Compliance & Ethics Professional - Society of Corporate ...

Feature The last wordby Joe Murphy, CCEPSure, it’s ethical, but is it legal?Compliance & Ethics Professional March/April 2012MurphyHow many times have you heard “Itmay be legal, but is it ethical?” or thestatement, “We’ve moved beyondethics to compliance.” But our field is complianceand ethics. Why not just ethics?Ethics purports to be about values, andto be above merely obeying the law. Soundsgood, until you look at history and experiencea bit closer. The problem with“values” is that there are quite afew values, and they often conflict.Loyalty is certainly a popular value,but is loyalty to family always good?If you are making a hiring decision,would your values tell you to rewardyour family out of loyalty and hireyour brother for that open position in the company?Loyalty to country is good, but if yourcountry is a fascist dictatorship, is loyalty theright value? We make choices among valuesall the time.What is law? Law is society’s assessment ofthe order of values, based on the community’sexperience. So, if your loyalty and honor tellyou to do something (e.g., an act of revenge),but the law says otherwise, this sets the priorityfor your values.Here is an example: Your long-term friendworks for a competitor. The competitor is a disadvantagedbusiness struggling to survive. Itis also devoted to saving the environment. Youknow there is plenty of business available foryour company to survive, but you and this onecompetitor have been shortlisted as the twobidders for a contract. So, out of loyalty, friendship,concern for disadvantaged businesses,and respect for the environment, you callthe competitor and agree to let him win. Youhave certainly been very ethical, with valuesprevailing over profit, but you have committeda crime. Why? Because society, in weighingcompeting values, has decided that competitionbrings the best value to all of society.“The problem with ‘values’ isthat there are quite a few values,and they often conflict. Loyalty iscertainly a popular value, but isloyalty to family always good? Ifyou are making a hiring decision,would your values tell you toreward your family out of loyaltyand hire your brother for thatopen position in the company?”Another example: People are suffering in aparticular dictatorship. In an exercise of compassionand courage, you go there to see foryourself and to see if you can help people. Ofcourse, you need to spend money there to survive.You are certainly following values andbeing ethical, but you have committed a criminalviolation of a U.S. boycott law. Society hasdecided that limiting this dictatorship is apriority value. Yes, you have been true to yoursense of values, but you broke the law.So before we proclaim the battle to preventcriminal conduct “done,” and decide it istime to “move on to ethics,” remember that inaddressing compliance with laws, you havenever left the issue of values. ✵Joe Murphy is Of Counsel to Compliance Systems Legal Group andEditor-in-Chief of Compliance & Ethics Professional Magazine. He may becontacted at jemurphy@voicenet.com.68 www.corporatecompliance.org +1 952 933 4977 or 888 277 4977