In our connected world of technology, the ways in which we engage with businesses and clients can have a big impact. And as we’ve seen with the ways in which our public and private data is used by companies like Meta, not all impacts are positive. Some are downright manipulative.
How does a company or an employee or a consultant working with a client know how to operate with transparency and integrity? We know that certain industries have regulations that define what is acceptable and compel compliance (law, medicine, accounting). There are also voluntary standards and practices established by working groups and business consortiums that can serve as guides to ethical behavior.
However, many industries and especially many different forms of consulting lack clearly articulated and codified ethical rules. Is it right or wrong to give or receive bribes (or dinners, or gifts) as part of doing business? Where are the guardrails in fudging timesheets? Is it okay to use user-data, given voluntarily or not, to target ads or shape opinion or manipulate thought? Even if these things are done for ‘good’ purposes or without ill intent?
Beyond employees or corporate entities, there is an opportunity for those of us who advise and solve problems for our clients to be better Philosopher-Consultants and operate with virtue and integrity.
But ethics can be complex issues, often culturally specific and rarely black or white. Tough scene for consultants to navigate. So I asked my friends Phil Yanov, Oliver Cronk, and Whynde Kuehn to chat with me about it.
In this episode:
- What does it mean for a company or a person to act with virtue?
- What does it mean to be ethical?
- When are ethics clear? When are they ambiguous?
- What are the cultural contexts at play here?
- How does a person in a company navigate ethics?
- How does a consultant work ethically and advise clients ethically?
- How does an employee or consultant know that they’re acting ethically?
Add your thoughts to the conversation on LinkedIn or YouTube.
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