A recent survey of ordinary South Africans conducted by the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA) and sponsored by Massmart-Walmart gives a fresh view on everyday bribery in the country. “What makes this research different is that we posed open questions, thus allowing people to report their actual experiences of bribery without being constrained by our imposed categories,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of EthicsSA. “Research like this is important because it moves us from the anecdotal to the concrete—and thus puts us in a better position to understand the challenge we face and, of course, to overcome it.” The research was conducted in Massmart stores in Gauteng, Durban, Cape Town and Polokwane. The 6 380 respondents were evenly split in terms of gender, with good representation across age and income groups. Twenty-six percent of respondents earned less than R100 000 a year. Some of the key findings include: • 26 percent of respondents knew of somebody who had been asked for a bribe in the past year. • 75 percent of those who were asked for a bribe ended up paying it. • Most bribes were reportedly asked to avoid traffic offences (36 percent) • Bribes for jobs came in next (17 percent), with unskilled and semi-skilled workers being most vulnerable to bribe requests in order to obtain jobs. • Bribes relating to tenders accounted for 7 percent of the responses. • 4 percent of bribes related to getting reduced prices or free goods from businesses. • The most common bribe amount was R100, with over half of all bribes (55 percent) falling under the R1 000 mark. Unsurprisingly, bribes amounts relating to tenders were the highest on average (R103 288), while the lowest average bribe amount was for traffic offences (R219). • Of the four provinces covered in the survey, one is most likely to be approached for a bribe in Limpopo (48 percent). Bribes are least likely to be solicited in the Western Cape (19 percent), followed by Gauteng (25 percent) and KwaZulu-Natal (26 percent). Professor Rossouw says that the findings show that bribery is equally prevalent in the private sector, despite the widespread view that it is primarily something that affects the public sector. “While we expected that bribery for contracts and jobs would be prevalent in the private sector, we were surprised by the extent to which private sector companies are being targeted for bribes to get discounts or free goods.” “While bribery is quite prevalent, we are not yet at the point where ‘everyone does it’” observes Professor Rossouw. “It is interesting to note that while 78 percent of respondents do not believe they can get through everyday life without paying a bribe, the fact is that only 20 percent of people know someone who has paid a bribe in the last year.” By far the majority of people believe that bribery will be frowned at by their family members and friends. At the same time 75% of people who were asked for a bribe paid it. “This is perhaps most worrying,” concludes Professor Rossouw. “Virtually everybody agrees that not enough is being done to combat bribery in the country, but perhaps we should be talking more about people’s individual responsibility not to participate in bribery.” ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa
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Being too ethical, human nature, and transforming ethics risks into change opportunities are three major challenges in reducing fraud and corruption. These challenges were highlighted at the recent 8th annual Ethics Officer Learning Forum.
The event was hosted by the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA); currently the only organisation in South Africa that train Certified Ethics Officers. Since 2004 a total of 1093 delegates have completed theoretical training, with 498 completing the practical component that is required to become a Certified Ethics Officer. “Ethics officers are charged with the planning and execution of activities that reduce fraud and corruption, but that also build an ethical organizational culture,” said Prof Deon Rossouw, CEO of EthicsSA. “The purpose of the annual Ethics Officer Learning Forum is to bring Ethics Managers together to learn from one another.” Leaders can be too ethical “The ethical leader is not a moral saint to be feared and excluded by others,” said Tom Beale, a consultant in the field of governance, ethics and compliance. “A good ethical leader is someone that is genuinely concerned with finding a sound balance between the interests of the self and others. This will usually be evident in their strive for creating a workplace that is both ethical and enjoyable.” Beale advises against leaving ethical conduct up to complying with laws, procedures and guidelines like the King Code of Governance. A more effective approach is to use ongoing training to entrench ethical habits and behaviours, after which compliance to rules and regulations will usually follow. Plan for human nature to derail ethical intentions “The purest ethical intentions supported by the best ethics training will be challenged by our human nature,” said Paul Vorster from JVR & Associates. Ethical conduct means different things to different people, and when faced with ethical dilemmas people will act based on their own morals and values. Employers assuming that the morals and values of employees align with the ethical goals of the company face huge ethics risks. Convert ethics risks into opportunities for change An ethics risk is a situation that could force those involved to have to choose between acting ethically and getting a job done in an unethical manner. With relevant training, employees will know how to confidently act in the best interests of the greater good, themselves or the organisation they represent. “Risk contains both danger and opportunity,” said Lea Annandale-Dippenaar, an ethics and enterprise risk management advisor. “Ethics risks hold opportunities for organisations to develop, grow and teach their employees to develop finer skills in managing and reducing ethics risks.” ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa Certified Ethics Officers can prevent further increase in unethical conduct“Talking about fraud and corruption isn’t going to prevent it from happening,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA). “We need to train people in preventing unethical conduct.”
