Although complex and convoluted at the
operational level, theoretically the bottom line is
easy to state. Leadership, whether good or bad,
ethical or unethical, creates and to a large extent
controls the culture, character, and choices of an
organization. As Robert Jackall has pointed out,
like it or not: &dquo;What is right in the corporation is
not what is right in a (person’s) home
or...church. What is right in the corporation is
what the guy above you wants from YOU ......7
At Enron, at WorldCom, at Tyco, etc., etc.,
leadership created a culture that pushed the
envelope, a culture that encouraged and
rewarded risk taking, a culture that was fixated
on the bottom line and not the ethical niceties.
In such a milieu, when inside organizational
imperatives conflict with outside social
requirements and restrictions, the dilemma is
easy to resolve. In the words of Michael
Hoffman, Director of Bentley College’s Center
for Business Ethics, &dquo;culture always trumps
compliance!&dquo; I believe that the central problem
of ethics in business today is not a lack of
awareness, or a lack of moral imagination, or
even a lack of moral reasoning, but rather the
absence of positive moral leadership and the
neglected development of a moral culture. As
ethics consultant Mike Lambert has so
eloquently put it: &dquo;Ethics is not just a class you
teach or a box you check, it is a way of being. It
has to be something cultural&dquo;. 8