Honesty in business as a way to progress or impediment -by Rudra Tiwari, Dehradun, India

 

Honesty in business as a way to progress or impediment

Honesty is the basic tool by which the company can get success as honesty in work place in the most important quality of great leadership. As the business is shifting day by day so the expectations of the consumers are also shifting. To maintain this business is going away with lying only. it is important that the honesty in business should not be change according to the expectation of the business and the consumers. We should take the proper steps to maintain honesty in our work place. Honesty in work place always gives way to progress and not impediment. Here the uncommon nature of honesty and its implementation, Concepts of honesty, importance of honesty and its necessary existence in work place will be discussed.

Methodology of the research

Multiple sources are used to write this research paper in which I get the value of honesty in the work place. These sources include the books sources, articles from the newspaper as well references from the internet. I also research the reports of the companies about honesty and there ways to implement it in their company. This research paper contains the entire conclusion which I found during my research with ways of implementation honesty policies in the culture.i used various examples and citation in my research paper.

Honesty doesn’t pay then why we should be honest?

We always think that why we should be honest we don’t pay. But according to the research it is found that honesty is always giving the way to success (Amar Bhide and Howard H. Stevenson). It is found that trust which we make with our honesty is enforced in the market place through retaliation and reputation. And if any business violates truth through lying then the result will be the downfall of the company. As we have seen in the case of E.F. Hutton who brought down by its check kiting fraud. Which was one of the second largest brokers in the nation was never recovered and he was forced to sell out to Shearson. Another example is Exxon’s Valdez disaster in this case. Exxon and seven other oil companies claimed that a major spill was highly unlikely. They ensured that the spill would be controlled but there was no plan available by them which showed their dishonesty (Alan Taylor, March 24, 2014).

Reasons for dishonesty: Uncommon nature of honesty

Honesty is uncommon in workplace, due to love for the profits. This makes the employee dishonest. There was a concept by the Harvard Business Review Article by Maryam Kouchaki (2015) about honesty that employees are becoming dishonest because of the ethical behavior and the decision making as it is noted that the creative people in workplace are more dishonest as are more like hood to behave in dishonest manner. There is another article which revealed t creativity is not only the greatest quality in an employee rather they should be honest as the creative person got more freedom and opportunities to do work. But the employee took this opportunity in wrong way and become dishonesty and works for their own profit as discussed by Francesca Gino of Harvard Business School and Dan Aviely of Duke University.

Pressure of profit from the company to the employees is also a reason. There is  astress of advertisements and the marketing campaign which give pressure to the company but the company is not able to satisfy the real expectation of the consumers. If they will be honest to them ten the expectations of the consumers will be lowered which resulted in the bad reputation of the company. According to the research of Jayson DeMers (2016), it is shown that consumers are not trusting on the companies and that is the reason why they are not purchasing the products as companies are failing in satisfying the demand of the consumers. There is unethical decision in the company which gives rise to dishonesty.

Importance of honesty in the work place

 

Honesty is very important in the work place as it plays a very significant role. It is noted that the there is a social responsibility for the corporate to provide the products and services that satisfy the needs of the public. Honesty always declared the progress of the company as we see in the article Westfall, 2017 that the feedback of the company can be discovered by the shareholder returns for 10 years. If the returns are more than this is the feedback of the company’s honesty which should be implemented into the culture of the corporate which will give a good impact on the productivity as well as trust for the company. There was an article which was published by Harvard Business Review in which it was discussed that successes and failures always depend of the honesty of the company. If the company is unethical and dishonest then the result is only downfall although the company is having high financial and successful stories. We can see the example of Volkswagen case which proved that dishonesty always harm the success. There is an article by Stevenson and Bhide (2014) which concluded that practice of honesty is beneficial for the long run for the success of the company. Wrong commitments, unethical behavior and dishonesty resulted in did trust of the company. The company might result in gaining success in the beginning but when the consumers realize the real things then they would not come back to the company which would harm the company. Honesty is only the profit maximizes.

It is said in Ephesians 4:25“Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor, for we are all members of one body” (New International Version) which shows that business is a whole body where all the employees as well as the management and the managers are having the common goal of success so we should be honest to gain trust not only externally but internally also so that we can cooperate each other honesty to gain success. Ultimately the success of the company will benefit the people who are attached with the company.

In an article ‘why is honesty important in a business by Alson paige’ wrote that honesty always inspire the employee as well as the customers with respect to the mission which is the foundation of the trust with colleagues, competitors, staff, customers and every other individual and entity. This motivates them to drive the company towards success which resulted in investors’ confidence on the company. They will fund the company for the development. It is important for the business owner to apply honesty in every situation whether it is investors’ reports, files taxes or any other products and services. The owner should be honest in providing the committed quality and assurance. Alson paige discusses about the golden rules of honesty in the work place. It is suggested that if the business owner wanted to treat employees, partners, investors and customers in the ways they wanted then they have to create support and trust for them. They should give them a short term satisfactions at the expense for the long term commitments from them which made a good relationship with all. The owner should avoid the causes of dishonesty which will help them to diminish greed and envy. These golden rules which the company applies will have good results for the success of the company.

In the bible also it is written In Exodus 20:16, “You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor” (New International Version) which shows that god is also directing the people to be trustful and honest. Honesty identifies the person’s personality. Self-development author, Brian Tracy (2016) wrote that a good and honest leader is confident to speak the truth and will always stand in front for the right things. It is very easy for the people to please other but a true leader will speak what is true. Their main aim is to speak truth not to please the people. Honesty always creates a good, trustworthy, ethical and cooperative environment in the company as well as in the market which give way to progress.

Ways to create honest environment in the work place.

During my research I found many things which the company needs to consider for the improvement of overall honesty.

