INTHEBLACK September/October 2025 - Magazine - Page 49
ETHICAL CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS
While not all organisations have a perfect ethical
culture, very few are unscrupulous to the core,
so ethical environments rarely need to be built from
the ground up. Some organisations may simply need
to build on what they already do well.
An ethical workplace culture will also look different
for everybody, says Belinda Zohrab-McConnell,
regulation and standards lead at CPA Australia.
“Even within an organisation, the perception
of whether the culture is ethical will vary, unless
there is some sort of framework providing a point
of reference,” she says.
For accountants, an ethical culture can be built
upon the requirements set out in the APES 110
Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants.
In 2025, the International Ethics Standards Board for
Accountants (IESBA) is also looking at different
ways it can support firms by undertaking a project
on firm culture and governance. However, for
anyone else in business, establishing or furthering
an ethical culture may be more challenging where
there is no framework to build upon.
In such situations, Zohrab-McConnell says the
existence or absence of an ethical culture can
be assessed against an organisation’s internal
and external-facing missions, values, strategies,
commitments and policies, and whether it is
prepared to be held accountable against these.
An ethical culture must be based on achievable
commitments and transparent outcomes, she adds.
For example, if a business is committed to achieving
gender diversity at management level, the efforts
undertaken to attain this — and the outcomes of such
efforts — must be communicated openly to internal
and external stakeholders, together with an opportunity
for open reflection on the strategy and the results.
“Similarly, a commitment to openness and
transparency with stakeholders concerning a strategic
move must be paired with the facility to hear and
respond to feedback from such stakeholders,”
Zohrab-McConnell says.
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
GLOBAL GAME CHANGERS intheblack.cpaaustralia.com.au 49
