L'Echo de l'Ethique...

A few years ago, the provocatively titled essay L'Horreur économique (The Economic Horror) was all the rage. Viviane Forrester depicted an economy feeding on people and obliterating the last vestiges of humanity. This theory, doubtlessly not taken literally, served to spice up convivial drinking sessions with the thrill of fear. In the meantime, the saga of the great economic and financial scandals rocked the world. This public spectacle lifted a corner of the veil covering the tensions and compromises company employees may find themselves exposed to and cornered by.

Current in-house surveys, studies and occasional news items all tell the same story: that the level of human tensions in the business world is reaching new highs. These tensions vary greatly, including work overload, the intrusion of working life into private life, pressure to provide performance at any price, employment-related uncertainties, stress and mobbing.

A not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva, the Observatoire de la Finance has recently opened a discussion forum in order to provide an understanding of this universal malaise that is blighting the heart of the economy. Named L'Echo de l'Ethique, the goal of the forum is to use anonymous dialogue to provide an outlet for the ethical questions and concerns that arise in the world of business and the economy. Using this approach - a service based exclusively on voluntary participation - it aims to provide, as far as possible, an added level of discernment and thus clarify the actions of people who are caught up in the torment of real ethical predicaments. L’Echo de l’Ethique wishes to establish dialogue between, on the one hand, those who directly experience ethical dilemmas in their lives via their economic activities (employees, employers, consumers, consultants, jurists and doctors) and, on the other hand, a group of people who have decided to take steps to help provide a clearer insight into the various dilemmas.

Companies only rarely provide their employees with the opportunity to discuss the ethical or moral dimension of their job or activity. Come what may, debate within the company will always be influenced by strategic issues or loaded with hidden meaning. It is only be using situations rooted in daily life as a springboard that it is possible to take stock of the ethical tensions in the economic world; this stocktaking aims to provide the people directly concerned by these tensions with, if not an answer, then at least the feeling that their experiences are validated by bringing other points of view to bear on them.

When they want to “boost morale”, “pull the team together”, “establish a sense of shared values”, “take risks together”, companies turn to consultants for advice on culture, values and responsibility. This advice takes on a variety of forms including awareness-raising sessions, and group and individual therapy. However, the vast majority of these methods look no further than the symptoms, lacking the ability to tackle the causes of malaise or unhappiness. Ethical questions within companies either tend to be handed over, as a precaution, to boards and committees which deliberate behind closed doors, or come within the exclusive remit of a communications action directed externally.

The ethical debate thus too often remains taboo within companies, whilst very few external contacts can understand the situations under discussion and give people advice that is in any way pertinent. The fact is, ethical issues do not fall within the direct province of either the psychologist, the doctor or the clergyman. Added to this is people’s reluctance to tackle certain subjects for fear of being psychiatrised, judged or denounced to the management by a spiteful colleague.

The working group that has agreed to bring L’Echo de l’Ethique to life is made up of people hailing from very different professional, cultural and spiritual backgrounds. They are ready to enter into a process of reflection, debate and discussion in order to try and shed light on the dilemmas, ethical misgivings and circumstances referred to them. They share the conviction that the question of ethics is not a personal one, and should not be the exclusive province of the private sphere. Ethics should once again take up its rightful role: as the instrument of judgment that structures professional decisions and actions. The constant repression of the ethical dilemma, due to the lack of outlet for its expression, discussion and understanding, means that both people and organisations risk reaching breakdown point, with the personal, economic and social consequences that entails. To avoid this scenario, ethics must become, once again, a topic of concern for everyone, not only for those who speak out about it more willingly today - those who do not have, or no longer have, professional issues: the has-beens and the outsiders. In a word, the ethical doubts and worries that arise within the workplace must have a means of expression, including in the public arena.

The challenge for L’Echo de l’Ethique is to use the experience, ability to listen and objectivity of one group of people to try and untangle the dilemmas of another group of people. The working group will thus debate the cases and situations that are referred to it by those most closely concerned. It in no way intends to give moral advice or analysis based on armchair psychology, but wishes to encourage each person to work out their own line of conduct by taking, if necessary, the opposite view from that expressed by the working group.

L’Echo de l’Ethique’s modus operandi is straightforward. To tell the working group about a problematic situation, or submit it for discussion, simply describe it and send an anonymous letter to the Observatoire de la Finance (32 rue de l’Athénée, 1206 Geneva – e-mail: office@obsfin.ch). The working group will meet once a month for an in-depth discussion of the cases or situations, without necessarily striving for consensus. At the end of each meeting, a detailed report will be drawn up by a communications professional. This text will be accessible on the site www.obsfin.ch/anglais/echo-ethique.htm. This will allow the authors of the initial missives to consult, in total anonymity, the working group’s comments and discussions. Reports of this work may be published by various Swiss publications.

The complete article: L'éthique donne du sens à l'action, published in PME Magazine n° 2, February 2005.

The L’Echo de l’Ethique Working Group

Jean-Michel Bonvin, sociologist, professor at HES Lausanne
Paul H. Dembinski, economist, Director of the Observatoire de la Finance
Edouard Dommen, ethicist
Mohammad Farrokh, financial journalist
Werner Gloor, lawyer, deputy judge at the court of justice
Beth Krasna, company administrator
Jean-Jacques Manz, President of the Ethique & Art foundation
Jean Pierre Méan, Chief Compliance Officer
François-Marie Monnet, finance professional
Etienne Perrot S.J., professor of ethics
Jane Royston, entrepreneur, professor

You can submit your anonymous mail to

Observatoire de la Finance
L'Echo de l'Ethique
32, rue de l’Athénée
1206 Geneva

or via e-mail at: office@obsfin.ch