Summary:
- Introduction: Associate Professor James Michael Haley
- Paul Hennigan – President. Point Park University
- John Krause – VP Corporate Governance, Compliance, and Ethics, H.J. Heinz Company
- Heinz Company
- Promotes ethic standards through the ethics and compliance global departments using communication, training and mentoring
- Communication – constantly pulse out a message so that Heinz employees know how important ethics compliance are to the company
- Example: Quarterly in-house newsletter sent to all employees that provides active examples of how to handle ethics issues at Heinz.
- Education Programs: Online training tool for ethics and compliance for all salaried employees with a computer and in person training sessions to all levels of the global organization starting with top line executives at all locations.
- In Person training allows all employees to hear the training from us and ask questions and to engage in dialogue that helps drive the message home in each location.
- Communication – constantly pulse out a message so that Heinz employees know how important ethics compliance are to the company
- Promotes ethic standards through the ethics and compliance global departments using communication, training and mentoring
- Paul Hennigen, Point Park University
- Ethical leadership concept based on transparency and honesty, integrity (do what you say, say what you mean), developing a sense of trust throughout the university.
- If members of the community trust the leader then they are more likely to follow the leader and pursue the organizations over all goals and vision.
- Krause
- We can improve ethics as business leaders by taking about it.
- They are not difficult conceptual ideas.
- Examples of ethical failures.
- Enron had a 40/50 page code of conduct that no one read, discussed or put it into practice.
- Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme: In addition to Madoff fraud included federal regulators, compliant accountants, and careless investment managers.
- We all have codes of conduct and policies and procedures.
- We need to make sure our employees know how important it is to our shareholders, employees and the company that we follow these rules and regulations.
- We need to talk about them regularly so that people remember they are important.
- Hennigen
- Discussing issues and decisions in group sessions I find that it forces a higher level of honesty and transparency.
- Lapses in leadership over the years.
- Common theme: Decisions were made behind closed doors, made by individuals or small groups, that were clearly trying to hide something.
- Krause
- Teaching business ethics can help encourage ethical conduct.
- By letting employees know how important it is to the overall operation of the company’s reputation in the marketplace.
- Understanding of ethics varies with each individual and we should not assume that new business leaders coming out of college have a fully developed sense of ethics.
- Ethical Leader Example: Roy Disney
- Made Disney profitable by making managers accountable.
- Hired Eisner but eventually wanted to replace him because he lacked the vision to lead the company.
- Big concern was Eisner’s inability to develop relationships with creative partners such as Pixar.
- Roy resigned and pointed out in his resignation letter his concerns about Eisner and for Eisner to resign as well.
- Roy rallied 45% of shareholders to a no-confidence vote on Eisner’s ability to run the company properly.
- This led the board to remove Eisner as Chairman and ultimately replace him with a new CEO, Bob Either, who repaired the relationship with Pixar which lead to a merger.
- Students who study this example will help them understand the necessary values to be an ethical business leader.
- Point Park Student
- Teaching ethics will create a new generation of business leaders that understand ethics in a different way.
- They understand what really needs to happen in an organization.
- Learning about ethical leadership will change the corporate structure.
- Example: Pittsburgh Zoo
- Traditional top down multi-level organization which is not friendly in the ethical business sense.
- Dr. Baker took control of the zoo, privatized it and flattened the organization structure that bought all departments to the table..
- Employees now feel they have a voice in the operation of the organization.
- Krause
- A great time for an ethics business leader to make real changes in the business and business world.
- Hennigen
- Often asked by the faculty how to teach ethics in their own way and Hennigen suggests that it be included in all courses.
- It is appropriate in all courses to have a discussion of ethical behavior, honesty and transparency.
- Krause
- An exciting area to study right now.
- It takes a lot of moral courage to step out and say something is not right.
[…] M. (2013). Ethical Leadership. [Online]. Available at: http://www.briceconsulting.com/blog/2013/08/02/ethical-leadership/ [Accessed 10 […]