? Country or society level, which essentially requires the emphasis given by the National Integrity Systems process.But there are useful overlaps of course.
? Sector or industry level (eg: a state or provincial public sector, insurance industry, real estate industry, tertiary education community etc.), looking at the whole entity and how that entity might go about Strategic Implementation; also how well it fits into the particular National Integrity System and what needs to be done to establish a better inter-relationship and better fit; and
? Organizational level which deals with the specific ways in which one single organization, whether public, private or civil society, might go about building an internal integrity and ethics regime.
That is:
The needs will differ between nations, between sectors and between organizations, but the overall principles may well be similar. Clearly, while a great deal of the same issues will arise with a whole sector or industry, these may take on different forms and there may be other larger issues too that must be dealt with in that wider context.
Focusing on the latter of these three, the single organization, but I recognize that there are grey areas between them and that sometimes one needs to fix things in the overall system before being able to succeed within sectors or individual organizations.
However, others may hold a different view on that issue. Anyway, I hope this is a useful way to begin.
By way of introduction, for an organization to come to grips with the task of strategically implementing reform in integrity and ethics, its people need to be knowledgeable about a whole range of issues to enable them to clearly understand the motivations, requirements, their various roles in implementation and how to work together for the larger purpose.
So the topics identified as important to date, in roughly the right order I think, are as follows:
1. Introduction to Organizational Ethics and Integrity
Assumptions:
For the purposes of this knowledge box, assumed several accurate assumptions assumed that such an organization has had little or no prior exposure to institutionalizing ethics and integrity into its culture or operations. Obviously, in most cases (we would hope and expect) that many would have some limited exposure, while possibly not having any actual systems in place, and might therefore at least be aware of some of the issues. If so, it might be reasonable to expect that these issues are possibly already being dealt with in some ways by a set of entrenched values ("good" or "bad", written or unwritten) within their organizations.
Approach:
Assistance to any organization.
This would be by way of enabling and empowering its people to appreciate the complexities and the wide range of possible sub-strategies involved in implementing an integrity regime /ethics strategy. It includes the main things that I can think of that would be part of the process and assumes that nothing at all has been done previously. In practice one hopes that there may be a somewhat better basis than that, in some places anyway.
Topics and Content
The content under each topic I have gleaned from a variety of sources, mainly: my own teaching materials, things I have read in books and journals, my own organizational experience as a manager and consultant and, to some extent, the better web-based information sources. The latter is why I have included some of these sources under each topic (these have all been re-checked this week and are still operational). The courses I have taught from which many of these issues have been gleaned include: Organizational Ethics, Corporate Governance and Business Ethics, Leadership and Team/Self Development and to a lesser extent Public Sector Management and various courses in Human Resource Management.
Readings & References
At this point I have only given a broad general reference list. This is because many, if not most, of the good books now available cover a number of the topics. I have also listed the academic journals in which useful articles on ethics and integrity can be found. Neither list purports to be complete, but they do cover many good general sources. At the later stage of final design and delivery, specific chapters and or journal articles and/or professional articles would be recommended on sub-topics, depending upon the specific needs and/or interests of the course participants. This might perhaps be in the form of a prepared book of readings appropriate for the specific audience. In places I have shown sources of some ideas, but most are not from single sources but an amalgam of content from wide ranging sources. However, if I have offended anybody by inadvertently plagiarizing their ideas or someone else's, please do let me know. In the final version I would seek to do a better job on this issue.
Cases:
On the issue of cases, it has been my experience that lengthy cases are not always very well received by course participants, particularly for busy senior executives who are looking for a quicker learning tool.
This is not to say that cases cannot be given out as pre or post reading, but as we all know these are often not read by busy people, if too lengthy and complex. So I tend to use either very short (less than one page) cases available from texts and other sources and others that I write myself, mostly the latter. The latter are often shorter and more pointed scenarios that deal with a specific ethical dilemma or situation, rather than long complex cases. Sometimes some commercially available videos presenting very short situational challenges are of use too. I have not listed media of this type here yet, but could do so if need be.
Topic 1: Introduction to Organizational Ethics and Integrity
This would present a broad introduction to the challenges and the need to build a proper implementation strategy. It would present the meaning and focus of Organizational Ethics and Integrity in respect of the organizations themselves, the individuals who work in them and the societies in which they operate.
Some mention of theories would be included, such as the philosophical and moral foundations of ethics and integrity, values, organizational corporate responsibility, personal morality etc., to provide a foundation of knowledge. However, this would be kept to the minimum possible, consistent with providing an effective enough grounding upon which to build. The emphasis on Strategic Implementation would always
be based upon a "best practice approach" ? what actually works in practice.
