What does the phrase mean, you ask? Let me put it this way. If "it" walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, smells like a duck, flies like a duck, but doesn't look like a duck, what is "it"? A duck, you say? I agree. But what if a court of law says your opinion isn't good enough because it doesn't look like any duck you know about, and you needed to prove it? Well, the point isn't what can or can't be proven. It's a duck, and you know it's a duck. It's not a species of duck you've ever seen, perhaps, but you know it's a duck!
Now, don't get hung up on my example and the surface level similarity of "appearance" [of impropriety] and that the quality of the duck was the way it "looked" - that's irrelevant. The problem is that in business, you know bad ethics when you see them. You might not know the exact hows or whys or goings on that make it unethical, but you see the piles of debris left behind where this business (or business person) have been. You see the people that used to be associates of the business[person] - how they refuse to have anything to do with them any more. You hear about law suits so complicated they make your legal minded but untrained brain hurt. Can you prove anything? Of course not. Is there something you can put your finger on and say "that's unethical"? Probably not. But what is the "appearance" here?
My point is that what effect does working for a company or person like this have on your personal testimony and image? Don't get me wrong, it's not that I care about what others think intrinsically. But I do care about the impression I make for Christ. For standing firm for what I profess to believe. It is important, however, that we don't go as far as to say we won't associate with people of questionable ethics. We all know Jesus hung out and ate with prostitutes and tax gatherers. But at the same time, he didn't identify himself with what they did. Working as an employee of a corporation or individual that practices unethical behavior inherently confers some amount of participation in such behavior to the employee. If they know about what's going on and fail to take any action as a result, they become willing participants in the unethical behavior.
