Communicating for ethical change

Communication World, Dec, 1990 by Frank Winston Wylie

COMMUNICATING FOR ETHICAL CHANGE

Communicators often feel powerless to influence the ethics of organizations they serve. Here are 10 action steps toward creating communication for ethical change.

While you tend to see business as corporations, others see business as encompassing all the factors that impact on their lives: business ... government ... law ... medicine ... high prices ... unaffordable housing ... the declining number of good-pay manufacturing jobs ... and all the other adversities.

Although you may see government as entirely separate from business, others see government as run by businessmen...or as run by politicians who are, in turn, financed and influenced by businessmen.

This is an understandable dichotomy in which each viewpoint is as justified as the other. As corporate people you know the business side. Let us take a look at the other side, consider how it came to be, and why it considers ethics and business as incompatible terms. We'll consider the matter from a couple of perspectives and then discuss what can be done to improve understanding.

Our two basic premises are: 1) ethical behavior, action and communication are those which serve both the organization's and the public's interest, and 2) ethical behavior makes a vital contributing to the success of long-term planning and contributes to bottom-line results.

For almost the last decade the federal government has told everyone that by cutting taxes we could stimulate prosperity, and business cheered. But, when the dust settled, we had gone from being the richest nation on earth to the biggest debtor nation. And that was before the Gulf crisis. So much for the integrity of unfulfilled promises.

Workers had been told that the way to earn job security was to work for a large company, be loyal, and enjoy the many benefits. But, when sales slowed down, corporations reduced costs immediately by laying people off, thus ending their benefits. The companies offered others early retirements with continued benefits, and then, year by year, reduced the level of those benefits.

Financial people issued junk bonds, took over major corporations, defaulted on their loans, and left the stockholder with no dividends and some worthless certificates. Firms that have enjoyed an earned reputation for quality products and service were bought up, merged and transformed into shoddy-product, no-parts-or-service operations. Hoover may become one example.

We must ask ourselves what these actions have done to establish the ethics of American business.

As good corporate executives, many of us may see these as the exceptions rather than the rule. But, others see all this quite differently, as sweeping trends that further divide the haves and the have nots of America.

It seems to me that the problem of business and ethics is not a general one, but rather a specific one and a different one for each company. Remediation must take place in a climate of public skepticism, apathy, frustration and utter powerlessness. The timetable for peaceable change may be tighter than it seems.

There is no way in which all of business will suddenly be seen as ethical. You can, however, make your particular firm or client act ethically and communicate that ethic to the public in a manner which will reduce the negative perceptions. I suggest that to do so you must do at least 10 things and do them exceedingly well.

First, you must convince management that the stakes are high enough to be important, and that a public perception of ethical behavior will have a direct influence on bottom-line results.

Cite the example of Dayton-Hudson ... which, within hours, got Minnesota's governor to call back the legislature to enact a law which prevented a raider from buying, debt-loading or green-mailing the company.

Second, you must convince management that alienated employees will be so preoccupied with their alienation that they will cease to be productive, that they may protest effectively via embarrassing and damaging demonstrations ... and through votes for legislators and laws which are patently anti-business in nature.

Third, you must convince management that to be recognized as different ... as ethical ... the company will have to do some things which separate it from its industry ... and from the general business scene. And, that such moves must be definitive, decisive and clearly seen as being in the public interest.

Cite ARCO, which analyzed costs, decided that charge cards increased the price of gasoline, and told their customers that they were eliminating cards and cutting prices--that was a gutsy move. ARCO made it work because it simultaneously created a convenience store network which gave its dealers a good source of high mark-up revenue, and because they communicated the whole change in an equally gutsy way.

Cite ARCO, which held the price line on gasoline longer than any other company during this current Middle-Eastern crisis.

The lessons here are quite clear:

You establish your ethics by what you do, much more than by what you say. However, good communication is vital for both practical and ethical reasons. It is the combination of ethical action and good communication which position the organization as ethical.