ABSTRACT
Each of us can work at strengthening ethics in organizations. Research and history give us tools to raise our odds of success, but these tools tend to rust away unused, as the studies and examples that follow show in vivid detail. This book draws together relevant research and diverse examples that show us practical steps we can take to make a difference. This chapter notes how organizations with strong ethics differ from organizations plagued with ethical weakness, flawed decision-making, and ethical violations. It reviews findings from an array of recent studies along with examples from newspaper headlines showing both great opportunities and challenges in strengthening organizational ethics. It distinguishes between tools that have demonstrated effectiveness and tools—many of them widely used—that promise much but deliver little aside from the guise of change. These ineffective or counterproductive tools tend to fall into the following categories: Ethics Placebos, Zombie Ethics, Magic Bullets, and The Usual Suspects. They distract us from the actual causes of ethical weakness and from interventions informed by research and history that can address those causes effectively.
