adminimpact on organisational performance.
In organisations that are ethically weak, you have employees complaining of senior company officials who are in the habit of taking away company assets with no disciplinary action being taken against them. They complain of colleagues who form covert syndicates to steal company property, and they cannot do much about it as they fear reprisal and victimisation.
Experience shows that traditional internal control measures which organisations put in place to curtail leakages do not on their own result in the systemic cultural change required to address ethical lapses.
While it is vital to re-engineer internal controls through skills training and adopting best practices, corporate organisations require a far more holistic approach that addresses both rules and values in creating workplaces where employees are empowered to confidently participate in the management of corporate misdemeanors.
They should be empowered to perform at their best while feeling respected and protected from those in the habit of stealing company property and engaging in workplace behaviours that ruin the reputation of the organisation. Companies should put in motion measures that improve their ethics environments.
The following are key actions firms can take to develop strong ethical cultures in which employees converge around shared values that drive productivity, and profitability.
Assess the existing ethics environment of the organisation
Companies 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 company’s culture.
A comprehensive cultural assessment is a formal process by which the company surveys all employees, as well as obtains feedback from stakeholders such as suppliers, and customers about the perceptions and experiences they have in doing business with the company.
The results of a cultural assessment will provide company leadership with a clear picture of the organisation’s ethical climate, which becomes the starting point.
Define the desired ethical culture
When the existing ethics environment is established, companies should then define the desired ethical culture.
This process requires serious talk about the company’s fundamental values and operational processes vis-à-vis its industry, history, product, customers, and other factors. In the end, the company 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.
Management commitment should be unquestionable and inspiring.
There are many instances where companies 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 gives officials the leeway to use even unethical means to achieve sales.
Earn the trust of employees and inspire them
For change to occur, the board and management must develop and earn the trust of their employees.
This begins with the leaders themselves allowing honest and transparent two-way communication that inspire employees to embrace the company’s new ethical values.
Everyone in the company must understand why the corporate culture matters to them and should feel obliged to safeguard it and live by its dictates.
Inspiring employees begins with the company’s code of conduct or ethics that is built around values, not rules.
It starts with a code that is regularly updated and trained.
The organisation must inculcate these values into its very fabric, i.e. the way the company talks about itself, the behaviours it rewards, and the tone and actions of its leadership. The values must be sunk in the company’s DNA.
Outsource ethics training
Companies must ensure that their staff receive ethics training. Through ethics training, employees will be able to recognise how their day-to-day behaviour affects other people at work and how the actions they take on behalf of the company reflect on the company’s reputation and credibility to engender trust in the marketplace.
Meaningful ethics training involves teaching employees not just about the rules they must comply with to reduce risks, but how they can become more effective in their jobs through ethical decision-making and respectful interactions with stakeholders.
Business ethics training must become a yearly assigned organisational activity with a clear calendar that makes sure every staff member at each level attends the training.
Encourage reporting of unethical conduct
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 ethical lapses would be investigated and resolved fairly, without victimisation and favouritism.
Build ethical reasoning
Companies must ultimately seek to build enduring organisational purposes that encourage employees to go beyond merely complying with rules and regulations to adopting principled workplace behaviours and reasoning that can support and sustain a winning long-term business culture.
Every employee must recognise that his or her actions reflect on the company and have an impact on its ultimate success. Each employee’s ethical being thus should inspire others and contribute to creating the fabric for true ethical reasoning and thinking in the organisation.
l Bradwell Mhonderwa is the Managing Consultant of Business Ethics Centre, a Corporate Governance and Business Ethics Management firm. For feedback, phone 04-293 2948, 0772 913 875, or email [email protected]
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