Focus on ethics and the bottom line

Information Outlook, March, 2005 by Debbie Schachter

The question of ethics in the workplace has been much discussed recently, largely as a result of the spectacular ethical failures of some prominent corporations in the past several years. The extreme level of those ethical failures (to the level of criminality) has led to a broad-based debate on business ethics, corporate governance, and general business and accounting practices. Who is promoting ethical behavior in organizations and who is ensuring that business leaders comply?

The meaning of the word is fairly broad. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines "ethics" as "the moral principles governing or influencing conduct." (1) Generally, in society, ethics and moral principles are linked in meaning, if not in application.

Because of the detrimental effect of the unethical behavior of executives and managers in high-profile and influential organizations in recent years, it is important that everyone working in the corporate world review her or his understanding of ethics in the workplace. As leaders in our organizations, we must show an interest in the organization's development and promotion of ethical behavior among its managers and staff. As librarians, we must seek to align our professional and personal ethics with the corporate ethics of our employers.

Librarianship has always held to a high standard of ethical conduct in its professional practice. Most library and information sciences associations, such as ALA, have developed codes of ethics or codes of practice for their members. SLA has not developed a code of ethical practice specifically for special librarians; instead, SLA refers information professionals to other library and information-based association guidelines.

SLA did not develop a code of practice for special librarians because "members have felt that their organizational environments have set the work ethics by which they are guided rather than a professional organization." (2) Special librarians have a number of professional practice responsibilities, including responsibilities to our organizations, our customers, and society in general. Not all business professions that information professionals work with or supply services to have codes of ethics, however, as executive and managerial behavior in some organizations has demonstrated.

Special librarians and information professionals take responsibility for upholding the ethical practices of their profession as well as the ethical codes of their organizations, if those organizations have formalized practices. Broadly speaking, ethical behavior should be non-contradictory between the professional and business spheres, although emphases may differ. For example, the competitive nature of our business organizations does not allow for sharing information as broadly as we naturally would working in a public or academic library. There is a certain tension for librarianship in the corporate environment. Librarianship is traditionally about collecting and disseminating information, although in practice this may be for specific user groups. In the corporate world, privacy concerns, protecting information from competitors, and even competitive internal behaviors are the reality.

The Librarian's Role

What are the effects for the individual special librarian?

In the place of business, ethical behavior needs to be promoted and developed by all its leaders. The librarian leads within the organization as a manager or supervisor and an information professional: "[B]usinesses can no longer afford to assume that ethical leadership will exist without a conscious, deliberate effort to make it a reality." (3) Employees want to see their managers and executives behaving ethically in their relationships with customers, staff, and shareholders. By making ourselves aware of ethical codes of practice in the organization or aligned with our professional associations, we can ensure that we take our leadership responsibility seriously.

Does your organization have a code of ethical conduct, or is it so focused on the bottom line that the unwritten sentiment is? "Everyone else does it, so why shouldn't we?" A competitive marketplace means that an organization must earn a significant profit, year after year, to satisfy its owners (the shareholders) and ensure its long-term survival. This drive for profit is taken to extremes when individuals at high levels of responsibility within the organization behave in a manner that compromises their own business's ethical practice policies. To develop an ethical culture, all managers, throughout the organization, must emphasize and model personal accountability. (4)

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If a staff member has a question about ethical conduct for example, accepting gifts from suppliers is someone in the company available to answer it? Often these policies reside with the human resources department, but managers and employees alike are unaware of them. Or maybe there is no such policy in your organization. Our profession has a long history of developed ethical codes of practice: don't hesitate to offer your expertise to your human resources department if they are interested in developing an ethical code.