Through the years, it has seemed that the older generation decries the moral decline of the country of which they reside, and people love to bring out a quote of Hitler’s that could easily be interjected into today’s commentary on morals. Are things worse today, or are the bad things just getting more press? Or have we become so desensitized to bad things that we don’t even realize how bad they really are? And maybe the biggest question, are we thought to be exempt from the decline that has met every country as their moral compass has spun madly chasing every pleasure that they can find?
Those who know me well don’t hear me quote a Democrat much (unless I’m poking fun at them), but Daniel Patrick Moynihan stated: “…there is one unmistakable lesson in American history: a community that allows a large number of young men to grow up in broken families, dominated by women, never acquiring any stable relationship to male authority, never acquiring any set of rational expectations about the future - that community asks for and gets chaos. Crime, violence, unrest, unrestrained lashing out at the whole social structure - that is not only to be expected; it is very near to inevitable.”
Looking at his quote, we can point many fingers of blame around. We currently have set up a system of over lapping agencies in local, state and national government that subsidize squalor and give many fish to many people every day, but very few of these programs do anything to teach the person to fish. Throwing money at a problem can keep it voting for you, but it can’t do much except keep the problem at bay and give it little hope of change. Regardless of the causes we might point out, just as many things in life, our morality and ethics depend on us and the choices we make. We can blame a vast array of causation, but the bottom line is we all have the choice of how we will act in each situation.
During the personal moral downfall of President Clinton, often it was stated that we don’t care about his character; we just care about what he is doing for our country. I beg to differ, I believe a person’s character pervades home life, leisure life and work life. A dishonest person at home is dishonest at work, and vice versa. This link from the Santa Clara University’s Markula Center for Applied Ethics explores, in their view what really went wrong at Enron and its “Culture of Evil”:
http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/ethicalperspectives/enronpanel.html
Quoting from the article:
“The best list of vices is the classic seven deadly sins: pride, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, lust, and envy. Do we see any of these elements of character displayed among the executives at Enron?
Pride: Jeffery Skilling once said, "I've never not been successful at business or work...ever!"
Anger: When interviewed by a Fortune reporter, Skilling said, "The people who ask questions don't understand the company." When this reporter persisted a bit, Skilling called her unethical for even raising the question and abruptly hung up the phone. Later, he called another reporter an "expletive deleted."
Sloth: One of the most critical board meetings at Enron in 1991-where they were giving approval to set aside their ethics statements on behalf of these shenanigans with partnerships-that meeting lasted one hour. That's barely enough time to get a Coke.
Avarice: Fastow, the CFO, sold $36 million of his Enron investments before the company tanked. Lay had a whole bunch of sweetheart deals with family members. I'm sure tempted to call that greed….”
There have also been reports of the executive’s personal lives being a sordid tale of mistresses, nepotism, strippers and the Enron credit cards were often seen at bars and night spots paying for many things that would make one cringe.
So, in all this ranting of morals and decay, where is there a message for us as managers? We as leaders will produce the culture and ethics of our workplace. I would suggest a threefold approach to keeping your practice an ethical and moral business.
First, realize that no one is perfect; everyone can make a mistake, but expect and require that your owners and employees live and exhibit character, upright morals and proper ethics. Even in this day of situational ethics, deep down, I feel that most of us know wrong from right. Meet with the owners and employees and get input as to what your organization values and what your organization rejects. From this input, get together an ethics / culture statement for the practice. Communicate and stress the importance of this to every owner and employee and hold everyone accountable to the established ethics statement. Make examples of those displaying proper behavior and those who are failing. Remember, praise in public, and criticize in private.
Next, go to your contractors, suppliers, etc. and share your company’s statement of ethics with them. Evaluate their standing in the community and their business practices. Let them realize the standards that you have set and hold them accountable. When adding new contractors, hire only the ones that practice a high level of personal accountability. Also, utilize this same strategy when interviewing and hiring new employees.
Last, but definitely not least, set the example. As managers of medical practices, we are entrusted with a multitude of responsibilities that will give us the opportunity to handle with as much or little ethical standards as we choose. Our employees and owners will be looking to us for guidance and will be expecting the highest level of ethical behavior at all times. Set the goal high and achieve the highest moral/ethical performance possible. The practice will definitely benefit from it, your example will be noted and personally, you will be the largest beneficiary of your ethical choices.