ITB DIGITAL Sep 2025 v3spreads - Flipbook - Page 50
“When ethical failures occur and you talk
to the people involved and ask them,
‘How did this happen?’, the first thing
they will say, quite truly, is ‘I didn’t see it
at the time’, ‘Everybody was doing it’ or
‘That is just the way things were done’.”
F E AT U R E
DR SIMON LONGSTAFF AO FCPA,
THE ETHICS CENTRE
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.
ETHICAL EDUCATION
Just as organisations support workers to improve
their job skills, so too can they guide them
toward becoming their best moral selves,
says Isaac Smith, associate professor of
organisational behaviour and human
resources at Brigham Young University.
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,
50 INTHEBLACK Sep/Oct 2025 SPECIAL EDITION
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. Beforehand, participants could
be asked to think through any reasons why it might
fail. In a debrief, participants are then asked what
they learned 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 believes 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.”
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
self-study and referring to the Accounting
