Ethics in the confluence of for-profit and non-profit

My future career in the social sector will undoubtedly provide me with frequent ethical dilemmas. Since a social enterprise’s goal is to promote social values, which are intrinsically rooted in ethics, every decision has direct ethical implications.

Even dry decisions on administration cost and advertisement spending can lead social enterprises to ethical breakdowns. For example, my nonprofit consulting venture’s fee is likely to be high by the sector’s standard. While it is necessary for the firm to be able to offer competitive compensation for first-class talents and thus to ensure the service quality, some may consider it as excessive and even unethical.

Balancing disparate stakeholders’ interests is more complicated for social enterprises than for for-profit businesses because there is no clear measure to evaluate and compare the social impacts of certain actions. It will be at the center of my moral challenges and require careful ethical judgment as well as practical reasoning.

I may sometimes find myself caught between nonprofit’s goals and donor interests, due to difference in, for example, preference for tangible or long-term impacts. My professional integrity may be challenged by public opinion since the urgency and gravity of social values do not necessarily correlate with their popularity or attractiveness. The wrong decision could result in erosion in nonprofit’s independence and neutrality, ineffectual strategy or public backlash.

The confluence of for-profit and nonprofit needs may be fertile ground for social innovations, but the less clear-cut legal environment and need for alignment between different value systems will result in ethical grey areas. The controversy over corporate social responsibility is a case in point. I will need to address concerns about diversion of corporate resources to advance social ends for which they are ill-suited, often to the detriment of shareholders.

There will be no easy formula to strike right balance between conflicting concerns. I need to internalize essential values, look at them from multiple viewpoints, and take concrete steps to ensure employees’ integrity.