Are you curious about the cost of the absence of moral intelligence? If so, check out our extended entry...an article published in a recent issue of Minnesota Business Magazine.
By Doug Lennick & Fred Kiel, Ph.D.
Authors of Moral Intelligence: Enhancing Business Performance and Leadership Success, Wharton School Publishing, 2005
If you are anything like us, you have probably been unable to calculate a “return on investment” for the presence of moral values in your workplace. That said, if you’ve been reading any newspapers the last few years, you’ve probably noticed not having moral values at work can be very expensive.
We don’t need to name names of either executives or their companies. You know the names, and you know the stories. And it is clear. The business costs (not to mention the human, family and societal costs) associated with moral incompetence are indeed high. In fact, earlier this millennium domestically traded stocks of both “good” and “bad” companies took a huge hit. Market capitalization was hammered by the tune of more than one trillion dollars!
Numbers like that certainly catch one’s attention…and they beg some questions:
•Is there such a thing as moral intelligence? If so, what is it?
•Can moral intelligence be developed? If so, how?
First, and importantly, moral intelligence does exist, and it differs from our cognitive, technical and emotional intelligences. Moral intelligence is our mental capacity to determine how universal human principles (yes there are universal human principles that cut across the globe and are not gender, ethnic, cultural or religious specific) should be applied to our personal values, goals, and actions.
Time and space for this article do not permit going into much detail, but suffice to say we are born to be moral. We are actually provided moral hardwiring at birth (nature). Of course, we are also hardwired at birth to be lingual. Although we are not born speaking and we are not born moral, we are born to speak and we are born to be moral. That’s where our environment (nurture) comes into the picture.
Our moral intelligence is nurtured in the early years by our family and/or caregivers, and later in life the workplace itself serves as a place where our moral intelligence comes into play. We have learned sustainable personal and organizational success requires moral competence, which is the active application of our moral intelligence.
Our moral competence can indeed be enhanced throughout life. Competence shows up in behaviors. And when it comes to moral behaviors in the workplace, organizations can and must create environments within which the following principles of moral intelligence come to life: integrity, responsibility, compassion and forgiveness.
Absent integrity, the hallmark of a morally intelligent person or organization, and the competencies to tell the truth and stand up for what is right and keep promises and align actions with goals and behaviors, organizations will either implode or explode.
Absent responsibility and compassion and the associated competencies to actively care about others, to embrace serving others, to be accountable for personal choices and to be able to admit mistakes, workforce morale will erode and best efforts will not be put forth. Ultimately, customers are served less well and the shareholders experience less than desired returns.
Absent forgiveness, which is about letting go of mistakes (one’s own or those of others), innovation and creativity will suffer. And we all know businesses will not last if they cannot reinvent themselves over time.
Indeed, the business case for the importance of moral intelligence has been made by understanding the cost of its absence. As time goes by someone will calculate the ROI, but in the meantime it’s incumbent on each of us to act on what we know to be true about the importance of moral intelligence in our workplace.