"Seminars, MBA programs, ethics institutes, and national and international studies on ethics have done little to address the crisis of ethics that exist today in the business world," according Paul P. Jesep, book author.
"Organizations do not write or implement policies," he said. "People write them. People administer them. People are impacted by them whether they are marketing or personnel policies. This has to be the starting point of ethics. People."
"Although companies may be fined by government agencies for wrongdoing, businesses and corporations do not violate laws or ethical protocols, people violate them and hide behind the organizational veil. If ethical violations are to stop then start with trying to understand people. This is especially apparent in the banking industry."
"People must know themselves. Otherwise ethical problems will continue. Ethics should never be compartmentalized into personal and professional ethics. Ethics is ethics. Employers would be better served," said Jesep, "if they focused on individual employee development and not merely on thick policies and cookie-cutter ethics training. Employees need to have a sense of self."
Jesep further noted, "Wall Street's meltdown had less to do with regulations and far more to do with bankers and traders who lost personal perspective."
"What is greed?" Jesep asks. "It's a form of insecurity, an absence of perspective, and a failure to understand one's self and how professional behavior will impact family, friends, or people you may not even know. Ethical indiscretions are not victimless. This is why ethics, whether in MBA classes or drafting company policies, must always start with flesh and blood."
Lost Sense of Self & the Ethics Crisis – Learn to Live and Work Ethically comes with a workbook to measure and develop "Sense of Self Ethics" and a survey for organizations to assess the ethical culture in the workplace.
The book may be accessed here:
http://www.amazon.com/
About the author:
Paul P. Jesep JD, MPS, MA, is a former ethics officer to an organization with over $1 billion in economic impacts. He is Founder of http://www.EntrepreneurSpirit.biz, a firm committed to ethics development in the workplace. In addition, he is Founder of htttp://www.CorporateChaplaincy.biz, a firm focused on the spiritual health and wellness of professionals.
