Ethics in Action

A Culture of Ethical Behavior is Essential

CACM was founded with a commitment to high ethical standards in the performance of community management activities, and community managers are required to study ethics and pledge to uphold the CACM Code of Ethics in order to become certified.

By agreeing to comply with this code, CACM members commit to practicing community management and operating their business with honesty and integrity. Adherence to our code communicates CACM managers’ dedication to upholding professionalism within the industry.

Recent headlines alleging fraud and embezzlement led to calls for increased oversight and stronger consequences for such bad actors

CACM members

commit to practicing community management and operating their business with honesty and integrity.

within our industry. While CACM and its managers can take some comfort in the fact that these cases do not involve its certified members, such actions do serve as a reminder of how important it is to be familiar with our code and its applicability to our daily routines.

In a recent blog post, Mitchell M. Handelsmanm (aka “The Ethical Professor”), discusses several common obstacles to applying professional ethics studied in a classroom to our daily lives. Citing Eugene Soltes, an associate professor at Harvard Business School, he notes three specific challenges with ethical training:

In classes, the ethical decision in question is clearly identified for the participants. Ethical dilemmas are rarely so obvious or simple in the real world. In classes, participants may be exposed to vibrantly different points of view. In real life, “…differing viewpoints are often stifled by the desire to agree with or appease others,” often resulting in groupthink and following the party line. Examples studied in the classroom can allow for “careful, reflective reasoning,” while real life decisions often involve more uncertainty and require snap judgments in which emotions are likely to play a stronger role.

For these reasons, CACM strives to make our ethics case studies as true to actual situations as possible, often taking examples from recent headlines or our past enforcement actions. We make sure participants view these cases from multiple perspectives. We also ask participants to devote ongoing thought outside the classroom to the situations encountered on the job, and to explore how CACM’s Code of Ethics fit with each manager’s personal ethical credo. (Hopefully, yours reflects and agrees with the CACM Code of Ethics.)

We hereby invite you to talk to your peers and share experiences. A few scenarios for possible discussion: • Who do you serve and why? • How would you respond if asked to do things for which you are not qualified • Do you require anything (loyalty oaths, gifts, services) of your providers outside of the roles for which they have been retained? • What makes a gift extravagant?

Have you communicated standards regarding this? • Do you have any relationships that could pose conflicts of interest, in fact or appearance? • Do you or would you speak up when you see questionable actions from your peers?

Ethical failures often begin with something small, then expand unchecked over time. Consequently, being ethical even in the smallest of matters avoids that proverbial journey down the slippery slope. Great things happen for those who apply these ethical standards to their personal, as well as professional life. Albert Schweitzer, the French-German philosopher, saw ethics as “nothing else than reverence for life.”

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