What Were They Thinking??!

First we heard about Captain Honors, commander of a Navy aircraft carrier, making a “raunchy video” to relieve the stress of combat for his crew.  Then we heard about the Glaxo Smith Kline (GSK) drug scandal and the whistleblower that exposed bad processes resulting in drug mix-ups, contamination, and ultimately a $750M fine for adulterated drugs.  My biggest question is this – What Were They Thinking???

Supposedly these people are intelligent, hard-working individuals who have years of experience under their belts.  And yet, they seem to be exhibiting an amazing lack of professional judgment and ethical conduct.  Did they believe they wouldn’t get caught?  Did they believe they could plead ignorance or hide the details under the rug? Did they believe they could buy their way out?  I just cannot seem to understand what drove the Navy captain and the Glaxo officials to do these things.

As with all situations, there are many different sides to the story.  Many people rushed to the defense of the Navy captain, saying he’s a good commander and he did these videos to help his crew. Does that make his action any less ethical? Any more professionally sound in judgment?  No. There are other ways to address the problems and help others while maintaining solid moral and ethical conduct. But the question is this: where do we draw the line between appropriate and inappropriate conduct? Political correctness has everyone so terrified to utter even a single word, sometimes, that we stifle everything and lose the ability to have an open discussion about what we think or feel. 

Discussions today about ethical conduct revolve around ways to mitigate liability, rather than ways to resolve the problems or view business ethics in more positive terms. What makes me most sad is the way that responsible people deny responsibility. In the case of GSK, the company is not denying they sold adulterated drugs!  They’re denying that anyone was hurt and they’re denying retaliation on the whistleblower.  She lost her job in a “downsizing” within weeks of delivering her report to senior executives.  I do not know the true facts here.  The perception, however, is that this is “damage control.” And in my view, this is worse than the initial misconduct. It destroys trust, and it destroys honesty, and it destroys integrity.

I once participated in a new job orientation program in which we were told the way to decide what to do was to determine if it was something we would be proud to see on the nightly news.  If the answer was yes, it was ok to take the action.  If the answer was no, then maybe we should rethink the action or do something else.  Perhaps I should send this advice to the Navy Captain and the senior GSK executives as a reminder of how to improve their decision-making processes…

Monday night on the ABC show Nightline a segment aired called “The College Cheating Culture.  The segment said that 70% of the students admitting to cheating.  The segment focused on students hiring others to write papers for them.  As a CPA it pained me to hear that the “ghost writer” interviewed on Nightline had been hired to write a 175-page Accounting paper for $2,000.  The ghost writer admitted to making a good living, and that it is perfectly legal – he “pays taxes.”  He also said that the parents were right there with the students, sometimes even writing the checks for the papers themselves and following up with the writers if their kids didn’t get A grades.

Wow.  I’m almost speechless.  There are so many ethics issues here I don’t know where to start.  So let’s start with something basic.  Are these students acquiring the skills to fill open jobs? Do they have the skills to take over for the Baby Boomers who want to retire right now?  Do we even want to turn over the reins to them?  And what are those parents Thinking??

Being able to write a coherent, cohesive message is critial to business success.  At some point every one of us in business has to document in writing our thoughts about a particular situation happening at work.  Researching facts, analyzing data, forming opinions and presenting our case is part of our day-to-day work responsibility.  If students today are hiring others to do this for them, they are not learning how to do this.  How exactly will they be able to handle the boss’ request to email thoughts, solutions, or proposals?  Hire another ghost writer to do the work for them?

My bigger concern is that the parents should know better.  And they are Equally Responsible for this decline in ethical conduct.  Yes, I said Equally Responsible.  Parents are enabling their children to cheat – for what reason? What purpose does it serve?  How exactly does paying for the papers teach their children the skills they will need to survive?  Are we thinking that some distant day in the future we will no longer need to write or use critical thinking skills we’re supposed to be learning in the university?  I don’t know the answers to these questions.  I’m still getting over the shock of learning the parents are supporting this behavior.

Enough is enough.  When are we going to wake up and realize that we’re only hurting ourselves by cheating? What will it take – another scandal like the one at University of Central Florida?  Thank goodness for Professor Richard Quinn, who forced his students to come clean or face the consequences.  Part of the consequences included a requirement to take a 4-hour ethics class.  Maybe we should all take that class…

 I’m sitting here with a colleague who is determined to get me connected to the 21st Century.  He’s teaching me how to send a blog post from my email!  I didn’t know such things even existed!  One email, and it can go to my Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and website.  I can hardly stand it!!!  Stay posted -  I’ll let you know how it works!!!

Regards,

Marcy J Maslov
Chief Integrity Builder

e-Factor!® and Empowerment Unlimited Coaching, LLC

Helping protect you and your business from unethical behavior

cell: 602-989-3458
www.e-factorgame.com
www.coacheuc.com
Twitter: Marcy_Maslov

LinkedIn: Marcy Maslov http://www.linkedin.com/pub/marcy-maslov/0/18b/691