Hire for values, use for business! Is there a dichotomy?

Dabate going on says, hire for values and not just competencies. Difficult to test what is values? Is your value better than mine? Do your values flexible and compromise with business needs for survival and growth? Are business decisions always in line with laid values, say core values of the organisation? Are hiring and firing, promoting and rewarding all driven by laid down values? Was Phaneesh Murthy fired for breach of values? No. He was fired for not informing the board that he had a relationship with Ms.Roiz Araceli, his colleague and head of IT at iGate. Is not declaring relationship breach of values? Is declaring relationship an act of values? Suppose he declared, which he says, he did a few weeks before the Roiz inferno, what would board do? Question is not of values, it is a matter of legal complexity and threat for iGate. iGate fired Murthy without investigation and opportunity to defend his case. This is interesting but would iGate management take him back if he comes out clean of harassment charges? If not, iGate is not driven by values.

Unlike Murthy,there are many first time offenders and even when we check for values or antecedents, you need a mechanism in the organisation which infuses confidence in people against harassment of any kind. Not just harassment but any unethical wrong doing. We all wait till a disaster happens. Did no one know Murthy's relationships with Roiz were inappropriate? Did anyone inform? Why? Coz' everyone is so careless or afraid of the powerful people in the organisation. It is responsibility of the organisation to have mechanism for proper governance, intelligence and visible signs of tough actions against anything unethical or illegitimate. How many companies have you seen takes preemptive measures to curb illegal or unethical actions? Unfortunately, we see all news when disaster has already taken place and the wrong doing was going on for long time and people knew it.

Companies are either failing on intelligence or ignore the act of wrong doing till the time they are getting no serious complains. Reebok India Senior Executives or now Amway Executives under scanner and police and legal actions, come only when the disaster has taken place and company’s intelligence systems have failed. Unfortunately, companies rely on legal department for such watch and compliance. They are not intelligence people. Answer is, first get ethics set at the top and then talk through actions and infuse confidence in people through clear, visible signs of conviction against any wrong doing. Time to act "Intelligently".