Certified Ethics Officers are qualified to develop codes of ethics and to assist organisations in ensuring that all their stakeholders are familiar with, and adhere to their codes of ethics. “An ethics officer acts as a signal that an organisation is serious about maintaining a high ethical standard,” says Rossouw. “He or she can help to prevent fraud, corruption and other malpractices from occurring by actively managing corporate ethics and building an ethical culture.” Ethical conduct revolves around actions that balance self-interests, the interests of others, and the greater good. “Navigating tricky ethical issues is something that requires professional expertise—common sense on its own is no longer a reliable guide,” warns Rossouw. “Training and certification are absolutely essential to ensure that an ethics officer is empowered and can deliver the maximum business value.” “Qualified ethics officers will know how to act as helpline for employees on all ethical issues,” says Rossouw. “With appropriate training, they can also analyse an organisation’s whistle-blowing data to look for trends and implement preventative measures against unethical conduct.” EthicsSA is currently the only organisation that offers certified Ethics Officer training in South Africa and in Africa. A list of Certified Ethics Officers is available from http://bit.ly/ethics-officers ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa As allegations of fraud and corruption rise, both public and private sector organisations need to know how to act when accused of unethical conduct. Important lessons on how to handle a scandal can be learned from Nkandlagate. “The Nkandla issue was always a moral one, not a legal one, as the Public Protector’s report makes clear,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA). “The Public Protector’s finding was that the President breached the Executive Ethics Code, not that a law was broken. The government’s general approach, however, was to attempt to focus on the legality of what had been done.” Act quickly, and separate the legal from the ethical Allegations of both illegal and unethical conduct should be dealt with quickly. The alleged individual or organisation should without delay admit the moral responsibility or provide a reason for not taking moral responsibility. When faced with tricky moral issues, many seem to adopt delaying tactics in the hope that the issues will disappear. In fact, as we have seen with Nkandlagate, avoidance actually serves to heighten suspicion and fuels speculation. Those accused should distance themselves from any investigations It is absolutely vital that the person(s) accused of wrong-doing ensure that there is no perceived interference in the investigation process. “This principle was clearly not followed during Nkandlagate, where those investigating were members of the government or the leading party,” says Professor Rossouw. “If further investigations were required, President Zuma could have removed himself from a difficult position by appointing a trusted third party to investigate.” He adds that President Zuma’s involvement was initially forced on him by the shortcomings of the Executive Members’ Ethics Act. The Act requires that the Public Protector’s report is submitted to the President, with no provision made for the procedure when the President is the subject of the report. “The necessary amendment to fix this problem in the Act has been gathering dust since 2011, and we see the consequences before us,” he says. “Facing the moral issue head on would have offered the President and government a resolution with far less reputational damage,” Professor Rossouw believes. “We should not forget that Nixon’s fall was primarily linked to his involvement in the investigation and cover-up of Watergate, not the original act.” ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa Youth Day commemorates the brave young people who took a stand against injustice in 1976. Important as that commemoration is, we must use this day to remind ourselves that that today’s youth face their own challenges when it comes to building better lives and a better South Africa. Doing this means equipping themselves to make the right ethical choices in their own lives, including at the workplace. “Young people entering the job market for the first time need to understand their responsibility to act ethically even if they find themselves in a work environment where unethical behaviour is the norm,” says Dr Leon van Vuuren, Executive: Professional and Business Ethics at the Ethics Institute of South Africa. “This can be exceptionally hard especially given the difficulties of finding a job in the first place. For most people, resigning is not an option—so what are they to do in a work environment that makes them feel uncomfortable?” The one option is to conform to peer pressure, and even to compromise one’s own beliefs by adopting some of the questionable practices of fellow workers. These might include inflating expense claims, indulging in vicious gossip about co-workers, sexually harassing colleagues or accepting gifts from suppliers. Such workplaces, Van Vuuren says, have their own language of justification for such acts: “Everybody does it”, “That’s how we always do things here”, “We’re all overworked and underpaid—the company makes big profits”, “It’s a grey area”. Many young people have already formed habits to participate