Inappropriate Behaviour and the Downfall of Ethical Standards

Recently the media has been full of details of court cases where political donations were split to avoid compliance with disclosure laws. These instances are clearly raising the existence of inappropriate behaviour within that organisation.

This inappropriate behaviour is directly leading to the downfall of the values and ethical standards that many mature businesses built their foundations so strongly upon in the beginning.

It is not uncommon to hear our leaders or board members giving a ‘wink and a nod’ to actions that they want, but are not prepared to spell out. They believe by stepping back from the actual details, “you know what is needed to be done, just do it and don’t let me know” will supposedly absolve themselves from any wrong doing.

It's much harder to climb back up from this slippery slope once the truth is revealed, so now is the perfect time to be asking yourself why you should be worried about values and ethical standards and how they are guiding your organisation.

The values and ethical standards that your organisation has put into practice determines its culture and are reflected in the attitudes and the service provided by those who represent your company. Your culture is what sets your organisation apart from your competition as the right one to be involved with or do business with, for staff to belong to or others to be associated with.

Your organisation’s culture is a major contributor to the growth of it's image, brand, goodwill and to its future development and success.

Building and preserving the values and ethical standards of an organisation is a key role for every board, as there is a significant risk of those values being compromised as the organisation changes or grows and new people become involved who do not believe in or who have not been inducted into its culture. Especially if new comers are inducted into a 'wink, wink, nod, nod culture.'

Your board needs to ensure that the values and ethics that it has adopted are reflected in employment and training practices in order to be effective in all dealings with clients and outside organisations, as well as to preserve its culture.

Do not make the mistake of being like the leader who on being interrupted for an urgent call during a staff briefing on values, asked that the caller be advised he was absent thus destroying all credibility to his message!

Next steps:

If you are concerned about the lack of values and ethical standards guiding your organisation, or would like a review of the framework that your board has put in place, please click here to purchase our practical tutorial on why values and ethical standards are important or alternatively please email us directly with details of your current situation and what you'd like assistance with.

Like this? Why not share it with your friends!

Tags: Board Risks, Boards, Charitable Trusts Pre-Schools and Societies, Mature and Established Companies, New and Growing Businesses

There are no comments - be the first! | Permalink