The tone at the top - that is, the ethical behavior of an organization's leadership - is one of the most important factors in determining an organization's ethical culture. An incident from Mahatma Gandhi's life illustrates how critical Gandhi believed 'tone at the top' to be:
A mother approached Gandhi and asked Gandhi to tell her son not to eat so much sugar.
Gandhi asked her to come back with her son in a week.
When they returned, Gandhi simply told the boy, “Please don’t eat so much sugar.”
The mother asked, “Why didn’t you say the same thing last week?”
Gandhi replied, “So I could advise your son, I first had to stop eating sugar.”