Leadership Summit

Ethics:

Incorporating the Obvious

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• Introduction - Mike Lawrence

• Ethics in Business - Mark McDonnell & Diana Van Horn

– What governs our behavior

– Approaches to ethical decision-making

– Case studies

– What influences our decisions

• Best Practices - Kelly Heim

Today’s Agenda

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What is Ethics?

• A system of moral principles

• Fundamental issues of practical decision making

History of Ethics

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History of Ethics

Where did Ethics come from?

• Pre-human

• Human societies

• China

o Laozi Daoism (The Way)

o Confucius - humane and thoughtful (reciprocity)

• Ancient Egypt

o Principles to lead a good and happy life

Codes

• Babylon, 1700 B.C. - Relief showing sun god

Shamash giving code of laws to Hammurabi

• Greece, 400 B.C. - Plato’s account of Zeus’s giving

humans understanding of morality and justice

• Mount Sinai - God gave Moses 10 Commandments

• Today - CPCU Code of Professional Conduct

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History of Ethics

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CPCU Code

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Why is ethics important to

CPCUs and your chapter?

Importance Of Ethics

Ethics in Insurance

Based in part on Chris Amrhein’s workshop

“Street-Level Ethics”

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• Laws

• Morals

• Ethics

What Governs Our Behavior?

Are they different?

Do they overlap?

Let’s think about that.

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• Laws reflect the minimum standard of behavior.

• They are the result of a breakdown.

• Society monitors compliance…

Laws

…and dishes out the punishments!

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• Not as clear as laws

• Right vs. wrong decisions

• From the heart and brain:

– Feels like the right thing.

– According to way I was taught, this is the right thing.

Morals

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• Right vs. right decisions

• Rushworth M. Kidder

– Founder and president of Institute for Global Ethics

• Come from the head

• Codes of expected behavior

– Approved guidelines

– Derived from morals

Ethics

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• Corporate cheating and corruption

• Corporate criminal behavior

• Individual profiteering

• Stock manipulation

• Etc.

Moral vs. Ethical Issue?

Usually a moral issue

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Right vs. Right Is Tough

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Right vs. Right Is Tough

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Right vs. Right Is Tough

How do we approach these tough decisions?

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• Situation based

• Rule based

• People based

Approaches to Ethical Decisions

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What’s the best possible outcome

given these circumstances?

Situation Based

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Situation Based

“What’s all this ‘naughty or nice’ jazz? Haven’t you ever heard of situational ethics?”

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Rule Based

Follow the rules and let the

chips fall where they may.

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People Based

Follow the Golden Rule:

What would you have others do

if faced with the same situation?

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• Two friendly competitors

• One agency is struggling, one prospering

• Struggling agent needs to renew his largest

account

• You are quoting it and think you can add value

• Friend will be devastated if you take the account

A Friend in Need

Is your loyalty to your

friend or the customer?

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• You discover that a long-term employee has

stolen from your agency.

• She has been a big contributor to your success

but has fallen on hard times.

• Nothing like this has ever happened before.

Lonely at the Top

Do you fire her or give her a

chance to repay what she took?

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• You’re an adjuster working a new loss late in the

year.

• The agent is a good friend.

• You think that the reserve might warrant an

increase but know that this would cost the agent

a profit-sharing payment.

It’s All Up to You

Do you bump the reserve now or

evaluate further in the new year?

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Let’s look at how your

decisions are influenced.

Case Study Discussion

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Decisions

• Your work decisions are likely influenced by:

– Morals

– Past experiences

– Organization culture

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Organizational Culture

• Values, beliefs, goals, norms and rituals shared by

members of an organization

– What’s important?

– How do we treat each other?

– How do we do things around here?

• Provides set, agreed-upon guidelines for behavior

of those who adhere to them

• A “light in the darkness” or “tie-breaker”

• Requires the support of leadership

• Examples:

– CPCU

– NAIP

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Code of Ethics

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Code of Ethics

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Managers, employees and stakeholders support a

philosophy that an organization has responsibilities

that extend beyond legal and economic obligations.

Foundation of an Ethical Culture

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Ethics and success

are not mutually exclusive.

Foundation of an Ethical Culture

Ethics:

Best Practices

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Best Practices

• Offer CE-qualified class/workshop/seminar for

members, local agents and carriers, and

adjusters.

• Present ethics awareness to local college class.

• Include ethics speaker or event during Ethics

Awareness Month meetings.

• Increase audience’s attention by leveraging

ethics scenarios along with interactive discussion.

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Best Practices

• Put ethics quotes on meeting tables.

• Recruit companies to run Ethics Awareness

Month promotions throughout March on large

TVs, computer monitors.

• Update chapter website to include ethics articles,

quotes and thought-provoking scenarios.

• Send website link to chapter members.

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Best Practices

• Send weekly ethics articles to chapter members as lead-

up to Ethics Awareness Month.

• Actively promote attendance at ethics webinars.

• Send members link to national CPCU ethics website

and/or review website at monthly meeting.

• Post ethics articles, quotes, etc., on chapter social media

sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter).

• Include ethics articles in chapter newsletter.

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“We do not act rightly because we have virtue

or excellence, but we rather have those

because we have acted rightly.”

Final Thought

Aristotle 384 B.C.–322 B.C.

Greek philosopher and

scientist

Student of Plato

Teacher of Alexander the Great

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Questions?

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Thanks for Your Time

and

Support of the CPCU Society!