Dennis Collins, a Professor of Business at Edgewood College

Dennis Collins, a Professor of Business at Edgewood College, spoke to the club on February 1. He recently published "Essentials of Business: Creating an Organization of High Integrity and Superior Performance". Taking a chart from his book, he walked us through the steps that a firm can take to permeate itself with high ethical standards.

Hiring Collins' example was asking applicants to tell what they would do to further the mission of the organization, taking each element as a subject for comment..

Orientation Make the firm's "Code of Ethics and Conduct" a feature in the orientation of new employees. Give problems involving ethical decisions and ask employees to propose solutions or engage in role playing as the customer, supplier, top brass..

Training Hold a workshop, turn parts of the Mission into questions, evaluate the answers, praise the good, suggest changes in the weak..

Operations These six Best Practices were 1) Respect Employee Diversity; 2) establish an Ethics Reporting System; 3) display ethics in Leadership, Work Goals & Appraisals; 4) engage in Participatory Empowerment; 5) act toward Environmental Management, and 6) reach out to the Community. .

Collins prefaced his remarks with evidence that businesses that promote ethical behavior avoid serious costs and gain economic benefit in the long run, in employee tenure, morale and behavior and in consumer trust. Rotary has long been talking about business ethics. Look at our Four Way Test. Apply it at work, at home, everywhere! And also consider Collins' system.