Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/61375
From Editors the The Honesty Quotient My most recent ethical dilemma involved seven dollars. A cashier failed to charge me for a seven-dollar item, which I didn't realize until I was halfway home.My companion and I engaged in a brief ethical debate: Should I go back to pay for the item? Or consider it a gift? We facetiously came up with a mathematical formula for such situations: One's need for honesty (H) is directly proportional to the money involved (M) divided by one's distance from the store when one discovers the mistake (D).M/ D = H. In this case, $7 / 2 miles = 3.5. This "honesty quotient," we agreed, would have to be at least a "5" to warrant putting the car into reverse, so we continued home. Not an unparalleled display of ethics, granted. But ethical decisions seldom occur happened and handed him the check, he didn't utter a word—not even a "Thank you." He actually looked at me incredulously, as if I'd lost my mind. Now that I'm older and arguably wiser, his silence wouldn't faze me. However, at the time, I remember questioning my judgment, wondering if I was naïve to return the money. If only I'd had the honesty quotient to guide me! There would have been no crisis, no questioning. Just plug the variables into the formula: $50 / 4 miles = 12.5. Take it back! Wouldn't it be nice if all ethical questions were so easily resolved? But as ten years ago, a cashier accidentally threw my check for $50 into the bag with my purchase, along with my receipt. I didn't discover it until I got home. I admit I con- templated using the old "it-wasn't-my-mistake" defense and keeping the money; but after a crisis of conscience, honesty prevailed. I returned the next day. As luck would have it, the same cashier was on duty. After I explained what had in rarefied air. There are circumstances to be weighed, causes and effects to be bal- anced. Sometimes, the devil just wins out. Of course, I've experienced similar dilemmas that broke the "5" barrier. About Newtonian laws of physics break down at light speed, this paltry formula fails at the corporate level. The multimillion-dollar decisions corporate executives make encom- pass complex sets of variables, including employees, shareholders, and communities. It's all far too complex for any formula to manage. As an alternative to math, contributor Sandra Waddock applies poetry to the question of ethics—specifically the poetry of T.S. Eliot. In her article "HollowMen at the Helm," she uses Eliot's spiritually bankrupt "hollow men" as reminders of the effects ethical breakdowns have on business and society. To prepare for the ethical challenges they'll face, she writes, business students must keep in touch with their core values and strike a balance between individual and communal needs. Students who strike this balance will understand that ethics isn't a perfect science—few, if any, of us get it right 100 percent of the time.What's important is that students keep their ethics on an upward trajectory. And unlike my more uncertain, younger self, they won't need a "thank you" or even a mathematical formula to know they've done the right thing. They'll just know. s z 6 BizEd JULY/AUGUST 2004 BILL BASCOM