The fear of technology falling into the wrong hands has been around since the first inklings of invention. It’s inherent to worry about what could go wrong and as our technology evolves more tangible threats surface. Where do ethics come into business, especially in the STEM world? Where should lines be drawn between profit and morals and how do we ensure our companies aren’t doing harm?
Recently, a lawsuit was filed by fifty women against Salesforce, a customer relations management software company, implicating them in human sex trafficking. They are accusing the company of not only selling their software to a sex marketplace called Backpage, but working with the company to optimize the use of Salesforce software and customizing it to make their “business” easier.
This came as a shock to the public and partners of Salesforce, since the company presents itself to be a very socially responsible business, backing taxes that will support homelessness alleviation in San Francisco and making donations to organizations fighting for equal gender pay and women’s rights.
In the recent past Salesforce came under fire for being used by U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency during the separation of illegal immigrant families at the border. They released a statement claiming their technology was not used in the separation of children from their parents, but their $250,000 donation to a nonprofit providing legal services to immigrants was denied by the nonprofit suggesting a lack of trust.
While this is enough to raise eyebrows, the current lawsuit when compared to the company’s work trying to close the gender wage gap shows a massive disconnect between what they practice and what they preach. About a year ago, Salesforce even hired an Officer of Ethical and Humane Use to head a department fully dedicated to upholding ethical standards.
So where is the disconnect? When a company puts forth so much effort to be socially responsible why do we find it falling short in the news? Corporate culture expert, Robert Richman believes most companies who experienced rapid growth fall victim to culture divides with the company.
When you start small, like most tech companies blossoming in Silicon Valley, and all of your employees fit in one room the company culture easily establishes itself. There is constant communication between everyone involved and decisions are based on input from the entire team. After his work as a cultural strategist for Zappos, Richman sees how culture must scale with the company.
The best way to do this is through building accountability. Whatever core values your company holds should be backed by an overarching sense of accountability. From bottom to top of the totem pole everyone needs to be held to the same standards and there must be checks and balances in place that allow someone in an entry-level role to hold the president accountable. Richman recommends implementing mandatory check-ins between employees and their direct advisors, where everything is open and free to discuss. From there, any misalignments with the company’s core values should be communicated up the ladder with an understanding that there will be no penalty for speaking freely about values.
Patty McCord, former chief talent officer for Netflix helped create a culture deck that is used across the nation as an example for creating a sustainable, healthy culture that can permeate through a growing company. The Netflix culture works because it was backed by integrity as a core value and applied to everyone.
If members of the executive team were no longer serving the company they would be let go to move to a company where their talents were better aligned. This happened to many Netflix leaders and even McCord herself. After she establish this globally recognized culture, they believed she had served her purpose at Netflix and it was time to move on.
Holding each team member accountable to your company values may seem like an overwhelming task, but with such impactful work we need moral leaders now more than ever.
