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Cape Town – An increase in awareness about corporate ethical programmes among South African employees did not lead to an enhanced ethical organisational culture, according to EthicsSA’s third SA Business Ethics Survey.
The survey was the launched at the University of Stellenbosch Business school on Friday.
Strong leadership commitment in setting a clear ethical tone is critical to the success of ethics management and interventions, the survey recommends. Effective monitoring and reporting play a big role.
South African companies have taken some strides in implementing formal ethics management processes. However, merely investing in the creation of more awareness of these programmes is not enough, the survey concluded.
In companies with a strong ethical culture about 9% of respondents said they were aware of some form of unethical behaviour. In companies without a strong ethical culture this figure jumped to 20%.
The survey found that in companies with a strong ethical culture 96% of those who had reported unethical behaviour were satisfied with the way the company responded to it. In companies with a weak ethical culture, it seemed management merely turned a blind eye.
Employees indicated they would rather work for a company with a strong ethical culture where proper action was taken against unethical behaviour.
There is now silver bullet to creating a company which is totally ethical, according to Fred Jacobs, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry and non-executive chairman of Maersk SA.
If there is secret collusion in each entity involved along the chain it is especially difficult to spot, he said.
“You must be able to measure and reward the way people behave in an organisation. If you cannot do that there is no use in introducing an ethics values programme into an organisation,” he said.
“We have refused to work with certain people in the past and have lost lots of money because of our ethical stance. Business leaders must stand up and lead by example. It takes courage.”
Deon Rossouw, CEO of Ethics SA, pointed out that individuals must not think they are too small to make an ethical difference.
“Just try to sleep with a mosquito in the room. Ethics is about what you do when no-one is looking,” he explained.
“Knowing about something unethical is one thing. Doing something about it, is a different matter.”
A zero tolerance approach towards unethical behaviour in a company is driven by fear of the consequences, and leads to an attitude of “what is not forbidden is allowed” or “you must catch me first”.
“We can all prescribe rules, but one can never prescribe values. An ethical responsibility must, therefore, be present inside an individual,” he said.
Moral development is a lifelong process, yet values can be shifted, according to Rossouw.
“We need more mosquitoes in the room. EthicsSA is trying to create a collective voice in South Africa and Africa about this,” he said.
“Companies should rely less on the rule book and more on the integrity of its employees. Boost those who behave ethically, tell their stories.”
The survey found that people were hesitant to report unethical behaviour when they did not think the reporting system was safe or assumed that nothing would be done about it.
The survey shows that employees are by now slightly more aware of their company’s code of ethics (96%) than they were in 2009 (92.3%).
They are also slightly more aware of mechanisms to seek advice on ethical matters (78.6%) than in 2009 (76.7%).
- Fin24
The survey was the launched at the University of Stellenbosch Business school on Friday.
Strong leadership commitment in setting a clear ethical tone is critical to the success of ethics management and interventions, the survey recommends. Effective monitoring and reporting play a big role.
South African companies have taken some strides in implementing formal ethics management processes. However, merely investing in the creation of more awareness of these programmes is not enough, the survey concluded.
In companies with a strong ethical culture about 9% of respondents said they were aware of some form of unethical behaviour. In companies without a strong ethical culture this figure jumped to 20%.
The survey found that in companies with a strong ethical culture 96% of those who had reported unethical behaviour were satisfied with the way the company responded to it. In companies with a weak ethical culture, it seemed management merely turned a blind eye.
Employees indicated they would rather work for a company with a strong ethical culture where proper action was taken against unethical behaviour.
There is now silver bullet to creating a company which is totally ethical, according to Fred Jacobs, president of the Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry and non-executive chairman of Maersk SA.
If there is secret collusion in each entity involved along the chain it is especially difficult to spot, he said.
“You must be able to measure and reward the way people behave in an organisation. If you cannot do that there is no use in introducing an ethics values programme into an organisation,” he said.
“We have refused to work with certain people in the past and have lost lots of money because of our ethical stance. Business leaders must stand up and lead by example. It takes courage.”
Deon Rossouw, CEO of Ethics SA, pointed out that individuals must not think they are too small to make an ethical difference.
“Just try to sleep with a mosquito in the room. Ethics is about what you do when no-one is looking,” he explained.
“Knowing about something unethical is one thing. Doing something about it, is a different matter.”
A zero tolerance approach towards unethical behaviour in a company is driven by fear of the consequences, and leads to an attitude of “what is not forbidden is allowed” or “you must catch me first”.
“We can all prescribe rules, but one can never prescribe values. An ethical responsibility must, therefore, be present inside an individual,” he said.
Moral development is a lifelong process, yet values can be shifted, according to Rossouw.
“We need more mosquitoes in the room. EthicsSA is trying to create a collective voice in South Africa and Africa about this,” he said.
“Companies should rely less on the rule book and more on the integrity of its employees. Boost those who behave ethically, tell their stories.”
The survey found that people were hesitant to report unethical behaviour when they did not think the reporting system was safe or assumed that nothing would be done about it.
The survey shows that employees are by now slightly more aware of their company’s code of ethics (96%) than they were in 2009 (92.3%).
They are also slightly more aware of mechanisms to seek advice on ethical matters (78.6%) than in 2009 (76.7%).
- Fin24
