We all have our own version of “ethical”

Ethics provides us with a moral roadmap of sorts. It gives us the tools to think about moral issues and guide our decision-making. And this can span anything from how we feel about abortion and capital punishment to the food that we eat and the products that we buy.

Speaking of issues like abortion and capital punishment, it's clear that ethics doesn't necessarily provide us with clear-cut answers; people often have different views on what's morally “right,” and some issues are just plain messy or ambiguous. Ethics, then, is a sort of framework that helps us to decide for ourselves what's right and what's wrong.

The fact that one person's idea of ethical behavior differs from another's hasn't stopped philosophers coming up with ethical theories to tell right from wrong. For example, there's “virtue ethics,” which states that living an ethical life means demonstrating virtues such as compassion and courage (virtue ethics considers traits like jealousy and selfishness to be unethical). Or there's the “utilitarianism” theory of ethics, which says that to be ethical is to maximize the amount of happiness around you and minimize the suffering.

Although the specifics may vary from person to person and theory to theory, ethics is ultimately about considering the interests of others, as opposed to serving our own desires to the detriment of others. To think ethically, then, is to think about more than yourself. It's to think about the common good.

Business ethics

If ethics is a set of principles that guide our decision-making and behavior, it's pretty clear that this is just as important in a business context as it is in everyday life. An ethical business is one that tells the truth, keeps its promises to customers and employees, treats people with respect, takes responsibility for its actions, and, ideally, aims to contribute something to the common good. An unethical business is one that puts profit above all other concerns, to the detriment of its employees, customers, society, and our world.

Ethical awareness in a business context therefore starts with thinking about the effect of business decisions on customers, employees, and other stakeholders (and yes, I'd include the environment as a stakeholder). Looking a little wider than that, ethical awareness also encompasses the organization's overall values, beliefs, and culture. Looking even wider, business ethics often means regulatory compliance—some laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are designed to ensure companies behave in a certain way (in this case, to prevent fraud). Other legal examples include environmental standards, minimum wage laws, and health and safety laws.

Bringing all this together, perhaps the best way to define business ethics is as a system that guides the values, beliefs, decisions, and behaviors of an organization and the people who work in it. For this to happen, ethics needs to be embedded into the very fabric of the organization, starting with ethical leaders who set the tone for how the business should behave. This then filters down so that everyone in the company has a clear idea on what's right and wrong (in terms of decision-making and conduct).

Technology and ethics

New technologies bring with them ethical concerns that can be tricky to address. AI is one of those technologies that presents significant ethical challenges, such as data bias and data privacy (see Chapter 2)—not to mention the morality of asking machines to make important decisions (which in the case of something like healthcare could mean life-and-death decisions). Gene editing is another technology that can be fraught with ethical dilemmas, such as who decides which genetic traits are “normal” and which are abnormal? Or could gene editing ultimately make society less accepting of people who are different?

Industries need people with ethical awareness to help them navigate these murky waters and ensure that technology is used for the benefit of all. This is why more and more businesses are hiring ethicists, and I'm not just talking about tech companies. The US Army, for example, has a chief AI ethics officer (as part of the army's artificial intelligence task force) who advises the army on incorporating ethics into AI design. If you raised an eyebrow at that, consider the potential implications of AI systems making decisions on, for example, target sites for drone attacks. To what extent should machines be involved in such decisions and where do we draw the line between AI-led efficiency and our moral responsibility as human beings? Companies of all types will be grappling with similar sorts of questions, such as “How can we get the best out of AI, while ensuring the well-being of our employees, customers, and other stakeholders?” and “Does this usage violate people's individual right to privacy?” and “Does this provide genuine value for the people we serve?”

All things considered, although ethical awareness is nothing new, I expect it to rise in importance in the coming years as society grapples with the potential uses and impacts of new technologies.

For individuals

• First, identify and understand your own values. What is important to you? What personal qualities do you think are important in a person? How do you wish to behave, and for others to see you? Everything stems from this understanding.
• Then ask yourself, do you really follow your own ethics?
• Learn about ethics. There's no one single blueprint on how to live ethically, which, for me, only makes the topic more fascinating. So read up on ethics and delve into the various different schools of thought. It may help you define your own ethical code.
• Practice empathy (see Chapter 7). The ability to put yourself in someone else's shoes can really help you make ethical choices.
• Look for ways to help others in everyday life. Yes, you can do things like volunteering and giving to charity, but don't overlook the opportunities for small good deeds, like giving up your seat on a crowded train.
• Respect the rights, values, and beliefs of others. Forcing people to agree with you or to go along with what you want isn't ethical—even if you believe you're acting with their interests in mind.
• Avoid the temptation to impose your ethics on others. Remember, being ethical means different things to different people.
• It sounds obvious, but when you make a promise, keep it.
• When weighing up potential employers, ensure the company's values align with your own. (Think critically here; see Chapter 5. Try to see things as they really are, rather than how you want them to be.)
• Familiarize yourself with your current employer's code of ethics, so that you can act on these principles—and call out instances of unethical behavior. If you believe your employer is acting unethically, raise it with your manager in the first instance.

For organizations and leaders

• If you don't yet have a code of ethics to guide how people work together and engage with customers, make that your top ethics priority. Codes vary from business to business, but good guiding principles involve honesty, transparency, treating people with respect, and acting responsibly. Basically, think about the kind of behaviors you want to promote, rather than listing what you don't want to see.
• Build your ethical code into your company's induction program, so that new hires are clear on the company's values.
• Ensure all leaders model ethical behavior. Because, as the saying goes, “values are caught, not taught.” This means leaders must act the way they want others to behave, and display qualities like honesty and transparency on a daily basis. Employees are much more likely to act ethically when they see leaders embodying the organization's values.
• Build ethical thinking into everyday decision-making by considering the impact of decisions on employees, customers, and other stakeholders.
• Give people the means to report unethical behavior in confidence, and to highlight ideas for doing things better. As part of this, you may need to train certain people on how to deal with and investigate ethics complaints.
• Hold people accountable for ethics violations. When people cross ethical boundaries, they must be held accountable. In the case of something like sexual harassment, you'll want to have a zero-tolerance policy, but some issues will be less clear-cut.
• Reward ethical behavior, for example, by praising someone in a team meeting for treating others with respect, or giving a formal award to those who act with integrity.
• Consider the ethical impacts of new technologies, particularly when it involves artificial intelligence and people's personal data. Every company should build ethics into their data and AI strategies.
• And when things go wrong (as they do), let ethics guide your response to any crisis. This means being transparent about what has gone wrong, apologizing, making it right for the people impacted by the situation, and putting in place practices to ensure the same thing doesn't happen again.