Ethical behavior starts at the top

A recent study from Deloitte & Touche USA has proved that senior management and direct supervisors play a large part in influencing ethical behavior at the workplace. So if a company wants to become ethical they will need to train the management to use the ethical standards of the company.

It's s important that the management demonstrates the ethical standards of the company every day to the workers, because ethics needs to be lived. For a worker only reading the ethical standards of the company simply isn't enough. When the management fails to do this, workers are not remembered of the ethical standards of the company and these will soon be forgotten.

Nathalie De Braekeleer

Ecover: environmental care.

Ecover has been established in 1979 in Belgium. It's an international company which main activity is the production of ecological detergents.

Ecover considers values such as fairness and respect for people, animals and the environment to be very important. Customers believe in these values and they support Ecover 's philosophy which is present in all the departments of the company, from production to marketing.

At the moment, Ecover wants to go a little bit further. With their new project they examine if their providers deliver ecologically correct raw materials. The company wants to make sure that the providers' employees are treated well and that they behave ecologically themselves too.

The goal of this ethical providers policy is to create co-operations with providers who share the same ideals. Not only does Ecover want to care about ethical production procedures, they also want to put child-labour and experiments on animals in the spotlight.


Silke Delahaye

Triple bottom line: not only profit counts...

The last ten years we notice that companies are not only focused on the profit they make. Social and environmental responsibility is becoming more and more important.First cost cutting was the most important goal of the companies, but times change...

Fifteen years ago, John Elkington announced 'the triple bottom line'. He said that companies should have three purposes; namely profit, people and planet. Climate problems are becoming bigger and bigger, labour markets aren't always well regulated,...

Companies are aware of these problems so they are re-examining the purposes of their policies now. Ethical standards and not financial performance come at first place. It is sometimes difficult for companies to combine the three Ps, but they improve the social and environmental relationship and it's good for their image, the loyalty of their customers grows.

Companies have become more 'human'....

Justine De Kinder

What is ethical behavior?

Ethical behavior is the product of moral believes and principles. There are several ways for a company to become ethical, for example: pay fair prices for their resources, good working conditions for the employees, fair pay,less pollution,...

Fair pay is the most frequent example of ethical behavior because when a company pays bad(especially in Europe) it's criticized by the rest of the world. The reason here for is that every one wants to be payed correctly for their work and no one wants to be under payed.
Still, in developing countries you will find people who will do anything to work, even if it means they will be under payed. Some companies use this is in their advantage but that will be explained in a blog further one.

Nathalie De Braekeleer

A lot of ethical scandals

These days more and more companies are trapped in ethical scandals. Their most important goal is making a lot of money, they hardly care about their stakeholders.

However, according to several specialists, being ethical and corporate governance are the first steps to success.
There are a lot of reasons for operating in an ethical way and becoming successfull: it positively influences the company 's reputation which attracts consumers who will buy more, shareholder value increases and capital will be protected, companies also create a competitive advantage and there will be less internal corruption. Due to all these things, the costs of the company will decrease, which will result in more profit.

Besides, unethical behaviour can be risky: if a company loses its reputation, it can be permanent and maybe the company will have to close its doors.

Why are there still so many scandals regarding unethical behaviour, if you see the downside of it?


Silke Delahaye