Story-bound Ethics
The press has been full of comments about the fiftieth anniversary of Harper Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird. I thought I'd pull the book from the library and give it a quick read over the Memorial Day weekend. Interestingly, my local library didn't have a copy. It did have, however, Johnson's "Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historic Documents" about the book. Since I have never had to write a report on Mockingbird I have never become informed by a more professional point-of-view and have missed some of the nuances in the book, clearly. That being said, I spent some time considering if there are strategic considerations to the book. Atticus Finch is the lawyer we have all come to know. He is heroic, at least he was, in terms of the times the book was written (the early sixties). But, times (may) have changed. Johnson presents Freedman's (Johnson, 189) point of view that Finch did what was expected of him and wasn't terribly heroic for what he did. He would have been more heroic if he had attacked the system independently of the trial and tried to limit inequalities in the community. She rebuts Freedman with Barge's obvious opinion (Johnson, 191) that times haven't really changed and that there are still opportunities for change to occur in how all sorts of people are treated in America, or around the world (not to mention Alabama).
Just for fun, I examined the Code of Ethics for a consulting organization in Orange County that I have been a member of on-and-off for twenty years. Its Code misses entirely the community nuances of Mockingbird, remaining focused on the professional expectations of consulting, probably correctly. However, and this is where things become strategic, I'll bet each of us, in our interactions with our peers and the community, have opportunities to re-examine what is right, and maybe make a few changes. This is close to preaching, I'll admit, but like one of my friends likes to say, "Just sayin'...".
Another book I found for the long weekend, Kennedy's Compass, talks about responsibility in this simple sentence, "People responsive to the great human condition, and who've tried to alleviate its misery-these will be the ones who join Christ in Paradise (Kennedy, 29)." Responsiveness to customers is a business condition. Responsiveness to the community is one, as well.
Association for Professional Consultants. Code of Ethics. http://www.consultapc.org/files/codeofethics.doc
Johnson, Claudia Durst. Understanding To Kill a Mockingbird. Greenwood Press. 1994.
Kennedy, Edward M. True Compass. Twelve. 2009.
Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. HarperPerennial Modern Classics. 1960.