Ethics

When determining whether or not a company will be successful, the company’s ethical beliefs should play a big part in that decision. Sure there may be some companies that will have quick, short term success as a result of unethical behavior, however, this success will be short lived and will not last. A company with an ethical belief system, on the other hand, may not have the same quick success as the unethical company, but the success will last long and the business will flourish as word of mouth continues to bring in more clients. A good example of this theory that comes to mind is an auto mechanic shop. Much of the clients for an auto mechanic will come from referrals. If the auto mechanic treats their clients fairly and the clients leave the shop happy, when the client’s friends and family are having car troubles the clients will likely refer their loved ones to the auto mechanic where the client had such a good experience. If the auto mechanic is unethical and maybe overcharges the client or does not fix the car properly, the clients will eventually realize the unethical behavior of the mechanic and will stop taking their business to the mechanic. At this time, the word of mouth factor will hurt the mechanic shop as well. When the client, who was treated badly and did not have a good experience hears of loved one’s car troubles, will advise their friends and family members to stay away from the mechanic where they had the bad experience. The unethical mechanic shop may have made more money quickly, but by doing so they lost the client and every other person that the client will tell about their bad experience. Another example of ethics in business and how unethical behavior affects a company’s success has to do with a residential construction inspection company. New home inspection involves taking samples from materials being used to build houses. For example, when the sidewalks are being poured, a new home inspector will take samples from the concrete and perform various tests on the concrete to make sure the material being used is good quality. The company this author was an employee for was founded by a man who had excellent moral values and was well respected throughout the industry. Under this man, the company flourished as he hired employees with the same values and the clients with whom the company was contracted recognized this. For many years the company was a leader in the industry and every home builder wanted the company to perform all of the inspections of their home sites. During this time, the company was very successful and was even having to turn down work because of not having the resources to be able to perform the work to the standards which had brought the company so much success to this point. After many years of success, the man retired and left his company to his sons, who had worked in the office of the company, but did not have the field experience or same ethics of their father. Within a short time, the company unfortunately began to change. The work that was turned down before due to lack of resources was taken on and the employees in the field were stretched to their limits because of the added work. When the owners were told that there was too much work and not enough resources, they responded with a training meeting where they taught shortcuts to have the appearance that the tests were being done well, but in fact the same quality of work that made the company so successful was missing. Those employees who refused to comply with the new style were let go; most of those had been with the company for over twenty years since the beginning and new employees were brought in from the outside to fill the positions. The results of these actions were devastating and eventually the company, which had been the leader of the industry, was forced to close its doors. The builders started to see the difference in the results and realized the shortcuts which were implemented, which immediately destroyed the trust the clients had in the company and word spread throughout the industry of the unethical behavior. In this sad case, a highly regarded inspection company was brought down from a lack of ethics. The company could have hired more employees to keep up with the added work and expanded the space they had to make room for the testing. If these choices were made, chances are the company would still be successful. Instead, the owners chose to compromise the company’s standards to boost profits for a short time, and ended up paying for it in the end.