adminthe agenda of board meetings of a number of firms as company leaders consider nipping unethical behaviours in the workplace in the bud.
Many companies are now seeking to develop codes of ethics to guide their staff on responsible business conduct.
While it is the prerogative of company leaders to initiate ethics management processes in an organisation, professionals in all fields in the business be it finance, accounting, auditing, human resources, marketing, IT, etc, have a role to play in the propagation of sound corporate ethics processes in the organisation.
Because most of those in leadership and management positions in companies are professionals in one field or the other, this call therefore makes a lot of sense.
Professionals should be involved in the development and enforcement of ethical values in their employing organisations because ethics, besides technical competence, also define and differentiate professionals from the rest of staff.
Ethics are integral to the development of a professional as they are set out in codes of ethics for different professions.
Their experiences clearly show us that seeking guidance from codes of ethics is an effective way of inculcating ethical practices in the workplace.
Very few people can dispute that one reason why we trust members of the medical profession such as doctors and nurses to cure us when we are sick is the existence of a strict code of professional ethics in the field.
Being ethical is more than being compliant with the law as some people would want us to believe.
It touches on the intrinsic you, invoking the spirit of self-control and self-regulation for both individuals and organisations.
It means having the requisite skills to deal with complex ethical issues in the workplace.
To be ethical means having the ability to engage in ethical decision-making, being able to anticipate ethical challenges, and having the ability to recognise and resolve ethical dilemmas, and it is in these areas that the experience of professionals becomes handy.
As highlighted above, the code stands out as the primary means with which organisations can give guidance to their staff and other stakeholders as to what is expected of them by way of business conduct.
The code must be comprehensive enough to give guidance on all matters of material importance in the workplace.
Allowing staff and other stakeholders to participate in the crafting of the code will enable them to recognise it as theirs, support it, and be willing to leave by it.
Company leaders should closely monitor changes in the operating environment of the business and make sure that they adapt and update the code to ensure it remains relevant in the eyes of staff and other stakeholders.
Besides the code, companies should consider the fundamental principles enshrined in company policy documents and established internal control procedures when resolving ethical issues.
In fact, the code should be in tandem with these other organisational behaviour management tools to ensure its effectiveness.
The challenge that companies face once they have embraced a code of ethics is how to embed it into their business operations.
Research shows that there is no difference in employee behaviour between companies with an ethics code as a stand-alone and those without a code.
There is need to ensure that necessary systems and processes that reinforce the code are put in place in the organisation to achieve the intended results.
Supportive infrastructures that can be used to strengthen the code include ethics reporting structures, ethics reward and sanctioning processes, and ethics monitoring and evaluation mechanisms.
Above all, companies need to outsource business ethics training for staff and engage consultants in the field whose expertise will help in making sure the envisaged behaviour change is realised.
When corporate ethical failings come to light, the result is loss of public trust. A number of high-profile corporate scandals have hit the business sector in the country with very little or nothing being done to remedy the situation.
In other countries, regulatory authorities are quick to respond to corporate malpractices knowing that loss of public trust in corporations can be devastating to the overall performance of the economy.
A good example is the enactment of the Sarbanes Oxley Act in the US after the collapse of Enron and Worldcom in 2002, and the tough regulatory measures the Barack Obama administration put in place after the global financial crisis of 2008.
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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