Textbox 2: Compliance Oriented Codes and Programs Versus Values Oriented Codes and Programs

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Compliance Strategy

1. The initial and still probably the most prevalent method for responding to the Federal Sentencing Guidelines is the compliance strategy. This strategy is based on three interrelated components:
2. Rules: Compliance strategies are centered around strict codes of ethics composed of rules that set forth minimum thresholds of acceptable behavior. The use of rules to structure employee action does run into problems due to the gap between rule and application, the appearance of novel situations, and the impression that it gives to employees that obedience is based on conformity to authority.
3. Monitoring: The second component consists of monitoring activities designed to ensure that employees are conforming to rules and to identify instances of non-compliance. Monitoring is certainly effective but it requires that the organization expend time, money, and energy. Monitoring also places stress upon employees in that they are aware of constantly being watched. Those under observation tend either to rebel or to automatically adopt behaviors they believe those doing the monitoring want. This considerably dampens creativity, legitimate criticism, and innovation.
4. Disciplining Misconduct: The last key component to a compliance strategy is punishment. Punishment can be effective especially when establishing and enforcing conduct that remains above the criminal level. But reliance on punishment for control tends to impose solidarity on an organization rather than elicit it. Employees conform because they fear sanction. Organizations based on this fear are never really free to pursue excellence.

Values Orientation

1. To facilitate comparison, three correlative but different elements to Values-Based or aspirational approaches will be identified.
2. Development of Shared Values: Using a process similar to the one described above, a company develops a Statement of Shared Values. These provide guidelines that replace the hard and fast rules of a compliance code. Statements in values-oriented codes play a different logical function than statements in compliance codes. "Principles of Professional/Organizational Conduct" in compliance codes specify circumstances of compliance: time, agent, place, purpose, manner, etc. These provide sufficient content to set forth principles of professional conduct as rules that can be violated. This, in turn, allows them to be backed by punishment for violation. "Ideals of the Profession" (or organization) set forth a community's shared aspirations. These are pitched at a level well above and beyond the minimum. Communities can and should define themselves as much by their aspirations as by their threshold standards.
3. Support for Employees: Since Statements of Values set forth excellences or aspirations, the role of the organization changes from monitoring and then punishing misbehavior to finding ways of opening avenues for employees to realize key values in their day to day activity. Excellence is not something to be reached overnight. It requires rethinking basic motivations, attitudes, beliefs, and goals. Companies need to identify obstacles to achieving ideals and then develop support structures to help those who seek to realize ideals. Values-based approaches change from punishing conduct that falls below the minimum to providing collective support to those who strive for the excellent.
4. Locking in on Continual Improvement: The philosopher, John Dewey, characterizes moral re sponsibility as the drive to better ourselves. The particular twist in Dewey's approach is to find ways of folding what has been learned from the past into meeting new challenges that arise in the future. This involves changing habits and, ultimately, changing character. Continual improvement is the ultimate goal of corporations oriented toward excellence. The values these "moral ecologies" identify structure and channel this endeavor. What is needed at this stage is to develop concrete programs and strategies for identifying obstacles to excellence, removing them, and remaining on track for excellence.
5. To summarize, some companies identify a compliance strategy where they set forth rules that establish minimum levels of acceptable conduct, monitor compliance, and punish non-compliance. Others, value-oriented or aspiration-oriented companies, identify core values or aspirations (by reflecting on community values and finding them embedded in extant codes of ethics), develop programs and structures to support those who strive for these values, and work to lock in a program of continual improvement or betterment.
6. Something to think about. Compliance approaches work best in what of company, organization or moral ecology. (Think about this in terms of the central or core commitments such as those in finance-, customer-, and quality-driven companies.) Values-based approaches work best in what kind of company, organization or moral ecology? How does one transition from compliance to values-based approaches? How does one integrate the two?