The Individual's role in Organisation Ethics
Helene Donelly was awarded the OBE by HRH The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace last week. She was given the honour in recognition of her work to support hospital staff to raise concerns and improve care for patients.
Helene Donelly was awarded the OBE by HRH The Princess Royal at Buckingham Palace last week. She was given the honour in recognition of her work to support hospital staff to raise concerns and improve care for patients.
The former nurse at Stafford Hospital from was a
key witness during in a public enquiry into reports of poor care and abuse
at the hospital.
Ethics has featured much in the news in the last few days.
Court cases have included Public Relations’ Max Clifford, The Law’s own Barrister Briscoe.
( For once questionable ethics in MP’s Expenses, Banking scandals and Insider dealing were off
the front pages for the time being.)
Mr Justice Baker in
his summing up of the Briscoe Case today said if Briscoe and Pryce shared
anything in common it was
"arrogance by educated individuals who
considered respect for the law was for others”.
The judge's summing up in the Clifford case gave much stress on Mr
Clifford’s mimicry antics of a the Sky reporter outside the Southwark Court during the case, as disrespectful
behaviour to the seriousness of the case.
The Organisation and Business Ethics
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| No it's not a face off ! Steve and Alex from Roffey Park get focused before the start of their stimulating session #cipdLDshow on Ethics and the role of L and D, HR and OD |
It was heartening to see how popular the Roffey session was
and how seriously the attendee from the world of L and D consider their responsibilities
in this area.
 |
One of the most interesting conclusions from Roffey’s
research was the cost of losing talent :-
The cost of poor ethics in business:
Employees will more
often walk and not report .
One of the definitions of ethics is “ the moral principles
that govern a person’s behaviour.”
The principles of right and wrong behaviour.
Steve and Alex’s ethics menu covered
1 .The ethical landscape
2. The ethical dynamics at work external, internal and
individual
3. Ethical leadership
4. Challenges and Opportunities for HR / OD/L and D
5. Top five questions
Here is some of the startling data they shared:-
The Management Agenda 2014 Roffey Park report - authors Dan Lucy,
Meysam Poorkavoos and Julia Wellbelove
49 % of the managers surveyed
report having observed misconduct in their organisation.
 |
Alex and Steve outlines the ethical dynamics
the external , internal and individual landscape
|
thought corrective action would not be taken or they did not
wish to get involved (even more worryingly, one quarter of managers feared that
action would be taken against them if they reported misconduct
53 % of managers who had observed misconduct in their organisation expressed an intention to leave their organisation
in the near future.
The comparative figure for managers who had not observed
such misconduct was 41 %
56 %
of managers overall report that their organisations
provide training on ethics, the comparative figure in the not-for-profit sector
is 37 % and the public sector 47 %.
Roffey asked managers
to rate their line manager according to a construct of ethical leadership
comprising six dimensions
- fairness;
- power sharing
- role clarification;
- people orientation;
- integrity;
- and ethical guidance.
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| Some Ethical dilemmas outlined by Steve |
However, this was only marginally the case with respect to ‘fairness’.
‘Fairness’ was the
dimension out of the six that was least likely to be rated positively.
37
% of managers agreed that their line manager was ‘focussed mainly on his
or her own goals’, and 21 % agreed with the statement
that their manager ‘holds me accountable for problems over which I have no
control’
See links to Roffey at end of this post
In the model process they showed the audience some of the complexities.
Ethical dilemmas are a cat's cradle of polarised positions that make business ethics challenging and complex ( and interesting !). e.g.
Truth v loyalty
Versus
Shareholders v
customers
Versus
Employees v regulators
Versus
Suppliers v society
Versus
Short term v long term
Versus
Individual v organisation
To guide the audience in how to consider their engagement with business ethics they left us with 5 questions
To guide the audience in how to consider their engagement with business ethics they left us with 5 questions
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| Model proposed for OD, HR and Land D |
1. How far reaching ( from an ethics perspective) are the terms by which your organisation defines it purpose ?
2. What are the main ethical challenges ( both internal and external) of your organisation ?
3. How clear are OD, HR, L and D in the ethical responsibilities in your organisation
4. What successes have you had currently in Policies, influencing Ethical Culture in your organisation
5. What might your next most significant next step be in the ethical culture of your company ?
Finally ,back to the individual - You and me!
Clearly regulation, compliance procedures etc. will help in better business ethics but the individuals' contribution and responsibility are key also.
The NHS is probably one of the most regulated and compliance rich cultures of any organisation in the UK but regulations, sanctions and compliance procedures are not enough on their own to ensure ethical behaviour in management.
As individuals in public, non for profit or private sector ,we need to pay attention to our own moral compass and the map of regulations to plot our ethical journeys and when necessary be inspired by the courageous example of the likes of Helen Donelly OBE.
Related links
Roffey Park Management Agenda 2014 Link to Roffey Park Research
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