Business Ethics Activity Book

INTRODUCTION

The Manager’s Responsibility for the Ethical Office

NAN DEMARS

Robert MacGregor, former president of the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility, once told me he has the same discussion with every assistant he has ever hired. On the first day of the job, he tells them: “I’m going to be going 100 miles per hour. You will be going 120 miles per hour to stay ahead of me. In my haste to get a job done by deadline, if I ever appear to be cutting corners or sliding into unethical practices in any regard, I WANT you to stop me. It is YOUR responsibility to keep me on the ethical track. In other words, I want you to be my ethical monitor.”

That’s my dream! If every manager would have that conversation with every employee he or she ...