Reasons people do not follow the rules
There are many reasons for unethical behavior, but among the most common are these. (1) People have a strong tendency to bow to authority and follow orders from higher‐ups, giving them the excuse that “I was just following orders.” (2) People have a strong tendency to bow to the social pressure and conformity of their peer group, perhaps a left‐over tendency from their teenage years, leading to the excuse of “everyone does it.” (3) Unethical behavior is often due to an absence of clearly defined and communicated rules of behavior, standards, norms, or codes of ethics in a peer group, organization, company, or an industry, particularly for salespeople, allowing people to say “nobody told me.” (4) They are unaware that, “Every keystroke on your computer is there, forever and ever”8 in the age of transparency and the likelihood of getting caught is exceedingly high. (5) Corporate cultures that encourage employees to wink at their company’s code of standards or mission statement can justify their actions by saying, “no one will know; I won’t get caught.” (6) They believe their celebrity, fame, and power is so great that on impulse they can do anything they want.
While people who bow to authority may have to give up their individual free will and autonomy for the sake of the organization they work for, they do not have to turn their conscience and their self‐esteem over to that company or to anyone else. “Just following orders,” as we learned in the Nuremberg trials, is not a valid, acceptable excuse for doing the wrong thing. On the other hand, people who cave in to peer pressure in order to conform negate their own free will and autonomy and hand over their conscience and individuality to the crowd. “Everybody does it” is not an acceptable excuse for breaking the rules or for unethical behavior. An absence of clearly defined standards and codes of ethics can lead to unethical behavior because people can use the cop‐out “nobody told me.” This excuse is hollow because ethical behavior is implied and assumed in all of our daily social interactions. For example, we do not go around killing people because nobody said “Don’t kill anyone today.” Most people know what we are supposed to do and not to do, and know what the norms of decent behavior are.
Groups, organizations, and companies must create and communicate ethical standards to guard against these abuses and, even more importantly, to follow up with practices and behavior at the highest levels of the organization that adhere to stated corporate standards. Unfortunately “Do as I say, not as I do,” can be as effective on employees as it was on me as a teenager when my father told me not to smoke cigarettes as he puffed away on one of his 40 Camels a day. For example, Enron had a clearly defined code of conduct that it communicated to everyone in the company and posted on its website. Enron’s top executives obviously viewed this code as public relations, not as a set of rules they should follow, thinking arrogantly and cynically, “No one will know.”
Employees of an unethical company whose executives do not follow the rules should strongly consider leaving the company and looking for another job. Leaving an unethical, corrupt company is probably in your long‐term self‐interest because when the company’s ethical problems come to light, your pension fund or 401(k) plan will be worthless if it is invested in the stock of a company that declares bankruptcy. Also, your reputation will be tainted in the job market. Therefore, select the companies you work for very carefully and choose ones that will enhance your reputation not detract from it.
What Are Ethics?
Ethics are clearly defined and published standards and norms of right and wrong that are expressed as guidelines for behavior. There are three general types of ethical standards. First, most organizations, companies, and professions have written codes of ethics or standards of conduct. Next are accepted beliefs and modes of conduct among various social and ethnic groups. Finally, individuals have their own standards of right and wrong that they use to make daily judgments, which are based on a combination of deep‐seated personal values and beliefs inculcated from the first moment parents say “bad boy” or “bad girl.”
Why Are Ethics and Rules Important?
With heightened press coverage of corporate, Wall Street, government, and political scandals, the public has become increasingly concerned about the ethical behavior of the representatives of our important institutions. Therefore, if ever there was a time when ethical behavior for business and for salespeople was important, it is now. And it is vital to the health and credibility of American business to do the right thing rather than to do things right. Companies should perceive ethical behavior and doing the right thing as enlightened self‐interest because they preserve a company’s long‐term reputation, which is its greatest asset.
Doing the right thing and being trustworthy is not only the top priority for companies, but also for leadership. If salespeople want to get promoted and eventually be in a leadership position, they must be trustworthy. Adam Bryant, who wrote the weekly Corner Office column for The New York Times, interviewed 525 CEOs over the years for the column. In October of 2017, Bryant wrote a final column titled “How to be a C.E.O., from a decade’s worth of them.” In the column he wrote, “if you were to force me to rank the most important qualities of effective leadership, I would put trustworthiness at the top.”9 He goes on to write:
We all have a gut sense of our bosses, based on our observations and experiences: Do we trust them to do the right thing? Will they be straight with us and not shave corners of truth? Do they own their mistakes; give credit where credit is due; care about their employees as people as opposed to assets?10
If you substitute “customers” for “employees” in the last sentence, you have excellent guidelines for ethical behavior for media salespeople and their bosses.
Five Ethical Responsibilities for Media Salespeople
1. Responsibility to consumers
As defined in Chapter 1, consumers use a product and the consumers of the media are the audiences – users, readers, viewers, listeners, or subscribers.
In 2018 the information industry credibility hit an all‐time low, according to the Center for Media Research.11 Criticism of fake news came from all sides of the political spectrum, especially from the right. So to avoid being labeled fake news and to attract audiences desirable to advertisers, the media must put the needs of the majority of its consumers first. If a media outlet does not put the interests of its consumers or audience first, the audience will eventually gravitate to sources of information and entertainment that do. If a media outlet does not tell the truth, withholds important information from consumers, sells shoddy products, or erodes consumers’ values and sense of self‐esteem, these consumers will eventually turn to information, entertainment, and opinion sources that provide what they want, what they agree with, and that they find truthful, useful, interesting, and convenient.
Audiences want something in which they can believe. Therefore, the media should not transmit false or misleading news or advertising. General rules for media salespeople should include not accepting advertising for products