Business Ethics

If you have your employees take training on business ethics, will they think that there is something wrong with the company that they had to implement a business ethics program? Customers may think the same thing. It’s similar to asking for a lawyer when being detained at a police station. The police want to know why you are “lawyering up.” You must be guilty of whatever it is they are questioning you about. What is it that you are hiding that you need legal representation? Some people, especially those with enough money, will seek legal council anytime they have to deal with law enforcement. This is what they pay their lawyers to handle. As for your company, could they be hiding something that you are not aware of? If you know about a potential company requiring ethics training, would this make you stay away? A more likely scenario within the next 15-20 years is that most companies are going to require this type of training. Too many people are trigger happy when it comes to lawsuits, so companies are taking measures to reduce the possibility of these suits from happening. If this likely scenario comes to fruition, customers and employees will become less cynical or suspicious. It’s already happening with larger corporations. Since they employ a fair amount of people, these people are becoming conditioned to this training and won’t be so critical further down the line. In fact, any of these people who decide to move on from these corporations to start their own businesses will be more likely to set up their own programs when their organization becomes large enough.