An ethical approach over corruption as a potential solution

Opinion article by: Nicolas Botero Mejia (International Negotiator, Universidad EAFIT; and Analyst at the Trade, Investment and Development Observatory)

Colombia, among other Latin American countries have suffered for decades the negative consequences of corruption in different spheres. For instance, in politics, in the economic growth and in the social development. The kind of corruption that most affect a country usually is the one that political corporations and enterprises engage with. Although individuals might fall into daily unethical practices as well, the biggest concerns are those practices and behaviors happening in the public and the private sector that undermine social values and public morality. Governments had tried to confront this problematic by legal ways, promoting laws and regimes that forbid and sanction corrupt actions and actors. I don't have precise information over the real impact those regulations have had, probably not too well since corruption index and perception still high, but what I do recognize is the necessity to address this problem from another approach. Ethics and moral principles play an important role in this topic and I believe that should be considered to beat corruption with a structural social solution.

The purpose of this work is to address some desirable moral reflections that businessmen and employees as well as politicians and administrative authorities should contemplate not to incur in unethical and maybe illegal behaviors. After giving some background over moral principles, the basic essential concepts and its definitions, specific ideas will be presented. 

Every person has a moral code that contains principles, values, ideals and aspirations that shape our lives and determine the way we behave and relate with each other. The philosopher Richard Brandt suggest that when a principle is part of a person’s moral code, that person is strongly motived toward the conduct required by the principle, and against the ones that conflict with the principle. Nevertheless, there are two other concepts that could struggle with the moral principles and that usually do not depend on their choices or decisions because are given by the way they were raised and educated. On one side, conscience as the moral sense of right or wrong is disturbed when an internalized principle is violated. On the other hand, there is the self-interest orientation that every human unfortunately has. Collision of self-interest with moral principles are a usual cause for unethical actions because there is no guarantee that moral behavior will always benefit and satisfy a person's selfishness. 

There are some reflections that eventually can adjust politicians and businessmen's behaviors with the integrity that citizens expect. One of them is the acceptance of organizational norms and rules. No matter the nature of the organization, to achieve the objectives, members must commit themselves and in some cases, it implies resign some of their personal freedom. This means that both in an enterprise or in the Congress, the employees and members must follow rules and respect norms and assume that, consciously or unconsciously, for the pursuit of goals and correct performance of the functions. In the reality, some people think that their job, their social position or support gives the prerogative to skip rules and apply the Machiavellian idea of the goal justifying the means.

Accepting the norms established by an organization does not exclude the autonomy that sometimes the mentioned people should have. Since organizations and companies commonly exert pressure on their members, they tend to behave as those around them do. Imitating behaviors without realizing them is not desirable at all because that would perpetuate the wrong practices in certain manner and won’t allow new ideas and alternative courses of action to emerge. The bosses of a firm and the politicians, specially those elected by the population, must have a defined temperament and character to defend the interest of the company or of the voters.

In his book Business Ethics, Professor William Shaw names this objectionable phenomenon as Groupthink, and adds that “leads to irrational, sometimes disastrous decisions, and it has enormous potential for doing moral damage”.

It often happens that when a case of corruption is disclosed, no one of the people involved assumes the responsibility. Functions in an organization are frequently shared and coworkers use to join efforts towards a common objective which is a remarkable way to work coordinated. However, that collective participation can lead to a fragmented responsibility. That diffusion overwhelms personal moral responsibilities and make people think they are single small players with no important roles in a game that they cannot control. Looking forward to having respectful leaders that assume risks but also responsibilities when things does not end as expected is a must for a country that pretends to have transparent relations between government, private sector and civil society.

In conclusion, there are certain ethical and moral issues that could build a framework relative to those who participate in politics or run a business in order to promote integrity, rational and ethical decisions that influence the everyday life and could start a transformation towards an honored society. Legal system should not be totally banned from the regulation against corruption, the proposal of this work is another perspective that complements and seeks to prevent the necessary punishment that some actions deserve after attempting the general interests as corruption does. The way that the framework could be effectively replicated could follow the theory of the human-related collaborative sharing of knowledge, stated by Professor Johanna Lahtinen and that transferred knowledge based in qualitative feedback and empirical perceptions.

Reference

Shaw, W. (2011). Business Ethics: A textbook with cases. Boston, MA, USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.