There’s a point that seems to be getting lost in all of the
current protests and counter-protests against Chick-Fil-A and some of the
similar actions we have seen in recent years, which might be described as “blasphemy
is in the eye of the beholder” – except that this would offend some of our atheist
friends, who would insist that blasphemy is a concept used by theocratic
dictatorships to exert control over the ignorant and superstitious. Which is
exactly the point, actually: no matter who you are or what you believe, or how innocuous
you think any specific cause or charity is, there’s probably someone out there
who believes that the same cause or charity is the embodiment of all of the
evil in the universe. And sooner or later, if you both live long enough, they’re
probably going to come by and stage a protest in your place of business…
Now, I will concede that in the Chick-Fil-A case the cause
and counter-cause are highly polarizing, and even an idiot could have predicted
that there would be a massive political and social outcry over them, even
before the CEO started stirring the pot by calling attention to his affiliation
with groups on one side of the issue. Likewise, any company that willingly
becomes involved in anything having to do with tax reform, healthcare reform,
immigration reform, school prayer, gun control, national identification cards,
or reproductive freedom is being disingenuous if they claim not to have been
aware that a confrontation might ensue. Unfortunately, not all of the causes a
business might choose to support are so clearly inflammatory, and the truth is there
will always be a non-zero chance that any given stand you take might offend
someone…
For example, if you were a Boy Scout when you were younger
you might believe in that organization and offer to sponsor some activity or
campaign the Scouts are working on. You’d probably be disturbed to find out
that some people would interpret this to mean that you (and your business) are
homophobic and anti-gay-rights (due to the BSA membership policies) or that you
support predators and child abuse because of the scandal about abuses within
the organization being covered up. You might choose to sponsor a little league
team because you like baseball and believe in youth sports, only to find
yourself at the center of a firestorm because your local league does or does
not permit female players, depending on where you live and who the more vocal
groups in your community happen to be. Even environmental and public health
groups are not safe…
In theory, every manager has a responsibility to the various
stakeholders of the business to succeed, thereby providing employees with
paychecks, local government with tax revenue, suppliers with sales, and customers
with whatever product or service you offer; if the company is publically held
you also have a fiduciary responsibility to the stockholders. But managers are
still human, and even leaving aside the enormous publicity and public relations
benefits available to you through supporting popular causes, some of us will
want to use the power given to us to try to make the world a better place – on whatever
dimension we believe is possible. So that brings us to the question:
Do we as managers have an ethical responsibility to make
sure that our firm never does or says anything that could offend anyone, anywhere,
whether or not their approval or enmity will ever make a financial difference
to the company? If so, how are we supposed to accomplish this in a world where
anyone might take offense at almost anything? Do we have to make sure that none
of our employees publicly support any controversial organizations? How do we do
that without violating their civil rights? Should we take steps to make sure
that everyone in the world is repeatedly told that neither the company nor any
of the people who work for it has ever had an opinion on any subject that
anyone could possibly find offensive? Or should we simply do our jobs, run the
company as best we can, donate to whatever causes we believe in, and keep that
information and all of our other personal beliefs to ourselves?
It’s worth thinking about…
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