Skills Training vs Values Enhancement

Skills based success is still the norm and character development or values enhancement almost always take the back seat. While skills development  is not bad per se, there is a long term repercussion if character development is not given attention.

We can safely say that only 20% of importance are given to values enhancement. But if we will apply pareto principle, that 20% can affect more.

Let’s read an excerpt from the article written by Lala Rimando entitled “When Executives Misbehave” in Newsbreak published on August 2, 2004

Ms. Rimando wrote:

I can’t take it anymore,” Mike, a thirtyish company vice-president, told Newsbreak. For the past years, his boss has been paying off a government official to avoid taxes. The legally mandated amount would have cost them three times more than what they are paying the official. Mike, bothered by his conscience, “Cancer cells.” That’s how Eduardo Roberto, marketing professor at the Asian Institute of Management and fellow of the Social Weather Stations, describes the likes of Mike’s boss.

Roberto is the principal researcher of a study entitled “CEO Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Corporate Misconduct.” The results show that the majority of the 96 chief executive officers (CEOs) and top management officials surveyed considered what was “wrong” in shades of gray, not in black and white terms.

These executives are members of the AIM Alumni Association, American Chamber of Commerce, Financial Executives Association, Management Association of the Philippines, and Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“They are the bad cells that contaminate the good cells until the whole body is too sick,” Roberto said during the presentation of the study results… When CEOs distort the meaning of wrong and these cascades down the line, the excellent and honest employees like Mike leave. But more usually, employees tend to adopt the behavior of their superiors.

The cultural rejection of whistle blowing is strong among most senior executives, the study shows. Since executives twist the meaning of wrong to protect their own interests, Roberto said they might be inclined to do the same for their employees who misbehave. In fact, 57 percent of the respondents say it is acceptable to keep quiet about the misconduct of others.