Was It Really an Unethical Affair free essay sample

As a CEO or a leader for that matter, you must lead by example and his example was poor at best. You cannot enforce standards in the workplace if you are skirting those standards yourself. As chairman of any company, you must not only enforce standards among your employees, but you must also adhere to those standards. Integrity is a forefront for anyone who is placed within a position of responsibility and can be defined as doing what is right regardless of who is watching you, if anyone. Any corporation has a values base that it works from and non-compliance with those values can cause a domino effect within the corporation’s structure. If the person that is entrusted with enforcing the standards or values cannot adhere to them himself, how can he/she expect his/her employees to do so? When Bill Clinton had an affair with one of his interns, it caused much grief in the military community. We will write a custom essay sample on Was It Really an Unethical Affair? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page As a military member, if you are caught having an extramarital affair, you are punished under the Manual for Courts Martial and potentially relieved of your duties. If Bill Clinton is able to carry on such an affair with little to no punishment, how can a military member be punished for the same thing? For all intents and purposes he was considered the CEO of the uniformed services as our Commander-in-Chief which meant he should have set the example for military members to follow. Could a military member have then argued that The President had an inappropriate relationship with a coworker and was not subject to any consequences for his actions? In that case would it have then become alright for the military member to carry out an affair? From an ethical standpoint, the answer would be no, but from a personal standpoint, it depends on the values that a particular person believes he must adhere to. It all relates to a favorite saying â€Å"You can do what you want but you can’t do what you want! † As Americans, we have been afforded the right to make decisions freely which allows us to do as we please however, based on those decisions you must be prepared to endure the consequences if any exist. This view of ethical decision making is what potentially keeps employees and people in general honest. Mandatory policies for all Boeing employees consisted of the following: †¢In conducting its business, integrity must underlie all company relationships, including those with customers, suppliers, communities and other employees. Employees will not engage in conduct or activity that may raise questions about the company’s honesty, impartiality, reputation or otherwise cause embarrassment to the company. †¢Employees must not engage in any activity that might create a conflict of interest for the company or for themselves. †¢Retaliation against employee s who come forward to raise genuine concerns about employee conduct will not be tolerated. Employees were required to sign this ethics code once a year and of course non-adherence should have been grounds for termination. In viewing the ethics code, the only policy that Mr. Stonecipher may have stayed in line with was the fourth point involving retaliation. Since he clearly violated the code he was poised to uphold, grounds for his termination were clearly defined. Boeing suffered from a pattern of CEOs that conducted themselves inappropriately and Mr. Stonecipher was charged with cleaning up Boeing’s moral image. After their Chief Financial Officer was relieved over an ethics scandal and their CEO resigning a week later, the expectations were already high for Boeings new CEO. Mr. Stonecipher knew this when he accepted the job and that alone should have kept him from acting inappropriately. The very person placed in a position to aide change carried out one of the very things that he was charged in trying to prevent. An important question to be asked is what would Mr. Stonecipher have done if one of his executives were carrying on the same type of relationship; would it have gone overlooked or would it have been dealt with swiftly? Values were not a part of the decision making that drove this CEO to conduct himself in a manner not consistent with Boeing’s Ethical Code. Decisions were made that lacked integrity and loyalty. The example set for employees below him opened the door for inappropriate behavior on all levels without fear of reprisal; there was no longer an ethical standard set in place whether written or unwritten. The general expectations of any leader are that they set the standard, regardless of occupation; in this case the actions fell below the standard. On a professional level, Mr. Stonecipher was wrong for his conduct based on his position within Boeing. On a personal level, Mr. Stonecipher was wrong for his conduct based on his marital status.