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intervention to curtail workplace misdemeanours.
Organisations require processes that address both rules and values in order to create workplaces where employees find it difficult and even almost impossible to engage in harmful business practices.
Organisations need to grow ethical cultures in their operations. The following are the basic steps an organisation can follow in order to develop an impactful ethical culture.
Assess the existing ethics environment of the organisation. Organisations must analyse and establish the existing ethics environment. Such an evaluation is best done in the context of a broad-based organisational culture assessment that examines every aspect of the organisation’s culture.
A comprehensive cultural assessment is a formal process by which the organisation surveys all employees, as well as obtains feedback from stakeholders such as suppliers and customers about the perceptions and experiences they have when doing business with the organisation. The results of a cultural assessment will provide the organisation with a clear picture of its ethical climate, which becomes the starting point.
Define the desired ethical culture
When the existing ethics environment is established, organisations should then define the desired ethical culture.
This process requires serious talk about the organisation’s fundamental values and operational processes vis-a-vis its industry, history, product, customers, etc. In the end, the organisation must seek to define specific cultural ideals and values that it wants associated with its corporate character to help achieve enduring success.
Develop a plan to shape organisational ethics
Moving from the existing situation to the ideal ethical culture requires a plan that is supported by all staff particularly senior management.
Bridging the gap between “the way we do things here” and the envisaged ethical culture is no mean task and everything in this regard revolves around unquestionable and endearing management commitment.
There are many instances where organisations either at industry level or individually, have advocated for value systems that uphold ethical behaviour, but on the ground end up doing the opposite because of lack of commitment. A good example is when a firm purports to uphold ethical values, but encourages its sales staff to use “whatever means possible” to secure deals, which in most cases clearly gives employees the leeway to use even unethical means to achieve the sales.
Earn the trust of employees and inspire them
For change to occur, organisations must develop and earn the trust of their employees. This begins with the leaders themselves allowing honest and transparent two-way communication that inspires employees to embrace the organisation’s new ethical endeavours.
Everyone in the organisation must understand why an ethical culture matters to them and should feel obliged to actively participate in its development and live by its dictates.
The process of inspiring employees begins with the formulation of a corporate code of ethics that is built around values, not rules, and has a direct input from the employees themselves. It is enhanced by a code that is trained and regularly updated. The organisation must inculcate the dictates of its new ethical environment into its very fabric and DNA.
The way the organisation talks about itself, the behaviours it rewards, the tone and actions of its leadership, etc, must all be reflective of this new life in the organisation.
Outsource ethics training
Organisations must ensure that their staff receives business ethics training regularly, including ethical leadership training for managers, senior executives and board members.
Through ethics training, it becomes easy to recognise how employees’ day-to-day workplace behaviour affects other people and how the actions they take on behalf of the organisation reflect on its reputation and credibility to engender trust in the marketplace.
Meaningful business ethics training involves teaching not just about the ethical rules that must be complied with to reduce risks, but how people can become more effective in their jobs through ethical decision-making and respectful interactions with all stakeholders.
Business ethics training must become a yearly allotted organisational activity with a clear calendar that makes sure every staff member at each level attends the training.
Encourage reporting of misconduct
Employees must feel comfortable raising issues about ethics with their supervisors and managers, and they must have the confidence to report cases of unethical behaviour being perpetrated by colleagues and those at senior level. Employees must feel confident that reported cases of misconduct would be investigated and resolved fairly without facing retaliation and victimisation.
Build ethical reasoning skills
Organisations must ultimately seek to build enduring corporate processes that encourage employees to go beyond merely complying with rules and regulations to adopting principled and ethical workplace behaviours that support and sustain a winning long-term business culture.
Every staff member at each level must recognise that his or her actions reflect on the organisation and have an impact on its ultimate success. Every individual’s ethical being should inspire others and contribute towards creating the fabric for true ethical reasoning and dialoguing 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, http://www.businessethicscentre.co.zw, or call 0772 913 875
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