Courage: An essential ingredient of ethics.
I have had the pleasure of teaching a class on Business Ethics to undergraduates the past two years. One of the biggest challenges is to keep them optimistic about the business world after reading so many cases detailing the failures of managers in Corporate America. Students can become rather jaded in their perspectives, and “Business Ethics” becomes the butt of scholarly wit much like “military intelligence” and other notable oxymorons. To combat this, I would often remind them of the many positive attributes of business and benefits of capitalism seen in our community every day. We would also engage in some free ranging discussions on points of interest to keep them thinking about how they could and would do better.
One of my favorite recurring themes to discuss was the role of courage in the study of ethics. So many of our tragic heroes and villains in the case studies were tripped up, it seemed to me, by a stunning lack of courage. I reminded students that many of the people we studied were just like them 20 years prior – students in business or undergraduate school, figuring out their career path, excited about the future. I don’t believe there was one such person who sat at a desk in a university at age 20 and thought “I know how I’m going to make my first million – outright fraud sounds like a good plan!” No, most of the characters in our unfortunately true case studies were good, hard-working individuals who simply lost their way.
And while some of them clearly went down a very dark path, the vast majority simply seemed to lack courage. They were incapable of standing up to their boss, their peers, or perhaps themselves or families. They could not stop the train once it started rolling, often consumed by fear of what it might do to them personally or professionally if they were to stand up and speak out. Instead of blowing the whistle or taking a less antagonistic approach and walking away, our subjects continued to toil away hoping for some (perhaps Divine) intervention.
These people may be purely “wallflowers” who silently go about their business, not wanting to cause a stir and perhaps lose their job or create hardship for their coworkers or company. Or they may be order-takers. In either case, they consider themselves ethical because they do not themselves cause harm by any overt act. They shy away from conflict, safe in the knowledge that comfortable retirement is theirs if they keep their head down and play the game. Many have perhaps seen the treatment of whistleblowers and know the challenges of stepping forward without a net – potentially sacrificing years of one’s life to uncertainty and litigation, and a possible trip to the poorhouse before it all (hopefully) gets straightened out. They want to be able to just do their job and figure it will all work out in the end.
So can you be ethical if you lack courage?
Many people would argue yes. The innocent bystander who witnesses a murder isn’t considered unethical if they avoid the police. They are protecting themselves and their family from years of trial and possible reprisals for their testimony. Similarly, a lower level accountant who becomes aware of some potential fraud at the company may feel justified in taking a passive approach to the issue, especially if it is not in their direct area.
We can look at these people and say they are still ethical. They may lead exemplary lives and have never harmed anyone. At most, theirs is a sin of omission and our society tends to view those much less harshly. Their lack of courage is understood – we empathize with the wallflower.
I would argue against this. I believe anyone claiming to be ethical must also be courageous. You have to be able to speak up when you see wrongdoing – either directly or through anonymous hotlines or other channels. One of the reasons corporate scandals continue for so long and are repeated in future years is the lack of early-stage intervention by supposed ethical bystanders. We watch and wait, hoping the problem will fix itself, or that a courageous whistleblower will emerge. I believe people have an absolute responsibility to bring problems to light. It does not necessarily mean shouting it from the mountain tops – there are many ways to relieve your burden of knowledge. But to act ethically, to me, requires action. And action requires courage.
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