Likely content would include:
- Broad terminology and concepts
- How people focus on morally challenging dilemmas and make ethical decisions about their actions Ethical theories: Consequentialist (teleology, egoism, utilitarianism etc.), ethical relativism, virtue ethics, moral development (Kohlberg et al).
? Establishing the fundamental values of the organization
? Defining broad principles which emanate from these values
? Developing standards which will guide employees in upholding these values and principles
? Establishing specific guidelines for employee behaviour
? Ensuring compliance: through rewards and sanctions
Reasons for the increasing global interest in Organizational Ethics
? Increased concern over corporate violations and skepticism about corporate rhetoric
? Growing public demand for corporate accountability
? Strengthened roles of various watchdog organizations
? Numerous Public Enquiries, Royal Commissions, Senate Enquiries
? Leadership under fire in most sectors
? Global competition "win at all costs? mentality
? Diminishing organizational loyalty
? Increasingly complex decisions
? Competing demands from multiple stakeholders
? More sophisticated workforce
? Movement to "empower" employees
? Emphasis on: excellence, quality, continuous improvement
? Less teaching of values: in schools, families, churches etc......
? Growing diversity in the workplace, differing value systems
? Emphasis in society or "rights"
? Legislation: equity, environmental protection, OH&S etc.
? Demand for information on how control is being managed
What "best practice" organizations can do and are doing
? Going back to basics, revisiting mission statements, vision, values, principles (the ?Why are we here )
? Developing or enhancing Codes of Ethics / Practice / Conduct
? Public and private sectors are addressing awareness raising, education and training strategies for employees (eg: orientation, management programs, special purpose training)
? Revisiting control mechanisms such as auditing, checks and balances
? Reinforcing fraud and corruption prevention controls
? Governments are passing laws and more closely addressing public sector management
? Educationalists and academics are exploring and revisiting theories, concepts, actions, outcomes etc., in ethics
? Universities and Business Schools are including Business Ethics in their study programs
Some current and emerging issues in Organisational Ethics & Integrity
? International Corruption: strategies for dealing with this, in particular at the organizational level.
? Conflicts of Interest in all its form as a major challenge in almost every quarter
? Integrity in international business and dealing with cross-cultural issues.
? National and international litigation; individual and class actions.
? Care Ethics: Caring for employees in difficult times ? responsibilities towards employees, customers, society at large and between employees.
? Global markets and globalization and the need for greater international and inter-cultural awareness and sensitivity.
? Ethics and the Media: Reactions to the major transgressions: invasions of privacy, libel, excessive investigatory actions, political influence.
? Bioethics: Issues such as euthanasia, birth control, fertility drugs, steroids in sport, genetic engineering, and the demise of public health systems.
? Integrity in International Business: reactions to damaging corporate and political scandals, to world political changes generally and combating global corruption.
? Environmental Ethics: Greater realisation of the enormous damage being done in the name of ?progress?.
? ECommerce, EGoverment: The dramatic changes, currently underway and accelerating, brought about by the ?Information Highway?. These changes are rendering our familiar notions of national and international commerce, trade, the marketplace etc. completely outmoded and many traditional governance arrangements totally ineffective.
? Whistleblowing: how to facilitate it where necessary and how to protect the whistleblowers
? The protection of the environmental and the many organisational challenges emanating from this requirement.
Sources of the future broad societal challenges likely to affect organisations
? Changing economic conditions
? People or Profit
? Rapid technological change
? The end of privacy
? Changing social values
? Multicultural Societies
? Endemic unemployment / underemployment
? Development of an underclass
? The end of organizational loyalty
? Increasing ecological / environmental pressures
? Bioethics (genetics, pandemics, survival etc.)
? Population growth and massive shifts
? Workforce diversity
? Dominant corporate power and wealth
? Demise of the public sector
? Politics: national and international - demands for better leaders, with integrity
? ?Global Ethics? (a better world)
The message here is how the individual organization can take action to stay ahead of the game as these impacts emerge.
What organizations and their leaders need to do:
? Regularly revisit your ?Credo?
? Instill Credo and values in every employee - reject employees who cannot comply
? Provide strong ethical leadership, especially CEO
? Stay ahead of community standards
? Strive for diversity in the makeup of your organization
? Clearly state your ?Vision? and gain employee ownership of it
? Develop a Code of Ethics based on your Credo, Vision and Shared Values
? Establish an Ethics Committee which pre- considers new ventures, examines cases and activities, to guide future actions
? Establish an Ethics ?Hotline? to take suggestions and enquiries from stakeholders
? Balance concern for people and profit - based on wider social issues
? Educate before the need arises, not as a response to dilemmas
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