Should consultants bring their ethics to work with them?

To mandate morals is to presume that employees have the self-discipline and willpower to make ethical decisions that are sometimes above and beyond the requirements of the law. On the other hand asking employees to bring their ethics to work with them assumes that all employees have good and acceptable morals that are aligned with the company’s code of conduct. The question then is: Which is the best approach? In my opinion, the approach chosen is subject to the environment in which it is to be implemented.

Ethics, a system of moral values governing the conduct of the members of a profession, are crucial to all work environments including management consulting. The moral values that govern consulting include honesty, integrity, fairness, openness, credibility and meritocracy. In Utopia, all consultants would be able to bring these morals to work with them; but in reality, this is not the case. Not all consultants have been brought up to the same standard of integrity and honesty;...