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| Ethics | 79% | 425 votes | Total: 540 votes | |
| Profits | 21% | 115 votes |
Ethics
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Add to Favorites"Profits or Ethics matter more in Business?" is that the question at hand?! Well, it's quite a controversial topic, nowadays. This usually implies that there's plenty of opinions on the matter, something which would discourage me in most cases from stepping up. But this particular question is an exception.
The very fact that it is being discussed vigilently suggests that there hasn't been reached a common understanding yet. I'm a bit disappointed but not that surprised. The bare-naked truth about this matter is that the answer lies within the mindset of the person contemplating this issue. What this statement means, broken down, is the following:
"Profits" and "Ethics" should not be evaluated as being of equal essence. "Profits" is an ambiguous concept, dependent entirely on the person's value and belief system. There are many entrepreneurs who would use the term, to mean not only monetary value, but altogether growth along the criteria which they have established to be crucial to their business. In the case where this question is debated by someone who hasn't put in the time and thought into delineating such criteria for themselves, and their business, than they simply need to step back and do just that, before continuing with the argument. A most prime directive in Project Management is the tenet that "You can't control what you can't measure" This applies especially for one's enterprise. In order for it to grow and prosper, the entrepreneur must be perfectly clear, even intimately comfortable with the nature of the key factors which generate "Profits". In it of itself this means that they must be perfectly clear with what "profits" means to them, the direction in which they want their business to evolve, ... and the rest of that whole tactical exercise.
While "ethics" - well, ethics are rather uniform in their meaning. Of course, if two or more parties' interests were concerned, than they would sit down and pretend to have diverging viewpoints on what "ethics" are, but to everyone else, the meaning of the word is pretty clear. Ethics are the core foundation of any business relationship. Were they void from one, wouldn't that constitute an intended usurpment of the agreement. Anyone involved extensively in trade, commerce, business will agree that enduring expansion of the business activity is closely dependant on the mutually benefitial (called 'symbionic' in biology) relationship between everyone involved. (vendors, customers, producers... everyone). How could such relationships be developped void of ethics? (rhetorical). This said, profits - are not at all appraisable along with 'ethics'. They're more rather the natural deliverable from the practice of ethics.
I haven't rested for a second from writing on this topic, since I first saw it articulated; and I could keep going on untill I'm ready to publish, but I'll rather leave it for a later time. I'd just like to solidify my point with two very explicit and revealing scenarios: a business approach where profits are with less priority than ethics, and the reversed case - ethics being with less priority in a business, than profits. In the latter case, those profits might be impressive at first, but really - there isn't a lightly derived profit, which couldn't be spent faster than it's been amassed; all in all, regardless of the precise number - such profits are short-lived. Now, if we examine the former scenario, where a businessman decides to stick with their principles, ethics, instead of going for the "quick and easy buck", they might struggle initially, but it's very likely that for years to come ahead, they will experience a steady profit - enough to keep them going, in the worst case. More often than not such businesses build up a loyal customer base, which in my individual opinion is the highest profit-factor that we could touch upon.
Well, I hope I was able to shine a brighter viewpoint on this debated issue. Please feel free to contact me with any comments on the matter, since undeniably it's one I take close to heart.
Live long and prosper!
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Profits
You can't deny that making a profit is the motivation behind any business! After all, without sounding curt, they aren't there for their health! The heads of big corporations and for that matter, leaders of any size company, are all watching their numbers, as they say, and some spend endless hours writing reports, even drawing up those flow charts, that they think are going to inspire the employees.
From my varied experiences of working in both large corporations and small companies, the message is the same. Leaders preach the same story to their employees to work harder and keep production rolling.
However, in most recent years, big business has felt the economic pinch and in an effort to keep profits rolling, have had to cut corners to keep the numbers out of the red! This has been defined as "down sizing". In some cases, the employees are the ones who feel the pinch when those little extras are taken away, and bonuses are diminished, and in worst cases, the inevitable happens; the staff must be cut.
As a company attempts to move forward, with less steam because fewer employees are left to do the work of more than one employee, trying to pick up the slack of those that were let go. Employees work twice as hard, but production is still threatened.
This starts a snowball effect. When more is expected of existing employees, to keep longer hours by coming in earlier or staying later, sometimes working through lunch periods in order to complete tasks creates what I like to call "internal combustion."
When employees are working harder, and probably for no overtime pay or other compensation (I say that because I have come to learn that overtime pay is not mandatory to a salaried employee), this creates stress, mental anguish, fatigue, low energy and even conflicts among the staff. An employee is not only put in a bad situation at work, but his home life is affected as well. A hard working employee now has new pressures to face, perhaps missing time with children who have already gone to bed, diet is jeopardized because this person either has to grab fast food on the way home, or eat a less nutritionally balanced concoction at late hours. Simple home chores are neglected because this person is just too tired to do anything else around the house. He goes to sleep and repeats it all again the next day. Needless to say, the tensions and negativities lead to "low morale" at home and at work.
I realize I am painting a desperate picture of how profit making can create desperate measures for the leaders and also for the employees. Hard to know if the profits made, as a result of causing so much conflict that trickles down, are really worth it. But I suppose it isn't a question of a leader wanting to cause all these conflicts; it just happens because the leader is under his own competitive pressures to keep the numbers soaring, to save his own neck.
There may have been more concern about the ethical demeanor inside the halls of a company, but with economics taking precedence, it is often true that a company must make a profit in order to exist. It may seem callous to say, but for those employees that got let go during a financial crunch period, a business can always hire a new employee, and often times, a younger, less experienced candidate who will suffice to get the job done, at a lower rate of pay.
As far as moral ethics are concerned, I believe most employees do try to make the most of their time at the office and do try to keep their associations with co-workers congenial. But I believe business ethics differ from the moral aspect of a business, and have an impact on the status of the employees, which in turn influences production and ultimately, the profits.
Learn more about this author, Carole Hill.
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