Promoting Ethics and Integrity in Business Aviation

Management must take a top-down approach to promoting ethical behavior at all levels of the company.

Sept. 4, 2017

Are professional ethics and integrity cornerstones of your organization? How can you encourage ethical behavior throughout your aviation department, charter operation, maintenance facility or other aviation-related business? Simply put, ethics are standards that govern the conduct of members of a society or group. Integrity is adherence to those standards. Those are broad, abstract concepts, sometimes difficult to specifically define and apply to real-life challenges. How can an organization establish a culture of ethical behavior and integrity?

Define Expectations

Whether dealing with a human resources issue, choosing a maintenance vendor, negotiating the purchase of an aircraft or even just determining appropriate travel expenses, it is important to establish and follow guidelines to help employees act with integrity.

Set expectations for your organization’s employees, consultants and vendors regarding ethics. These policies should include a general code of conduct, as well as policies for travel, conflict of interest, confidentiality and social media practices.

Conflict of interest – or even the appearance of conflict – can be particularly challenging to define. Managers and leaders must explain that “income“ does not just mean cash. Income or earnings can also be in the form of gifts or other considerations.

Likewise, “employment“ – typically meaning receiving a W-2 from an organization – is not the only way to “work for“ an entity. The key point is – whose interests is the individual really representing? Whose interests should the individual be representing?

Define “conflict of interest“ and provide several hypothetical scenarios that your organization would consider a conflict.

• Perhaps you establish a policy that requires an employee to disclose any work – with or without earnings (not just "employment") – from a competing interest.
• If you are a charter operator, consider requiring your pilots to disclose if they earn income from another charter company or charter broker.
• If you’re an aviation manager searching for a new airplane, require your broker or salesperson to disclose if they are also working for the seller.

A conflict of interest might exist if an individual employed by your aviation operation is also representing (and being compensated by) an aircraft seller or broker of an aircraft your company is acquiring.

Another example of conflict of interest might be an aviation organization hiring a contracted service, such as aircraft cleaning, owned by an employee of that same aviation organization or an employee’s relative.

Once you have established standards or norms for your organization, be sure to review and update them often to help your employees act with integrity.

“Integrity goes hand-in-hand with ethics,“ said Tim Peace, CAM, aviation department manager for PB Air, LLC, and a member of NBAA’s Business Aviation Management Committee. “Ethics evolve over time, and technology can blur lines of integrity,“ partly because identities and relationships can be veiled or unclear.

Provide Annual Training, Other Educational Opportunities

Employees of large flight departments are often required by their parent company to complete ethics training annually, but such training is less common in smaller firms. Once you establish ethics policies, be sure to train your employees on those policies.

“Company ethics training with annual recurrent requirements is so important,“ said Chris Broyhill, CAM, who is with business aviation consultancy Mente Group and is a member of NBAA’s Business Aviation Management Committee. “It reminds employees about conflicts of interest, travel policies, confidentiality, social media, discretion and other ethics-related topics.“

Broyhill also advised that conducting ethics training annually, and documenting that training, can help the company enforce ethics policies and better manage personnel matters related to ethics violations. Leaders should consider offering employees professional training and certification programs that teach ethics and promote integrity.

Practice What You Preach

Of course, ethics must be demonstrated from the top down. Setting expectations for ethical behavior, and training employees on those expectations, is critically important. Top management’s actions must be beyond reproach and serve as an example to all.

“As leaders, we need to demonstrate and reinforce this every day,“ said Chris Adams, regional sales manager at FlightSafety International and chairman of NBAA’s Business Aviation Management Committee. “Ethical behavior is an overlying governing principle in my organization. We are held to the highest standards and are expected to be trustworthy, reliable and honest. We are respectful of confidentiality and aim for constant self-improvement and self-development. Ethics and integrity aren’t just buzzwords – they are an integral part of our culture.”

These traits are demonstrated by each member of management to ensure ethics and integrity aren’t just slogans – they become the company culture.