A candidate running for president of the United States recently said, "This country does not have a money problem. This nation has a moral problem and nothing is going to work until we fix it."
To function with differing sets of morals (ethics) for personal life, business, politics or religion is, in my estimation, a schizophrenic state of being. The messages that were given to us and we are giving to our children during the development of personality and patterns of action are confusing. If we tell our children be truthful at home and at church, but, our business and political messages consistently represent mistruths, what kind of foundation for personality development has been put in place?
If we teach our children that fidelity is critical to happiness and our lives reveal that we are not dedicated to that principle, what is the child supposed to believe? If managers tell their subordinates that they must be dedicated to certain principles and actions and then act differently, what are subordinates to believe? If minister's teach a set of moral values and then witness by actions that are opposite to those values, what are the real lessons taught to the followers? If judges make decisions and deliver rulings to a set of standards and then become notorious for having broken the laws and standards, what is the message to the citizenry? If political leaders speak to the need for stronger leadership in restoring law and order and are found to be participants in breaking the laws that they are elected to execute, what is the true message? If teachers and school administrators demand that students behave to a set of standards and then are found not to be living up to those standards, what lessons are learned by the students?
Having "business ethics" as a separate entity is neither acceptable or tolerable. The lack of consistent ethics manifests itself in everything that is wrong in our society. Leaders of our society who will lead us to fix the moral problem we have in this society, must lead us with actions that reflect consistent values in every facet of their lives until we develop confidence in them and in the propensity for success and happiness through the maintenance of those values every waking hour of our lives. Every citizen, parent, boss, teacher, judge, politician and everyone else leads by example.
WE are the leaders. Each of us is ,therefore, responsible for fixing the morality problem of this society. Until you and I resolve to fix it and act upon that resolve, it will not be fixed. Dan Robling©1996