Managing
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Make Ethics Count

In these days of corporate scandals and fiscal misdeeds, small business
owners seem to know something that their big corporate counterparts do not:
ethics count. Integrity and reputation are everything. But these things are
sometimes taken for granted, and employees might stumble from time to time
with a poor ethical choice that can damage your reputation.

Putting your business through an ethical refresher course might be a good
idea. Two-thirds of small business owners say they are more concerned about
ethical business practices today than in the past, according to a survey by the
management consulting firm George S. May International. “It may be difficult to
measure the benefit of ethical actions to your bottom line,” says Israel Kushnir,
president of May International. “But a lack of ethics will definitely have a
negative impact on a small business.”

Now under the public spotlight, big companies are rushing to beef up their
formal codes of ethics, form special ethics departments and provide their
people with ethics training. Although formal ethics training is rare at small
companies, business owners always have recognized the value of their
reputation and are looking for new or better ways to define their values for
employees and customers. Some are putting ethics policies on paper while
others are simply raising the issue more often in the workplace.

The Josephson Institute of Ethics, www.josephsoninstitute.org, is a “public-
benefit, nonpartisan, nonprofit” organization that helps advance ethical
decision-making.  Founder Michael Josephson’s daily radio commentary on
ethics and character-building runs on stations across the country and his
“Character Counts” initiative has been adopted by schools and youth groups
nationwide.

The group’s Web site has a helpful step-by-step guide to making ethical
decisions, available free. The Institute also conducts Ethics in the Workplace
training seminars and has a catalog of publications, videos, CDs, tapes,
banners and other ethics awareness products you can buy.

The Ethics Resource Center (ERC) is a Washington, DC-based nonprofit
organization that offers informational products and services, including help
creating a code of conduct, an ethics effectiveness test, a business ethics
Q&A and other items. ERC also conducts a National Business Ethics Survey
annually. Visit www.ethics.org.

Two popular books on business ethics are The Power of Ethical Management
by Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale, and Street-Smart Ethics:
Succeeding in Business Without Selling Your Soul by Clinton McLemore.  
Both are available at Amazon.com.

To learn more about management issues facing your small business, contact
SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business." SCORE is a nonprofit
organization of more than 10,500 volunteer business counselors who provide
free, confidential business counseling and training workshops to small
business owners. Go to www.scoredm.org on the web or call (515) 284-4760
between the hours of 10:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. Monday through Friday.