Many studies show that it is no longer enough for companies to earn a lot of money and pay their employees above-average salaries. Instead, soft factors are playing an increasingly important role in inspiring employees and other reference groups beyond shareholders and management, and in binding them closely to the company. These include, for example, issues around diversity and ethics. The diversity concept encompasses acceptance of and respect for diversity.


Diversity is the understanding that every person is unique and to recognize individual differences, for example, in terms of ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, age, physical abilities, religious and political beliefs, etc. Diversity management goes beyond legal obligations. After all, complying with the law is, as we all know, a duty. Those who fail to do so expose themselves at the very least to possible civil claims, and in the worst case, criminal sanctions.


Business ethics reflects ethical principles in the context of economic activity


Business and business ethics, in turn, examines the interrelationship between ethics and business, i.e., in a simplified way, moral behavior in business and, above all, the significance of moral behavior for business. Behavior is ethical if it does not objectively harm other people. The subject of business ethics is thus the reflection of ethical principles in the context of economic activity and their application to this area. The central values here are humanity, solidarity and responsibility. In contrast to general ethics, business ethics refers to the world of work, a single, concrete area of life.


In this context, value management is the translation of business ethics into practice. It is about how values are dealt with in the sense of the concrete shaping of behavior in all areas of everyday business life. The aim of corporate value management is to actively shape and control values in a company in a targeted manner.


Professional diversity management underscores efforts in corporate value management


There is a close link between diversity and corporate value management. A sufficient number of studies prove that diversity measurably promotes business success. Companies with a high level of gender diversity are 25 percent more likely to be profitable than average, according to the management consultancy McKinsey. Professional diversity management thus underscores efforts in corporate value management, and companies that want to establish a stable value framework need, among numerous other factors, a stable and well thought-out diversity agenda.


Organizations should use diversity management to create a work environment that is free of prejudice and in which all people can develop freely. This is a matter that requires an individual approach and therefore cannot be legally standardized beyond basic commitments. More and more managers are recognizing the success of a corporate culture of tolerance, openness and appreciation of diversity. For it to become more than a trend, it requires sensitivity and background knowledge.


Diversity and ethics offer advantages in corporate security


Security managers can contribute to corporate security on a tangible and intangible level through diversity training: They protect corporate structures and ensure the psychological and thus also the physical well-being of their employees. In practice, a prejudice-free and empathetic working environment and increased sensitivity toward colleagues are real performance attributes and also significantly reduce the risks of safety-damaging behavior due to frustration, etc.


Diversity and ethics or value management illustrates the approach of introducing future-oriented topics from corporate management into the safety landscape and making them specifically usable. It puts the employees, their well-being and their psychological security in the foreground. How can the organization be structured in such a way that all employees feel accepted and that cooperation in the workplace works? The role of individual employees is essential in this regard, in order to contribute to the safety architecture of a company in this dimension as well.


Mutual influence of ethics and security


So what examples exist of how a values-based corporate culture of diversity can positively influence corporate security (and vice versa!)? There are close connections between these dimensions!


- If a company is driven by the idea of diversity, this reduces the risks of security breaches by employees who feel discriminated against because of their origin, identity or similar.

- Diversity and ethics shape an inclusive, appreciative work environment in which all employees feel comfortable and motivated to work on the future of the company so as not to jeopardize it.

- Attention to the dimensions of business ethics of humanity, solidarity and responsibility can significantly increase sensitivity to corporate security among employees.

- Ethics and diversity (in) corporate security reflect the ethical relevance for applications in the security context and find the right balance where security takes precedence over individual rights.

- Diversity in corporate security raises the question of equity in security actions and how to deal with a plurality of value systems so that corporate security does not have a negative or discriminatory impact.

- In terms of diversity and ethics, corporate security should emphasize individual value for the individual and not be advanced at the expense of employees.

- On the basis of diversity and ethics, safety acquires relevance as a genuine corporate value and thus as part of value management. This strengthens employee acceptance of corporate security measures.