Let me be honest ... I am totally stealing this from a friend of mine who sent it out via e-mail. My friend does not have a blog, so I'm taking liberty to add it to mine. But my friend gets all the credit. However, since my friend refers to a "client" I do not want to reveal my friend's identity.--------------------------
I was just reading an excerpt from a client's "core values" statement, which is probably fairly similar to many of corporate America's value statements. Under integrity, it says "There are no gray areas between right and wrong."
And I got to thinking - (I don't have a blog so this is my version) - that statement is totally contradictory to many Americans' personal views. But somehow when you bring the concept of right and wrong into the workplace, there's a different standard than when it refers to your personal life. But the workplace is obviously made up of these individuals who apply the gray concept to many personal moral issues - so how can the 2 coexist??
Interesting.
2 comments:
When it comes to discerning right from wrong, the benefit that we have in the workplace (or the downside, depending on which side you're on) is that our legal system defines it for us.
The consequences of being on the "wrong" side of the right/wrong decision are often quite clearly spelled out for us in advance. While simply knowing that there are consequences may not help us discern what is right and what is wrong, it at least compels us to try our best to figure it out -- and possibly run it by the company's legal counsel before we act!
The actual consequences of making the "wrong" decision in our personal lives are not always as clear. As believers, we know that there are consequences to our sins (our "wrong" decisions), but perhaps we sometimes fail to draw the correlations. And non-believers may not even realize that there are consequences to begin with!
interesting issue you and your friend bring up...but i think the issue is that the law is usually in catch up mode (re enron, political corruption, etc.).
there is an assumption that people are good and will do the right thing. afterall, think about how many petty crimes go unprosecuted. (i have had my car broken into many times, but have yet to hear from the police).
in the end the grey is really morality and ethics. we as a people just don't have it...just think why do we have to have WRITTEN contracts for everything we do? Sadly as a society, even something like marriage has to be entered protecting yourself for divorce...
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