While a computer search for definitions of “compassion” typically finds language that addresses awareness of the suffering of others and a desire to relieve it, in business leadership jargon that awareness is more often coupled with a perceived obligation to prevent whatever “suffering” might be inherent in the job, the organizational culture or the dealings employees have with each other, leadership, vendors/suppliers, competitors or customers.
The trend to combine ethics and compliance functions into a single function has accelerated in recent years; especially in the USA it has become common practice. The Compliance and Ethics Leadership Council regard it as one function without questioning it (Corporate Executive Board, 2013); the same stance is taken by the Ethics Resource Centre (Ethics Resource Centre, 2010). But is it the right thing to do?
The year is barely a month old and we already have ample evidence of how easily societies can fracture. The escalating violence in West Africa perpetrated by Boko Haram, the massacre at the Charlie Hebdo offices in France and, thankfully less dramatically, the Twitter storm that broke after President Zuma’s remarks in Cape Town as well as Zelda la Grange’s tweets from London, all graphically illustrate how different beliefs and opinions can pull nations apart.
A recent EthicsSA website poll asked who the most important role players are in building an ethical organisational culture.
In my worldview, accountability is a basic aspect of leadership. Leadership implies being in charge and that connotes responsibility.
Professional ethics is becoming more important in the workplace. As professionals become more specialised in their professional occupation, professional bodies have increasingly been busy developing, revising and refining professional codes of ethics.
Many organisations and ethics practitioners invest time and money towards ethics programmes with an aim of building an ethical culture. The regulatory environment has made ethics management a requirement for both the private sector [Section 72(4) of the Companies Act] and public sector (Public Sector Integrity Management Framework).
Raising hope through whistle-blowing? The sexual harassment challenge.
Organisations that EthicsSA engage will often proudly inform us of the existence of their safe reporting, or whistle-blowing, facility. When asked whether many cases are reported through this facility the answer is usually ‘no’. Reasons given vary from ‘the hotline is relatively new’, ‘potential whistleblowers are afraid of victimisation should they be required to act as witnesses down the line’, to ‘it is not in our culture to blow the whistle’.
In the years before 'empowering employees' became part of the management lexicon, decision making authority often rested several layers above where the actual work was being performed. It was commonplace for peoples' work to be checked, first by their supervisors and then rechecked by the manager. Those of us consulting to business at that time derisively referred this to as "checkers checking checkers".
Two years ago, the World Bank offered Lesotho support for its corruption trials against multinationals accused of extensive bribery in one of Africa's biggest engineering works.That none has been forthcoming has not dented the small African nation's determination, fuelled by morality and self-interest, to end money-for-contract graft in the poor world.
An organisation's code of ethics is a key element of good ethics management says Prof Willem Landman. The King Report on Corporate Governance for South Africa prescribes the adoption of such a code. Non-listed and smaller businesses would do well to follow suit.
This article deals with the question of whether an increased teaching of business ethics can/will have a positive effect on the fight against corruption in companies. It is written from a (South) African perspective.
