HERBERT LEWIS, Guest Columnist"No one ever made money on an expense account, so a
little padding brings me out even;"
"If it takes a few dollars to swing the contract our way, go ahead and use your own judgement."
"The board never questions legal compliance unless we are sued, so we will probably never be questioned about this expenditure".
These are popular sentiments echoed frequently throughout Jamaica.
There is the story of the parents who never failed to remind their little son that it was wrong to take home from school what was not his. One afternoon, the father who was a very senior executive in his organisation, arrived home to find his wife giving their son a flogging for bringing home some pens from school which were not his. The father promptly told the youngster that he was wrong and that if he wanted pens he should have told him and he would have taken home some for him from the office.
Some would say these are musings on unimportant matters. Others may regard them as 'winking' at principle. A few would quickly identify laws or regulations which are involved. Aside from these observations, what can be read into every statement, is an attempt to get around conscience.
We don't use the word 'conscience' much today because it can produce discomfort, if not guilt. Conscience has been called 'the thinking man's filter'. If there were no written laws or rules, this filter would still work, telling us that certain things should not be done or, more importantly, that positive action is required of us. I believe that conscience can be shaped: We can improve its sensitivity or almost destroy it. Conscience reminds me of a person's physique: There is no way escaping having one, but we can do much to shape or destroy it, and we have to work on it every day.
MINOR MATTERS
A sharp conscience makes little distinction in small issues. It is minor matters that provide it with sleeplessness. Saying "no", avoiding the "winking" responding to affirmative nudges are the ways we make it strong. It takes much practice to be strong enough to turn down the bribes or refuse the product when there is any question about its legality .
Managers are always
searching for this thing called conscience particularly in others. They talk of 'character', 'honesty', 'integrity, or 'trust'. But many do not seek these fine qualities in and of themselves. They are looking for something which will permit decentralisation and delegation to be attended by sensitive judgement.
This is a worthy demand to make of others, but managers, and here I include our leaders, must lead the way and make their own consciences strong. A course in ethics may help. And thinking of your religious affiliation is not a bad idea.
One of the ways we avoid personal involvement with our own consciences is to try to depersonalise the issue or situation which confronts us.
Today we hear calls for
corporate 'conscience,' 'social responsibility.' And 'ethical standards.' These are directed to legal entities or inanimate structures which have no real conscience. Organisations are made up of people real human beings and it is they who possess the consciences. If there were really such a thing as a corporate conscience, then it must be the sum total of everyone in it . No one escapes.
Placing responsibility
When our delivery people are indifferent in their care of the product because their individual conscience is not working then we apologise to the customers, improve our packaging, and train our delivery people a bit more rigorously. But the person with the lax conscience can still say the wrong thing, arrive at the wrong time, or generally be negative. On the other hand, the clerk who feels that he or she is the representative of the company because of a sensitive conscience is invaluable in telling the public who and what we are.
The corporate conscience is embodied in the stockholders, the board of directors, the
managers and the employees. It may be students, faculty, and administration. Or it can be voters, elective officials, and government managers. Each person in these groups has a conscience and to some degree becomes part of the organisation's conscience, and thus shares in the responsibilities, attached to it.
LETTER OF THE LAW
Today we work hard at being unconcerned with morals and are more concerned with matters of the law. Managers and
leaders, and those who work with them, are sensitive to laws and contracts but quite often lack the sensitivity of personal responsibility to own consciences.
I believe that many
persons today have acquired considerable skill in training, interpreting, and in many instances, manipulating law. Any conflict is solved according to the letter of the law, and this is considered to be the supreme solution. If one is right from a legal point of view, nothing more is required; nobody may mention that one could still not be entirely right, and urge self-restraint, a willingness to renounce such legal rights, sacrifice, and selfless risk. It would sound simply absurd. It is fair to say that one almost never sees voluntary self-restraint. It appears that everybody operates at the extreme limit of those legal frames.
moral mediocrity
I believe that a society which is based on the letter of the law and never reaches any higher is taking very scarce advantage of the high level of human possibilities. The letter of the law is too cold and formal to have a beneficial influence on society. I also believe that whenever the tissue of life is woven of legalistic relations, there is room for an atmosphere of moral
mediocrity, which can paralyse man's noblest impulses.
Laws may help us a little here and there, but I believe that conscience extends to areas which the letter of the law cannot address. I doubt that the spirit of the law can
be articulated by legalistic phraseology. It is expressed in simple terms and by what I chose to call the 'inner voice'.
When we are willing to develop that inner voice and heed its counsel, fewer written laws will be needed.
Herbert Lewis is an industrial relations specialist and a past president of the Jamaica Employers' Federation. He may be contacted at herblewis@cwjamaica.com.
