Leading Question

They absolutely add value, says Dawn-Marie Driscoll, a Cape Coral resident who has been teaching, writing and consulting in business ethics for 20 years. When a business operates with a culture based on ethical standards, employee turnover is lower, morale is higher and performance is better, she says.

 

"I think that a lot of people are now realizing that ethics add underlying value because [they] really help people understand what the company would like them to do in a difficult situation," Driscoll says.

While ethics can mitigate loss, and therefore save money, they also add value in the marketplace and in attracting a workforce, says Vince Crew, founder of Naples-based Reach Development Services, which aids companies around the United States with leadership development, staffing issues and ethical decision-making.

"Certainly investors, lenders and community supporters, not to mention customers, want to do business with and want to be associated with firms that are regarded as being ethical in nature. So it has everything to do with purchase and investment decisions," he says.

Crew adds that the reputation advantage can sustain a company in tough times. If a business puts a focus on ethical practices and policies from the beginning, it will be given the benefit of the doubt and extra time to find a remedy during a crisis.

The time and financial investment in developing ethical practices and monitoring and measuring procedures, as well as training, "far outweigh" the expense that businesses would face in the case of a regulatory intervention or legal investigation, Crew adds.

Driscoll, an executive fellow at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley College in Massachusetts, says senior executives and boards of directors often have trouble understanding what it means to have a culture formed by ethics. It’s essentially how a company operates, from traditional to entrepreneurial, or fast-paced to thoughtful.

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