The Business Ethic

Although there is only a brief discussion of the evolution of corporations to the status of individuals, in the eyes of the law (p. 9), it is a thought provoking topic. The incremental corporate rights and authority appears to provide legal protection for controversial practices, such as "negative speech" while shielding corporate management from personal accountability. High profile corporate corruption trials from Enron to WorldComm underscored the negative implications of such a system, as one high profile executive after another claimed they knew nothing of the wrongdoing by subordinates, associates or colleagues.
The changing legal status of corporations raises ethical questions. Although most large businesses have such standards in writing, enforcement at the highest levels has been lax, at some of the companies I have worked for.

Cubicle in Cyberspace

During the past year I was a corporate trainer for a healthcare provider. The department I worked for was headquartered in Dallas, my boss was in Florida, and I worked part of the time from my home in Santa Cruz. Communicating primarily via phone, email and Internet with my boss, as well as some of the employees I was training was definitely a learning experience for me. I came away with mixed feelings about the effects of such a heavily mediated environment.

I enjoy personal interaction, which is one of the reasons I had accepted the trainer position, but corporate budget cuts were channeling an increasing amount of training to electronic media. Although on line training is definitely cheaper, my feeling was that employees were often reluctant to ask questions because they were concerned about how they would sound to strangers in another city in the "electronic classroom." Training assessments were focused on being able to reproduce tasks, rather than understanding "how things worked," which limited their effectiveness.

On a personal level, mediated communication with my boss made for an awkward relationship and frequent miscommunication. Occassional personal contact would have made a significant positive difference in how I felt about my boss, and my job.