Moral Muteness

Moral muteness

• Moral muteness is when we communicate in

ways that obscure our moral beliefs and
commitments, or don’t voice moral
sentiments at all.
Compliance SWEET Ethical
with Laws SPOT Behavior

Compliance and Ethics Program

 Causes of Moral Muteness:

• 1. Threat to Harmony: moral talk often

requires some challenge and confrontation
 Causes of Moral Muteness:

• 2. Threat to efficiency:
a. if done with ideological exhortations it
i. does not facilitate problem solving
ii. doesn’t usually clarify issues
iii. seems self-serving
 Causes of Moral Muteness:
Threat to Efficiency:

• Moral talk adds an extra burden to business

decisions—seen as distraction
• Adds additional rules and regulations, may
hinder quick decisions
 Causes of Moral Muteness:
3. Threat to image of Power and Effectiveness

• moral ideals highlight imperfections in current

practices
• managers don’t want to expose their own moral
illiteracy
• lower managers are expected to solve their own
problems
 Consequences of Moral Muteness

• 1. Moral Amnesia: forget that ethics is part of

business
Ex: Milton Friedman acts as though business should
be concerned only with profit, not social
responsibility, yet he alludes to 8 important ethical
issues: no fraud, no deceit, fair competition, respect
law, respect contracts, recognize employee and
investor rights, maximize consumer satisfaction and
freedom
 Consequences of Moral Muteness

2. Narrowed conception of morality: Discuss

business only in terms of strategy and common
sense, and avoid discussing the ethical reasons
for the decision. Ethics is construed to be only
for the severely immoral—rules to punish
breakers.
 Consequences of Moral Muteness

3. Moral Stress: managers who don’t discuss the

ethical issues will have more stress that they
internalize
 Consequences of Moral Muteness

• 4. Neglect of Abuses: Many moral issues are

simply not organizationally recognized and
addressed. “Many moral abuses are ignored,
many moral ideals are not pursued, and many
moral dilemmas remain unresolved.”
 Consequences of Moral Muteness
• 5. Decreased authority of moral standards:
The less we talk about it, the less those
standards will seem real.
Moral Muteness among managers
• The fact that managers rarely talk about ethics
directly. Managers talk instead about:
– a. organizational interests
– b. practicality
– c. economic good sense
 In reality, many of their decisions are actually guided by

• morally defined standards codified in law

• professional conventions
• social mores
 And they defend moral activities
such as:

• service to customers
• effective cooperation among personnel
• use of resources for company’s benefit
 Go it Alone:

• Managers struggle with ethical issues, but

don’t talk to one another about it much:
• “Morality is a live topic for individual
managers but it is close to a non-topic among
groups of managers.”
 Communication & Follow-Through are
Essential
• While normative expectations are explicitly
given through legal rulings, regulatory
agencies decrees, professional codes,
organizational policies and social mores, if
these are not communicated well, and acted
upon, the message will not get out.
 What is communicated?
Ethics Materials: Mission
Values
Code of conduct/ethics
Policies
Decision methods
Your culture

Ethics program: Who is the Ethics Officer? How to

make contact?

Senior Management Why organizational ethics matters?

Commitment to Ethics:
 Methods of Communication

Evaluate current ethics communication lines

– Formal and informal
– downward, upward, and two way

Clear, consistent, credible messages across

communication lines
 More about Methods of Communication
 Hiring Announcements
 Website
 Email
 Brochures
 Meetings – Formal & Informal
 Orientation sessions
 Newsletters
 Manuals
 Code Handbooks w/certifications
 Badges and Wallet Cards
 Key Fobs