Against the backdrop of intense public scrutiny currently facing the corporate sector, Cranlana moderator Jacqueline Stone takes a look at the bigger picture. Where does ethics belong in corporations, and can it prevent ethical failure?
Let’s begin with a deceptively simple question that at Cranlana, we’re frequently asked by corporate, civic, and institutional leaders: Can ethics actually be taught?
The skepticism behind the question is understandable. If ethics courses are so valuable, why do organisations that invest heavily in them still experience ethical failures?
The challenge is not difficult to understand. Accountants, for example, operate under sophisticated professional codes of conduct. Many undertake extensive ethics education and decision-making training. They can explain conflicts of interest, professional obligations and, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, the difference between duty and consequence.
And yet. Scandals still occur. Conflicts are concealed. Judgement fails. Entire organisations occasionally discover that their proudly displayed values were less a compass than a piece of wall art.
Does this mean investing in ethics is ineffective?
Not necessarily. In fact, the question may rest on a misunderstanding of what genuine ethics training is designed to achieve. Too often, we conflate checkbox compliance exercises with the deep cultivation of leadership character and the skills required to build sustainable ethical cultures.
When organisations are faced with an ethical challenge, there are broadly four possible outcomes.
Most critics focus exclusively on the last category. They point to instances where individuals knowingly behaved badly and conclude that ethics training must therefore have failed. But this is like arguing that because some people drive recklessly, road rules, driving lessons and traffic lights serve no purpose.
But unlike compulsory company policy and codes training, sophisticated ethical development is less focused on stopping misconduct and instead focused more on improving perception and judgment. Such programs aim to help people notice ethical issues earlier, frame them more clearly and respond more thoughtfully.
This matters because ethical failures rarely arrive fully formed.
They emerge gradually. A small compromise becomes a precedent. A concern is rationalised away. A conflict of interest is managed informally. A questionable practice becomes normal. Eventually, what would once have prompted alarm attracts little more than a shrug. The proverbial frog in the pot is well and truly boiled.
Marianne Jennings captured this dynamic powerfully in The Seven Signs of Ethical Collapse. Her central insight was that ethical disasters are seldom sudden. They are usually the culmination of patterns that were visible long before the headlines appeared.
This is why ethics is not merely a matter of knowledge but a professional capability to be honed over time.
Photo credit: Linus Nylund c/o Unsplash
Like strategic thinking or financial acumen, ethical capability combines knowledge, skill, and judgment. It is designed to improve what Aristotle called phronesis, or practical wisdom. Its purpose is to help leaders notice ethical issues earlier, frame them more clearly, and possess the moral courage to speak up or respond thoughtfully before a crisis crystallises.
The real test of robust ethics training is therefore not whether it prevents every failure. No form of professional education can promise that.
The better question is whether it helps people recognise ethical risks earlier, think more clearly when values collide and exercise sound judgement when the answer is not obvious.
That may seem an unambitious goal. It is not. Most ethical failures are not caused by a shortage of values statements. They arise because intelligent, decent people fail to notice what is happening, fail to question what is becoming normal, or fail to act on concerns they already have.
Ethics training cannot guarantee virtue. It cannot eliminate temptation, ambition, self-interest or poor judgement. But organisations which build ethical capability as a strategic asset, can sharpen moral perception and strengthen the capacity of their leaders to respond when something feels wrong.
In the end, that is not a peripheral professional skill. It is one of the most important. Because long before there is a scandal to investigate, a board to sack or an apology to draft, there is usually a moment when someone could have seen more clearly and acted differently.
Moving from surface-level compliance to deep ethical capability is a strategic shift. It takes a targeted, immersive experience, designed to sharpen moral perception and judgment across your leadership team. That’s the space we provide when we partner with organisations to build custom ethical leadership programs.
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