WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Showing Support and Speaking Out Are Keys to an Ethical Culture
By Sara Wildberger T
he impetus for G. Richard Shell’s just-released fourth book, The Con- science Code: Lead with Your Values. Ad-
vance Your Career, was seeing younger people coming back to grad school to find a new career track. They weren’t coming for lack of jobs or money; they came after being pressed into a “career or conscience” deci- sion—their employers had asked them to do something unethical, and they quit. But an ethical and purpose-driven culture
appeals to more than these new generations of workers; it makes for a stronger and saf- er company. In senior living, harassment, fraud, or even a case of a good worker concealing illness or exhaustion can create untenable risks affecting residents, other employees, and a provider. Shell has worked not only with nurses, hospital administra- tors, and labor unions, but with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and Fortune 500 CEOs in his role as thought leader, senior faculty member, and chair of the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School’s Legal Studies and Business Ethics Department. In these excerpts from a longer interview,
he discusses some of his research-based approaches for creating a positive, val- ues-based workplace, where everyone can thrive.
Q. In senior living, some events get a great deal of attention, even though they’re unusual. Are there some keys to keeping the serious problems from happening? A. Every industry has got huge scan- dals—from Google to the local police department. The importance of setting up a positive work environment is almost always related to small things. When you empower people to speak up on the issues that they encounter every day, you begin to create the kind of environment in which the big things won’t happen, because peo- ple who are inclined to try to get away with the big things know that they're going to be observed and noted. One of the most compelling statistics in
the book is from the Ethics Resource Center: Roughly 40 percent of workers every year observed wrongdoing in their environment. They’re not observing major fraud; they’re just observing expense account abuse or someone lying about their hours or some little misrepresentation that’s going out to a family or a client. If you let it slide, you’re starting to em-
power a culture that’s going to bite you. If you speak up, people might look at you as some sort of “snitch” or a problem.
You can empower people to speak up if they feel that there is even just one person on their
side...It shows them that they’re not just making this up, that there is someone out there that shares their values and sees that this is a problem.
42 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE JULY/AUGUST 2021
Thought Leader Profile
G. Richard Shell Chairperson, legal studies and business ethics Wharton School University of Pennsylvania
So this book is about ways to do this effec-
tively, and with dignity and honor, in a way that reinforces our best selves.
Q. Senior living faced a labor shortage before COVID—and it may get more pressing. How can we fit in ethics during this struggle to hire? A. When you’re facing a labor shortage, it puts the managers under additional con- straints, because they might feel if they step up to enforce standards and hold people accountable, workers may leave. But it's never wrong to stand up for values
that are important. In the book, I talk about revisiting your motivation and the mission, recommitting to the values that are what brought you to the work in the first place. Then when you have a conversation with an employee about a problem that’s arisen, you bring the motivation that you want to help. You’re not the enemy; it’s a compassionate care mission.
Q. How can managers make it clear that they welcome people speaking up about problems and that it’s safe to do so? A. The secret to getting a culture where people feel safe speaking up is trust. They
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