An ethical business leader must keep in mind when making decisions – these considerations could include principles like fairness, transparency and responsibility.
Begin by gathering all of the facts related to an ethical situation and ensure you base your decision solely on confirmed information rather than guesswork, intuition or past experiences.
Fairness
Fairness is vitally important in business, in many different forms. A company cannot operate without impacting employees, customers and its community; having an equitable culture can help navigate through all the complexities.
Fairness means treating everyone equally and impartially, adhering to rules and policies uniformly, being honest with others (no partial truths or intentionally withholding information) as well as sharing good as well as bad news with them.
Fairness can be one of the more challenging ethical considerations to navigate due to its subjective nature and can differ depending on who is making decisions about an ethical matter. Yet it remains an integral part of ethical decision-making process, so all leaders must act ethically regardless of how they personally feel about any situation – this will foster a positive work environment and increase employee trust within your company.
Transparency
Transparency is the principle that demands honesty and openness in business dealings, including divulgence of company finances and procedures, accurate reporting and taking responsibility for financial decisions. Furthermore, transparency involves informing employees about ethical implications of their work such as how decisions could impact others.
Employees trust companies that prioritize ethics, and this results in greater advocacy, loyalty and engagement – resulting in lower turnover and improved productivity for the business.
However, leaders should exercise caution not to allow transparency to reach an extreme that compromises a business’s competitive edge. Too much transparency may expose trade secrets to competitors resulting in unfair competition; or create a climate of fear among employees due to financial stability worries. Such misjudgements will not go unnoticed in today’s social media-fueled news landscape.
Accountability
As a business owner, you make countless decisions and face numerous challenges when running your company. Sometimes the correct course of action requires balancing competing ethical principles and values – for instance deciding between actions which maximize profits while respecting environmental considerations; in such instances it’s often beneficial to consult an ethics expert for assistance.
Once an ethical decision has been made, its implementation must be handled with integrity and transparency. Consider how the decision will impact employees, customers, or other stakeholders; evaluate its success by tracking its outcome; then measure success accordingly.
Ethics-driven approaches foster trust and loyalty within customers and employees, creating an excellent first impression that attracts those whose values align with those of your company. Furthermore, ethics can strengthen relationships with suppliers as well as local communities.
Responsibility
As a business leader, you make many decisions that impact the employees under your care. Your decisions could impact their ability to build skills, advance their careers and financially support themselves and their families; hence it’s essential that any decisions take ethics into consideration during decision making processes.
Consider your ethical responsibilities towards employees when making decisions. For instance, if you own a restaurant and one of its customers becomes sick from eating its meal, it is your duty to ensure it remains fresh – this is known as information asymmetry; which holds you liable if an outcome arises because the customer did not have access to all relevant details necessary for an informed decision-making process.
Have an ethical decision-making framework can help you avoid situations like these. While the ideal choice might not always be obvious, if you seek out viewpoints that differ from yours you’ll likely discover parts of the issue you hadn’t considered previously – something especially useful when facing an ethical dilemma with multiple solutions.