EO 013 – Analize Jooste

Department Trade and Industry
COO: Group systems and support services division

Why did you attend this course?
I needed to build capacity and strengthen aspects around an integrated approach in dealing with ethics management – it is seen as part of good governance and supports leadership development. There are requirements by King II, government specific legislation, including code of conduct, disclosure and so forth, and integration and reinforcement is important. Appropriately, the dti values are delivery, trust and integrity. From this it is quite clear the emphasis that is placed on good and ethical conduct of employees and the institution alike and therefore the importance of striving towards ever improving ethical conduct in the workplace.

How did this course benefit you personally?
I think that most importantly, some self-searching questions must be asked (and answered). Interestingly, the more one delves, it becomes quite apparent that ethical conduct should and must form part of the cornerstone of building good leadership with strong character and is therefor nothing else than enunciating a good system of values to be present. We intuitively know what is right (or at least we may think so), but this course also sensitizes one to real danger that is crawling around everyone – the so-called “justification factor”, that may be watching with a keen eye for the slightest slippage in our ethics armor. How did this course benefit your company?
It has practical application in the workplace – from developing a code of ethics, right through to determining the root cause of corrupt culture. Such an arrangement of tools, can only benefit the organisation. Being in public sector, many aspects have been legislated, we may have numerous policies and procedures (and some even regard it as RED Tape.) But as we all know, legislation can be breached and therefore it would be much more appropriate to change attitude and behaviour in pro-active manner than through legal enforcement – as even the latter, may still result in unethical behaviour. Ie just because the law allows for it or may be silent on it, may not imply that it would be socially justifiable or fair and therefor ehtical.