James Drogan

Values are fundamental elements, or a set of beliefs which lie behind a person and shape the way s/he interprets the world and acts upon those interpretations.

For example, my years in IBM inculcated me with values (called The Basic Beliefs in IBM at the time) of Respect for the Individual, Customer Service, And Excellence.

I grew up in a small, rural community in the middle of America where everyone knew everyone, your word was your bond, and there was a strong work ethic.

These values are with me today and shape all that I do.

Over time other values -- the greater good, collaboration -- have been added.  I consider my set of values to be ethical, but I hasten to add that values are not automatically ethical.  Witness the parties involved in the financial crisis.

What should one do when one's role and responsibilities comes into conflict with one's values?  It is not always easy to arrive at an answer to this question.  Indeed, it is a current situation with which I am involved that prompts this log post.

There are three actions that can be taken:

1. One can act as if nothing is happening -- sweep it all under the rug.  That may work for some, but, as for me, I cannot (as my bride has said many times) remain quiet on the sidelines.  Plus, why would one  ignore the conflict?
2. One can work to  change the role and responsibilities such that the conflict is removed.  I think this is very much the role of leaders.  I suggest that Lou Gerstner was very much about this when he was Chairman of IBM.
3. One can resign from the role and responsibilities.  This, for me, is the toughest of these three actions.  It is not in me to give in, give up, or fail.  Yet, as the fate of Sisyphus has taught us, there may be no other way to resolve the conflict than to cleanly separate the sources of conflict.

Of course it is only the second action that leaves one personally fulfilled.  The third leaves one with a bit of a feeling of failure, but there is, it seems to me, no point in maximizing one's losses.

Managing these situations are not as cleanly prescriptive as indicated above.  Many factors enter in to making the associated decisions.  For example, success, it has been said, is sometimes involved in how much time you give something before you give it up.  I can't, for example, imagine going directly to step three without spending some time in step two.

We encounter situations on a daily basis where our values and the reality of the world come into conflict.  Often this is in a minor way, but the major events come along and we need to be ready for them.

For further reading I recommend Costa, John Della. The Ethical Imperative: Why Moral Leadership Is Good Business. Addison-Wesley, 1998.   You might also find Closing Words - CUNY Conference on Academic Integrity of interest.