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Are you as appalled as I over the nearly daily revelations of scandals, frauds, thefts and general lack of ethics by people in positions of trust? From Wall Street to Main Street, New York to Juneau (and Fairbanks), business people, politicians, church leaders and everyday people are getting caught with one hand in the cookie jar while the other hand is wiping crumbs off of their faces.

I don’t know why our society is devolving our ethical standards, but I have one half-baked and controversial idea that I think is worth our collective reflection. Where are our children developing their standards of moral and ethical behavior which they will carry into adulthood? It’s not at universities. I challenge you to find one university in the world that teaches even one course on character which I define as strong and specific moral values coupled with the strength to consistently act upon those values. Oh sure, there are many courses about ethics, but studying a theoretical course “about” ethics is as likely to make one ethical as studying a course about botany will make one a tomato.

We used to hang the Ten Commandments in K-12 classrooms, but we don’t do that anymore. We can’t even post them as the Ten Suggestions!

Kids should learn ethics and morality from their parents, but with a nearly 60 percent divorce rate and parents ending their “I do” with “I won’t,” that example of morally upright behavior is pretty fuzzy too. So, what is the answer?

In ancient times, all moral values of a town came from the gleaming towers of the castle and the spires of the cathedral. Today, when one enters our town he or she is met by the gleaming towers of business. If parents and schools are not inculcating our next generation with specific and strong moral and ethical codes, then it falls to employers to do so.

Regardless of culture or religion, every society around the world subscribes to the golden rule as a standard of behavior “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Unfortunately, some leaders mixed it up and came up with “do unto others before they do unto you.”

We cannot legislate corruption out of our community from the distant halls of Juneau or Washington. Laws are already on the books, but they have not slowed the nearly non-stop flow of indictments. Leaders in our Fairbanks towers of commerce, from a one-story shop all the way up to our six-story skyscraper, must create moral compasses for their employees and then teach, teach, teach and again teach on an ongoing basis those standards of ethical behavior demanded by that compass.

A great place to start is in reviewing your organization’s code of conduct and conflict of interest policies. Do you even have one? If so, do they need updating? Are mandatory training sessions held on an annual basis? This is really important. Let me give you a personal example:

A couple of years ago at Christmas time, one of my department’s textbook publishers sent me a $50 gift certificate for a nice local restaurant. I have bought a lot of textbooks from them over the years and this was their holiday way of saying thanks. Should I take my beautiful wife on a date and use the gift certificate? My ethics checklist, (and I plead with you to have one too), is as follows:

• Is it legal? Does it violate company policy or law?

• Is it balanced? Does it promote win-win, or is someone taken advantage of?

• How am I going to feel tomorrow when what I did is read by everyone in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner?

Keeping the gift seemed at first blush to pass the test until I checked the UAF conflict of interest policy, and it is an excellent policy. It states: “No officer or employee may ... accept any form of gift ... other than that afforded by the university, unless such gift, loan, consideration or gratuity is received for the exclusive benefit of the university ...” Darn, not much wiggle room there. I filled out the blue disclosure of a potential conflict of interest and turned it in to our ethics officer along with my gift certificate.

Today, there is no such thing as business ethics. There isn’t one ethical standard for business which is different than the ethical standard for government, church or a nonprofit. There is only right and wrong. There is no in between. If parents and schools have failed to imprint a commitment to the Golden Rule on your employees, then it is critical you as a business leader do so.

By the way, in case you are interested, our ethics officer had a drawing for my $50 dinner certificate. While I stayed home and fixed beans for my wife, a lucky student got to go out on a date with his sweetie and eat my steak. It is a natural law of humanity that the bad behavior pays off more in the short term but destroys in the end. While the ethical behavior may be painful in the present, it pays off in the end.