Imagine an employee who loves to come to work.
She is encouraged to try new ideas and knows it will be OK if most of them fail. She believes in the organization’s mission and understands that supporting it can lead to great things for her, both professionally and personally. She is not managed through emotional or economic pressures. She comes to work every day because if feels like play. Employee events allows her to form meaningful relationships at work. Her goal is not to make her way to the top of the org chart, so her promotions consist of greater freedom to travel to industry events and in additional resources for her team.
Now try to imagine this employee stealing from her employer.
C’mon. Try.
Pretty hard, right?
Yet, when organizations work to prevent unethical behavior, most of them focus on writing compliance policies, providing training, implementing controls, and conducting audits. When employees operate in such an environment, they do not feel the trust that necessarily leads to risk taking, innovation, and performance.
Time to change how we do things, methinks.
Hat tip to Vega Factor (for performance drivers) and LRN (for T.R.I.P.)
The Ethical Leader 