"“Ask not whether it is lawful but whether it is ethical and moral,” says Todd Haugh, professor of business ethics at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, in a conversation with this reporter. “What is the right thing to do and how do we foster this? We are trying to create values and trust in the market and there are rules and obligations that extend beyond what is merely legal. In the end, organizational interests are about long-term collective success and not about short-term personal gain.”...
The Moral of the Mueller Report
The corollary to this familiar downfall is that of the U.S. presidency in context of the newly-released redacted version of the Mueller report. The same moral questions, in fact, have surfaced today that did so when Enron reigned: While Enron had a scripted code of conduct, it couldn’t transcend its own arrogance — that all was fair in the name of profits. Similarly, Trump has deluded himself and portions of the public that is all is fair in the name of winning.
“One of the most disturbing things, is the idea you can do whatever you need to do so long as you don’t get punished by the legal system,” says Professor Haugh. “We have seen echoes of that ever since the 2016 election. It is how this president is said to have acted in his business and many of us consider this conduct morally wrong. It is difficult to have an ethical culture when the leader does not follow what most people consider to be moral actions.”...
Just as Enron caused the nation to evaluate the balance between people and profits, the U.S president has forced American citizens to re-examine the boundaries between legality and morality. Good leadership isn’t about enriching the self but about bettering society and setting the tone for how organizations act. Debasing those standards is always a loser. And what’s past is prologue — a roadmap that the president is probably ignoring at democracy’s peril."
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