{"id":197,"date":"2014-01-24T22:03:27","date_gmt":"2014-01-24T21:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/?p=197"},"modified":"2015-04-08T16:50:31","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T15:50:31","slug":"ethics-and-restructuring-promising-match-or-marriage-of-convenience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/ethics\/2014\/01\/24\/ethics-and-restructuring-promising-match-or-marriage-of-convenience\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics and Restructuring: Promising match or marriage of convenience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago I found myself at the AESE<\/a><\/strong> headquarters in Lisbon to participate in a continuous education session on ethical aspects of the recession<\/strong>. I was invited to speak specifically on \u201cEthics and Restructurings<\/strong>.\u201d What sprang to mind were the countless processes of divestment, mergers and acquisitions that I have had to orchestrate since the early 1990s in Spain, Europe and Latin America as the Human Resources manager at American multinationals. The first one was the closure of a factory on one of the Canary Islands which affected almost 600 people; the latest was part of the merger of two world food giants in the Andean countries of South America.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"fired1\"<\/a>They were all difficult experiences that affected me and never failed to move me. So I was attracted by the challenge of thinking about the role of ethics in all of them with some distance. What did I have to say? Could I shed light on the role of the manager who has to deal with restructurings? Is that even possible? A good idea? Necessary? Or rather is it just part of the current trend to attach the label \u201cethical\u201d to anything we can?<\/p>\n

The use of this label is something of a trend in business marketing in an ecological vein, which leads us to stamp the \u201cethical\u201d seal even on consumer goods and clothing. Early this year, the European Parliament approved a report asking the member states to conduct business restructurings in a more \u201cethical\u201d way.<\/p>\n

But what ethics is Brussels talking about? When the term \u201cethical\u201d is used even to refer to clothing (I recently also heard talk of \u201cethical clothing\u201d), are we not witnessing one of history\u2019s typical pendulum swings?<\/strong> After the lack of ethics at the root of this recession, we are now swinging to an overabundance of it <\/span><\/a>\u00a0with the consequent danger of not only overdoing it, but stripping the term of value<\/strong>. In the case of Brussels, we are talking about the participation of workers, among other things. But is that all, or is there something else?<\/p>\n

I believe it is necessary to clarify our terms<\/strong>.<\/p>\n