In the recent years corporations have tried to change the way people think about business. The idea that companies only look for their best interest and focus mainly in profit maximization has been challenged by companies who constantly get involved in social and environmental projects.
Emphasizing the importance of ethics, companies have written codes of conduct and have worked with their employees to have a more ethical environment.
According to the article ” On wall street, a culture of greed won’t let go” of the New York times out of the 250 business insiders who took the survey; 38% said they would engage in insider trading to make 10 million if they could get away with it. 26 %“believed the compensation plans in their companies incentivize employees to violate the law.”28 % of respondents felt that the financial services industry does not put the interests of clients first.”
Many corporations have adopted the stakeholder theory which states that all stakeholders are equally important, this is clearly not reflected here as an important percentage stated that the industries priority are not those of the client. Employees are also seeking their own benefit as they are willing to be dishonest in order to gain 10 million dollars. The origin to this problem could be just what Karl Homman stated ” The cause of inmoral behavior does not lie in the evil motives of the actor , but can be traced to institutional defects” which is exactly what is happening. Many said that their own companies compensations plans and bonus were tempting them to consider the possibility of breaking the law.
Sorkin, Andrew. “On Wall Street, a Culture of Greed Won’t Let Go.” On Wall Street a Culture of Greed Wont Let Go Comments. New York Times, 15 July 2013. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/07/15/on-wall-st-a-culture-of-greed-wont-let-go/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0>.
Zimmerli, Walther, Holzinger,Markus, Richter, Klaus. “Corporate Ethics and Corporate Governance.” N.p.: Springer, n.d. 1. Jan. 2007. Web. 10 Sept. 2014. <http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171>.
I agree with everything you said here in your blog, employees are being more and more motivated to do what ever is in their self interest instead of following all the rules. If breaking the law benefits them immensely then that’s a risk that many are willing to take.