Politics and business are both wrestling with epic ethic fails

I plan to be among the estimated three in four Minnesotans who will be casting their vote for a new president Nov. 8.

American voters have most often chosen U.S. presidents based on perceived experience and a thoughtful vision for America at home and abroad.

This transaction is not unlike how consumers think through decisions regarding their relationships with the businesses that provide jobs, goods and services for all of us.

What is different is that in 2016, the major political parties have nominated Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, two candidates whom a large percentage of American voters score poorly in both trustworthiness and likability.

Gaining the trust of voters or consumers is difficult to attain and quite easy to lose. Once people get the feeling they are being deceived or betrayed, it is nearly impossible to reverse the impression.

This widespread cynicism reaches well beyond America's border.

In recent months, the public has learned of a Japanese company, Takata, and an air bag engineer's tongue-in-cheek e-mail entitled "Happy Manipulating!" German automaker Volkswagen admitted to creating technology that for years allowed its cars to evade clean air rules. Both companies will be paying fines and reparations that will cost them billions over the coming years.

This is no laughing matter even though a Google search found more than 1 million responses to the subject "business ethics jokes" used so widely to amuse audiences.

Most companies and other employers do address ethics in some manner by establishing a management program that conveys to employees, customers, investors and communities their values in guiding behavioral decisions while also providing some kind of employee on-the-job training.

Undeniably, however, going forward business people do need more practical tools. "Virtually all organizations have ethics programs, but most employees do not know that they do," said Portland State University's business ethics professor and consultant Stephen Brenner.

Clearly, attention to doing the right thing in business is worth taking seriously. Failing to do so is bad for business but most dishonest behavior can be reversed in most cases.

Among some general principles of creating an ethical workplace: not hurting people, being truthful, respecting client confidentiality, and treating employees, shareholders, customers and communities fairly.

In a 34-year career at Minneapolis-based Honeywell — now known as Honeywell International Inc. since its acquisition in 1999 by AlliedSignal Inc. — Edson W. Spencer rose from an aeronautical engineer to the company's chief executive from 1974 to 1987.

He inspired the development of both internal and external policies regarding the way Honeywell conducted itself.

In the early 1980s, when business enjoyed a far more favorable standing with the public, a Honeywell employee acknowledged arranging for kickbacks on the sale of computers to a foreign government where such practices were commonplace. Spencer immediately fired the transgressor who had violated company policy.

New York Times columnist David Brooks last year published an insightful analysis in his book "The Road to Character." It is a kind of well-documented textbook that blends politics, spirituality and confessional in a way that allows the reader to begin to rethink priorities while emphasizing both humility and moral depth.

In it, Brooks goes on a personal journey spanning many years in which he tries to apply the lessons of history to himself and his readers through life stories about leaders and the qualities that led to their greatness.

Brooks fears that modesty is lost today to a "Big Me" culture as he advances what he termed a 15-point humanity code.

Hopefully, it is not too late for Trump and Clinton and their handlers — and the rest of us — to study Brooks' thoughts carefully as it represents definitive research on what building human character is all about.

Chuck Slocum is president of the Williston Group, a Twin Cities management consulting organization. A former corporate planning manager at Honeywell, he can be contacted at chuck@willistongroup.com