A Class with Drucker - Headway | Work on yourself

ETHICS, HONOR, INTEGRITY, AND THE LAW ■ 117
one needs to pay particular attention to what is actually written down, no
matter how honorable or ethical one’s negotiating partner.
A friend who teaches negotiation once noted that in labor negotiations
or negotiations of international disputes, one side or the other might
immediately refer to a proposal presented by the other side as “totally
unacceptable.” Yet frequently this very same “totally unacceptable” proposal
would be accepted a short time later. Both sides knew that the proposal
made by one side was not necessarily “totally unacceptable” at the
time it was made. It was an exaggeration stated as fact and was understood
to be a negotiating position. My friends comment was, “a lie is not
a lie when the truth is not expected.”
Finally, the realization that ethics, and therefore integrity and honor,
might differ in different cultures surprised me. Somehow I had always
assumed that these were universal constants. I should have known better.
Since the examples that night centered on the Japanese, I remembered
that the Japanese considered surrender in battle to be dishonorable. If
capture were inevitable, Japanese soldiers were expected to commit suicide.
And they considered an enemy who surrendered in battle to be
<strong>with</strong>out honor. This was one reason for the inhuman treatment that the
Japanese meted out to prisoners of war. Americans clearly have different
ideas about honor and surrender.
To me, it would seem that spies violate the honor code in everything
they do. They lie, cheat, and steal as a way of life. Yet spies have been
employed, especially in warfare, since time immemorial, and spying has
not generally been considered dishonorable.
Unfortunately, the concept of spying has been extended to civilian
practice. Twenty-five years ago, I attended a seminar for professional
researchers. Teaching marketing research in the university, I was intensely
interested in what was currently being done in industry.
The Ethics of Business Research
Washington Researchers is a consulting firm that conducted competitive
research on companies, products, and strategies. It also conducted seminars
around the country on how to accomplish various types of competitive
research.
I had the good fortune to attend one of these seminars. As a part of the
seminar, all attendees participated in a survey of information-gathering
techniques. This survey was developed originally because participants had