Earlier this week, I attended a breakfast debate on ‘Business Culture and Morality’ at Cass Business School organised by Editorial Intelligence and it was amazing, really thought provoking and gave me a real insight to people’s different perceptions of the words ‘moral’s’, ‘ethics’ and ‘sustainability’.
The debate was chaired by Giles Gibbons of Good Business (the perfect name for the event) and the speaker was Prof Jo Silvester an organisational psychologist with Cass Business School. Then, we had an amazing array of guests from R3 to Fanshawe Haldin, to Institute of Business Ethics to Fishburn Hedges, to Camelot UK Lotteries so a diverse spectrum of businesses.
What struck me the most, was the difference in opinions of the ‘perceptions’ of what morals are, and what it is to be ethical?
I believe that you are taught ethics as a child and then as you grow up you develop your own, but the foundations come from childhood and upbringing. Obviously, in a business module you could say it would be the growth of the business i.e. from the idea to creating the industry for an entrepreneur and, for a business such as a bank it is what is fed from the top management/leaders down.
Ethics are fundamentally morals and these encompass the following elements:
Values
Integrity
Being Self-Aware ~ behavioural influences
Motivation ~ giving and receiving feedback
Open ~ adapting to different needs and being able to change
I believe in my role as Managing Director of SJD Events, delivering a personalised service to my clients for their special occasion/wedding that my business morality is extremely important and that I must meet their expectations and exceed these with my values as I have self belief.
The debate was absolutely fascinating, it was interesting to hear about ‘integrity’ and companies perceptions of how it differs on the interior and exterior, to moral perceptions of leadership frameworks within an organisation, to the importance of ‘transparency’, to understanding the importance of having a tight ship with good communication from top to bottom and bottom to top leadership.
Then, the role of the ‘media’ which is an extremely important part in the way the message is delivered to the man on the street, whether it is about the BBC, Starbucks and tax to a small business using ‘social media’, it all about what message you give.
If you want to attend one of these debates and learn more about Editorial Intelligence visit the website at www.editorialintelligence.co.uk.
However, another link that I want to bring into this blog which I believe compliments it perfectly is a book that I have just read this week called ‘The Betrayer’ by Kimberley Chambers .
It has a number of story lines from drugs to alcohol, to life living on an estate in the East End of London, but something I realised when I finished it last night was, it had an underlining message and that was about ‘morals, ethics and the big society’.
It is really worth the read as it share with you a real story of a mothers struggle to bring up three children on a council estate with an alcoholic absent husband, having a child in jail, overcoming a loss of a child, breast cancer and a lot more as I don’t want to tell you the whole storyline but its great as really is showing you the world we live in.
Event Management Consultant and Fundraiser 