adminmanagement processes in the company strategy.
Corporate ethics is an emerging global standard that is proving its mettle as a bottom line enhancer.
Its surfacing comes as a result of serious efforts by researchers in the field of business ethics to find answers to company collapses induced by inappropriate behaviours that have tended to characterise the corporate world of today.
The good thing is that there is now in existence compelling and irrefutable empirical evidence that demonstrates that ethical businesses are more competitive, profitable and sustainable than those that are unethical.
The challenge in the country today lies in striking a balance between this emerging best practice and the country’s preferred business practices.
This situation thus calls for company leaders to come together to draw insights on what ought to inform ethical business practices.
A platform such as the forthcoming inaugural Zimbabwe Board and Executive Ethics Seminar to be hosted by the Ethics Institute of South Africa in partnership with the Business Ethics Centre and other key players in the business sector in Harare and Bulawayo must be viewed in this light.
This seminar complements the efforts made through the crafting of the National Code on Corporate Governance. A decision by company leaders to implement corporate ethics as a strategic imperative should be grounded on a holistic approach, which takes cognisance of all variables from both within and without the organisation.
This is so because businesses in the country are facing a number of challenges some of which emanate from the operating environment that is seized by a number of uncertainties and market distortions.
Shrewd stewardship in pushing forward the corporate ethics agenda demands leaders to be sensitive to the existence of these apparent roadblocks and understand that they are part of the challenge.
A holistic approach thus takes care of the exogenous factors advocating for a systematic approach that encompasses scanning the operating environment, examining the existing organisational culture and HR management processes, and lobbying for legislative or regulatory processes that assist in building the required ethical environment.
No serious business leader can justify ignoring company ethics finding excuses in exogenous factors for doing so merely implies that one has chosen to be “part of the problem and not part to the solution”.
Prudent corporate leadership must be seized by the need to strive towards sustainability rather than being boggled down by everyday challenges and finding flimsy excuses in them.
Leaders must see the bigger picture on the horizon and strive to reach out for it.
Technically, a comprehensive corporate ethics programme will provide staff with clear guidelines and information they need to make responsible choices in their day-to-day business activities.
It would ensure there are clearly measurable outcomes in corporate ethics whose benefit is apparent in the eyes of all stakeholders and it should develop employee mindsets that value integrity and hard work.
The programmes should document the ethics management process making it easy to monitor, evaluate and improve.
It should also help to mould a strong ethical culture that builds a unique and difficult to copy company brand that attracts customers, making it a source of competitive advantage.
A company that effectively manages its ethics environment by conducting regular corporate ethics risk assessment is sure to become a market leader.
Quick spin-offs of an effective corporate ethics programme are, the ability to attract cheap funding, attracting investors, ability to attract and retain skilled staff, and curtailing misconduct.
Leaders need to own and shape the ethical cultures of their firms as much as they embrace corporate imperatives like product quality and information technology.
Research identifies several leadership attributes that result in good ethical outcomes and these include leaders setting an example by role modelling ethical behaviour.
What leaders say, think, and do clearly affects the conduct of their staff. Research findings of the US National Business Ethics Survey in 2009 concluded that corporate leaders directly affect the ethical culture of their companies and that culture is the largest influence on employee conduct.
It follows that the better the tone above, the less misconduct is observed at lower levels of staff.
One over-bearing factor that should therefore occupy the thinking of every responsible business leader is that ethical companies do not happen by accident.
Companies must deliberately embed in their operational structures corporate ethics processes that are driven at board level with leaders at all levels in the firm singing from the same hymn book.
This means that there must be consistency and congruency of the ethics message from board members right through to management in terms of what the company wants to achieve.
Implementation of corporate ethics must become an indispensable task whose costing should not miss the attention of company executives during budget preparation in the organisation.
- Bradwell Mhonderwa is an Ethics Coach and Trainer with the Business Ethics Centre. Send feedback to [email protected], or visit www.businessethicscentre.co.zw
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