Can rules be flexible?
It is the employees of Delta Lloyd Group who must reflect the organisation’s belief in corporate social responsibility in their day-to-day work, and implement its core values in all that they do. Yet no matter how hard they may try, practical reality inevitably throws up the occasional dilemma. Such as when core values are in danger of conflicting with each other.
Take the core values of integrity and entrepreneurship. Integrity relies on intuition, on a sense of whether something is or is not ethical. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, requires commitment to the organisation and a focus on results; after all, profitability is a healthy goal for any organisation to ensure its sustainability. So what if an employee feels that rules that are designed to serve business interests and generate profits are lacking in integrity? Or when these rules demand that employees act against the customer’s interests?
In autumn 2006, a sales manager at Delta Lloyd Insurance faced precisely this problem when he concluded a new group pension contract with a company. The pension plan was due to start on 1 January 2007. There was one problem, however: the draft contract covered employees who were registered sick. If after 1 January 2007 these individuals were still registered sick or wholly or partially incapacitated, Delta Lloyd would be contractually obliged to continue paying them until they reached pensionable age. Under the prevailing rules, and with this prior knowledge, Delta Lloyd could have decided not to go through with the contract. After all, logically speaking, an insurer will not want to provide cover for a bad risk.
The Delta Lloyd sales manager knew that in purely business terms, it would be wiser not to extend cover to these individuals. At the same time, he felt that this would not be ethical. He therefore decided to raise the matter internally. Initially he met with opposition; after all, ‘rules are rules’. Eventually, however, his colleagues began to realise that they also had a moral obligation. For one of Delta Lloyd’s core values is responsibility and commitment.
In the end, the contract took effect, as planned, on 1 January 2007, with cover being extended to include the sick employees.
Take the core values of integrity and entrepreneurship. Integrity relies on intuition, on a sense of whether something is or is not ethical. Entrepreneurship, on the other hand, requires commitment to the organisation and a focus on results; after all, profitability is a healthy goal for any organisation to ensure its sustainability. So what if an employee feels that rules that are designed to serve business interests and generate profits are lacking in integrity? Or when these rules demand that employees act against the customer’s interests?
In autumn 2006, a sales manager at Delta Lloyd Insurance faced precisely this problem when he concluded a new group pension contract with a company. The pension plan was due to start on 1 January 2007. There was one problem, however: the draft contract covered employees who were registered sick. If after 1 January 2007 these individuals were still registered sick or wholly or partially incapacitated, Delta Lloyd would be contractually obliged to continue paying them until they reached pensionable age. Under the prevailing rules, and with this prior knowledge, Delta Lloyd could have decided not to go through with the contract. After all, logically speaking, an insurer will not want to provide cover for a bad risk.
The Delta Lloyd sales manager knew that in purely business terms, it would be wiser not to extend cover to these individuals. At the same time, he felt that this would not be ethical. He therefore decided to raise the matter internally. Initially he met with opposition; after all, ‘rules are rules’. Eventually, however, his colleagues began to realise that they also had a moral obligation. For one of Delta Lloyd’s core values is responsibility and commitment.
In the end, the contract took effect, as planned, on 1 January 2007, with cover being extended to include the sick employees.
