "Yes, Joe the Tribal Worker put his auntie, best friend and father on the payroll, all of whom only come in on Thursdays to pick up their paychecks, but look how much money he brought in from economic development funds."
- "Yes, Frances received a travel advance for the last three trips and did not go on any of them, but she is such a good teacher at our school, and how many teachers do we have who are enrolled members?"
- "Yes, Sam is not a very good teacher and he didn't show up for his class about one-third of the time, but he is a native speaker of our language, always is involved with the sweats and Sun Dances and how many people do we really have like that?"
Jennings (p. 53) gave these examples from studies of corporations...
Ethics have to be consistent. “Keep a salesperson around who does well but violates the code of ethics and employees dismiss the ethics code and company officers and managers as hypocrites. Credibility is a key component of an ethical culture, and hypocrisy is its death knell. .... Rules without consistent enforcement lead to more violations, dismissal of the rules, and ethical collapse”