Whether or not a business can remain its ethical reputation based on 2 factor.
First of all, the employees themselves play significant roles in making sure that they don’t breach the company’s rule and don’t perform any unethical conduct no matter how small it is. According to a research, people tend to cheat more under the circumstances that they thought the consequences would be small. For instance, a employee might think that it is not a big deal if he is late for 1 minute. Once this thought remains in his/her mind, he/she is probably going to be late some time down the road. If the employee didn’t receive any negative consequence after committing this tiny but still unethical behaviour, he/she will possibly be late for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 3o minutes, even be absent for a day, until he/she gets punishment. Insofar, the employee might not even realize that what he has done are accounted for unethical performances . Hence, to avoid unethical conducts occur, employees need to be more aware that the ethical behaviours starting off small, as well as gain more self-control over any vicious temptation even if it’s minor.
Secondly, the executive are responsible for clarifying the ethical rules of the company to the employers. He/she needs to inform the employers what exactly right and wrong is and what the penalties are if they offend against the rule. Once employees gain the knowledge of what exactly they need to follow, it becomes less likely for them to break the rule due to their fear of punishments. In addition, the executive is also responsible for being a good role model for all the employers to look up to and for the sake of the company’s reputation. If the executive himself/herself doesn’t pay attention to keeping ethical behaviours, such as breaking promise, being late, being corruptive, and etc, it is unlikely for anyone else in the company to conform to the ethical policy.
To sum up, it is critical for a com pany that both employees and the executive perform ethically staring off small.
Sources: http://www.bbc.com/capital/story/20140806-the-slippery-slope