INTHEBLACK September 2024 special edition - Flipbook - Page 24
move must be paired with the facility to hear
and respond to feedback from such stakeholders,”
Zohrab-McConnell says.
W O R K P L A C E CU LT U R E
LEADING BY EXAMPLE
Leaders play a vital role in guiding an organisation’s
ethical compass.
Governance, risk and audit expert Dianne Azoor
Hughes says leaders are responsible not only for
helping to define its core values and principles, but
also for modelling ethical behaviour and ensuring
employees feel comfortable raising dilemmas at the
earliest opportunity.
Tellingly, a Gallup study found that while just
40 per cent of US employees report
unethical behaviour in the workplace,
they are 24 per cent more
likely to do so if they trust
leadership.
To build this trust,
Azoor Hughes says
ethics should guide
all decision-making
and leaders must
align their actions
with the company’s
internal policies
and procedures, to
“reflect a practical
ethical approach as
to how partners and
staff should conduct
themselves across all
service lines”.
An organisation can
deeply ingrain its principles
by celebrating them in partner
and staff performance evaluations,
she adds, and by encouraging open
communication – letting team members know where
to go when they need assistance if matters do arise.
“Partners and staff should be able to seek help
with ethical issues without fear or favour as to
the outcome, but with a common understanding
that resolution of any perceived ethical issue is
paramount,” Azoor Hughes says.
Smith believes one of the keys to designing an
environment that promotes ethical learning is to build
opportunities for moral reflection into the everyday
experience of employees.
“It is often said that we learn from experience,
but that is only partly true,” he explains. “We only
learn from experience that we reflect on. In terms of
morality and ethics at work, institutionalising moral
reflection can go a long way toward helping people
learn from their experiences.”
For example, organisations can make ethics a part
of work reviews, held before and after a big project
or initiative. Before a project or initiative, participants
could be asked to think through any reasons why it
might fail. In a debrief, participants are
then asked what they learned from
the project/initiative that can
help them prepare for the
next one.
“Asking ethics-related
questions both before
and after projects can
encourage people
to learn from past
experiences and
prepare for future
experiences,”
Smith adds.
“Ethical reflection
can also be
institutionalised into
the work environment
through mentoring
relationships, performance
evaluations and during
onboarding and training.”
Of the latter, Smith says that
studies suggest ethics training is less
effective in short, infrequent sessions or when
administered exclusively through online platforms
or in lectures.
“Conversely, ethics training with more
experiential and reflective components is more
effective,” Smith argues.
“When workers are inexperienced themselves,
you can use scenarios and case studies to help them
engage in deeper reflection about ethical issues.”
ETHICAL EDUCATION
Just as organisations support workers to improve
their job skills, so too can they guide them towards
becoming their best moral selves, says Isaac Smith,
associate professor of organisational behaviour and
human resources at Brigham Young University.
24 INTHEBLACK September 2024 SPECIAL EDITION
COMMIT TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT
Employee ethical development does not rest
solely on the shoulders of the organisation.
Accountants, for example, can educate
themselves about ethical requirements through