Targeting the market: The company have to target the market before tarhgetting the dishonesty and should understand the need of the market, this will help the company in targeting the market honestly and trustworthy.

Creating and implementing policy: according to Professor Thomas Plante Ph.D (2015), the very first step for the company is to create the policy where they can write what they wanted from their employees to achieve the targets of the company. They should make a proposed plan which provides the structure and direction in writing as (Plante, 2015) said that the employees need the plans in writing. The company also make a set of honest policy and their guidelines and the company should be sure about the written guidelines as it is already said that being creative is not the problem but the creative persons are more dishonest. So in order to prevent these problems the company give the liberty to speak directly if the policies are not obeyed. This implementation will surely make the way to progress. If the environment is free, honest and trustworthy then the external reputation of the company will automatically become trustworthy.

Pressure of profits: sometime company is creating the policies in pressure of profit. This wills spread dishonesty as well as unethical conditions in the company. So the company needs to hire the people who make the plan which overpowers the pressures of profits and work honestly for the policies. It is said that the company will ever become ethical if the corporation are not ethical so the company hire those employees who respect the company and have high ethical values. There should be checks and balance in the company to make the employee ethical and honest (Kouchaki, 2015) where the team members , managers as well as the employees are required to report each other to check each other’s work. This will motivate everyone and tey can learn the values of team management as well as honesty.

Understanding about creativity: it is very important for the company to explain about the real meaning of creativity to the employees so that the internal environment will become trustworthy. There is a need to balance the limits of the creative employee. As Kouchaki (2015) said “A business must set restrictions and guidelines to set a clear understanding of what creativity means to the company.” So it is essential to understand that the creativity person is justifying the policies or they are ignoring other policies. There should be some restrictions to maintain the ethical behaviour of the company. The company can give the right to speak to employees honestly so that they know the real behaviour 9f the creative people.

Encouragement of the creative: after explaining about the creativity the company must understand and encourage the creative people so that they can feel free to create their ability to think themselves. This creativity is not a skill but it is the ability to think giving new ideas. Company can appreciate these people who are creative by giving them rewards because if the creative person feels that he is special then he will think more broader which is the reason of success for the company. Company should encourage the creative people and teaching them honesty can direct the attention of the entire company.

Building a trusting brand: according to Patricia Lotich (2016), founder of Smart Church Management and Thriving Small Business, said, “personal relationships with consumers are what connect them to the brand and keep them returning for business.” So it is necessary to build the trust through the policies in personal relationships. The company should identify the need of the customer and should fulfil the promise which are made to the customers as given by (Lotich, 2016), “Organizations that operate with integrity do so intentionally and make it part of its everyday practices so that it becomes part of the culture” while establishing the trust the company become the brand.

Customer service: the company should have customer service policies to build trust on customers so that they can interact by one on one interaction. The customers also feel valued which build the trust. This will also help the company in keeping their promises to the customers. They also know about the satisfaction of the customers which justify the honesty of the company.

Tools for success

There is a need for the implementation of these policies. Various tools like training, consultation, modelling, and supervision will be given to the employee to understand about the policies. The company have to supervise both internally and externally so these policies and tools will help the company to equip the employees with various skills which they need in order to fulfil the demands of the honesty policies.

Feedback

 The company should provide feedback from the sides, employee as well as company. According to (Plante, 2015), “Being honest with each other and creating a sense of community within the organization is key to implementing and maintaining policies. This will help both of them to understand where they are not able to fulfil the demand and can correct them in future, this same feedback criteria id]s given to the customers too, because trust can be build through the collaboration of employee, employer and the customers.

So it is concluded that honesty is not only the first policy it is the best policy which we should use everywhere especially at or work place. So the company should take the initiative to be honest and implement the same in their companies to build the culture of honesty. One should be incorporated by some policies which guide the action of the employees. This research about honesty is very beneficial in establishing an honest work environment in corporate culture. No exceptions are there for honesty and integrity. Honesty helps us in solving all our problems in life. Leaders are always fair, and a good speaker as they are honesty and have no fear about anything. We all have been taught that honesty is the best policy since our childhood. So it is our duty to take this in our professional lives too. This honesty will make our business a good sense and if we are honest we are always respected as well as appreciated by the society.

References:

 

Bernard, M. (2017). The 10 biggest challenges businesses face today. Retrieved from the Hiscox website: https://www.hiscox.co.uk/business-blog/the-10-biggest-challenges-businesses-face-today-and-need-consultants-for/

Carroll, B., Brown, J., Buchholtz, A. (2015). Business & society ethics, sustainability, & stakeholder management. Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

Kouchaki, L. C. (2015). Why creative people are more likely to be dishonest. Retrieved from the Harvard Business Review website: https://hbr.org/2015/11/why-creative-people-are-more-likely-to-be-dishonest

Lotich, P. (2016). Six ways to demonstrate ethics and integrity in your business. Retrieved from the Thriving Small Business website: https://thethrivingsmallbusiness.com/examples-of-business-ethics-and-integrity/

Plante, T. (2015). Six ways to create a culture of ethics in any organization. Retrieved from the Psychology Today website: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201507/six-ways-create-culture-ethics-in-any-organization

Stevenson, H. & Bhide, A. (2014). Why be honest if honesty doesn't pay. Retrieved from the Harvard Business Review website: https://hbr.org/1990/09/why-be-honest-if-honesty-doesnt-pay

Tracy, B. (2016). The importance of honesty and integrity in business. Retrieved from the Entrepreneur website: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/282957

Volkswagen (2017). Interim report 2017 January- March.

Taylor, A. (2014, March 24). The Exxon Valdez Oil Spill: 25 Years Ago Today. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2014/03/the-exxon-valdez-oil-spill-25-years-ago-today/100703/