in ethically questionable activities such as peer-to-peer filesharing to access pirated software, videos and music, as well as buying fake DVDs, cigarettes or designer gear, says Van Vuuren. This might predispose them to just “go with the flow”. “That would be a mistake because working in a rotten organisation is as soul-destroying as living in a rotten society,” Van Vuuren argues. “In the end, as we seem to be seeing with FIFA, unethical behaviour can become endemic and compromise not only the whole organisation but everybody in it.” If one finds oneself in an unethical organisation, and leaving is not an option, Van Vuuren says that the only course is to try influencing the corporate culture for the better. To do this, young people need to equip themselves by developing a moral or ethical sense so they can understand that there are ethical implications to business decisions, and that the bottom line is not all that matters. “Moral courage will be necessary—acting against what seem to be one’s own interests and prevailing custom isn’t easy. But keep in mind that doing the right thing has benefits over the longer term,” he says. “It’s also important to cultivate a moral imagination so one can craft compromise positions that satisfy most stakeholders.” An example of the latter would be a gift policy that allows gifts under a certain value to be accepted, even though, strictly speaking, any gift creates the expectation of reciprocity. Armed with a moral competence, young people can begin to lead by example. They should take heart from the fact that most people know what is right, but are easily led to make the wrong choices. One practical thing even new recruits can do is to talk about ethics in a non-judgemental way, perhaps just by asking questions like, “Isn’t there another way to do this?” or “Wouldn’t our shareholders be unhappy about this?” “I’ve said that courage is necessary, but we must recognise that being out of step with your peers is a lonely business,” Van Vuuren concludes. “My advice would also be for a young person in this situation to find ethical allies. It’s easy to discover who are the most trusted people within the company, who the ethical role models are. Get those people to become your mentors, and acting ethically will become that much easier. Humans are ethical creatures, and when we act contrary to our ethical beliefs we cannot be happy.” ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa What does a flashmob and industrial theatre have to do with building ethical organisations? According to some speakers at the 5th annual ethics conference held on 18 May at Gallagher Convention Centre, it is alternative creative approaches that will get the message of the importance of ethical conduct across. To build an ethical organisation, four key groups of stakeholders need to be persuaded that ethics is good business and needs to be integrated into how an organisation and its partners go about their daily business. Conventional methods of persuasion like training and giving speeches need to be complemented by others that are potentially more impactful, such as singing, humour and industrial theatre. “When one is building a genuinely ethical organisation, drafting policies and codes is only the first step. Then begins the long business of persuading these four key stakeholder groups—leadership, employees, supply chain partners and industry peers—to buy into ethics,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA), host of the event. Conference delegates were treated to a flashmob and a piece of industrial theatre that showed just how effective alternative interventions could be. Johan van Zyl, Group CEO at Sanlam argued strongly that the process of building an ethical organisation has to begin at the top, beginning with the board, which has to commit publicly to ethics above the pursuit of short-term profits. Tolerance for deviation from the company’s ethical code has to become less and less the higher up the organisational structure it occurs, Dr Van Zyl said. Building an ethical organisation is first and foremost a top-down process. As was made clear in a subsequent panel discussion introduced by Professor Shirley Zinn, that while the “tone at the top” is vital, it also needs to become the “tune in the middle”. Ethical standards must become an integral part of how the organisation does business. Brian Leroni, Group Corporate Affairs Executive at Massmart, made the case for bringing the supply chain on board as well. He noted how deeply a company could be embarrassed—and worse—by the unethical behaviour of members of its supply chain. Some companies who have outsourced all or part of their manufacturing to the Far East have already experienced some of the negative effects of unethical practices by suppliers. However, Leroni emphasised how difficult and lengthy such a process was, and warned that big companies needed to act ethically when undertaking it. Like other stakeholders, suppliers have to be persuaded that ethics make for good business, and not simply bullied into it—in itself an unethical action, after all. Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens South Africa, addressed the fourth group of stakeholders, a company’s industry peers. Collective action is essential particularly in industries in which there are entrenched corrupt practices and, consequently, a dramatically uneven playing field. Dall’Omo shared the hard lessons Siemens itself learned by letting itself become complicit in such practices. “All the speakers emphasised the need for both creativity and perseverance in persuading these and other stakeholder groups to buy into the organisation’s ethical standards—but they also stressed the benefits to be gained. Being ethical means fewer sleepless nights but, even, more to the point, improved business performance and results,” Professor Rossouw concludes. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa Building credibility for the sustainability agendaThree years ago on 1 May, the requirement in the new Companies Act for social and ethics committees came into effect. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that confusion reigned at the time. The Act and its enabling regulations were just not clear, and peoples’ aversion to change was complicated by genuine bewilderment. So great was the confusion that EthicsSA and the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa began running workshops to help companies get a handle on this new concept. Perhaps the biggest achievement of this new committee is that sustainability issues are now a regular board agenda item. Most social and ethics committees have settled into a rhythm of meeting prior to scheduled board meetings, and their reports are tabled at the subsequent board meeting. As a result, sustainability issues have become a regular subject for top-level discussion and scrutiny. It is impossible to overestimate the long-term impact this is having—by making social and ethics issues part of the business-as-usual agenda, they are slowly becoming incorporated into the operational DNA of companies. A related achievement is that because these issues are being thought about and reported on regularly, the sustainability and integrated reports are becoming much more credible and useful. In truth, many of these reports were put together in a hurry and did not necessarily reflect what truly went on. But when management has to report regularly on these issues, the content of the sustainability report is generated by institutional processes, and thus better reflects what happened. However, it needs to be noted that there remain a number of challenges to be overcome. First, the inexact and incomplete legislation and regulations continues to cause confusion. Legally, the position is still that the committee has only a social mandate. Leading companies have used King III as their guide and have incorporated ethics, but this is purely voluntary. It is to be hoped that this omission is rectified by legislators soon. A structural challenge is the fact that the mandates of social and ethics committees can overlap with other board committees, such as audit, HR and remuneration. These overlaps need to be addressed to prevent a “turf war” from developing. A more difficult challenge is the fact that most companies are still grappling with how to produce the right content and quality of reports for the social and ethics committee. Committee members tend to be non-executive, so do not have the inside knowledge to be able to assess the reporting, whereas managers are often uncertain about what needs to be reported. A contributing factor is surely the lack of performance indicators for social and ethics issues, which also means it is hard for all parties to move beyond compliance to assessing the impact of social and ethics performance. This expectation gap causes frustration all round. Based on EthicsSA’s interaction with hundreds of companies at various training sessions, our overwhelming conclusion is that the key success factor is a social and ethics committee whose agenda is closely aligned with the company strategy. This breathes energy into the committee’s operations because members can see the strategic importance of what they are doing, and the board and executive management can see that the company is deriving real value from the work done by the social and ethics committee. For example, as we have seen, a mine’s long-term sustainability is dependent on its relationship with the surrounding community and its employees—exactly the sort of area for which the social and ethics committee takes responsibility. To paraphrase, don’t ask what you can do for your social and ethics committee, but what it can do for you. If the committee is seen to be delivering value, it will continue to improve, creating a genuine virtuous cycle. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa Organisations have to find ways of getting all their employees—and even their partners—to buy into their ethics. Without this universal buy-in, their businesses will continue to suffer the effects of unethical conduct. How to achieve this will be the subject of the forthcoming conference hosted by the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA).
“Rules and codes can only create the framework for ethical behaviour, but if people don’t buy into those ethics, then their behaviour will always have to be policed—something that is expensive and not that effective. But if people believe in the value of ethics, they will act ethically by default,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of EthicsSA. “Our conference will look at how to get that buy in across the whole organisation and its supply chain.” As all South Africans know by now, leaders set the tone for the whole organisation—getting leaders to act ethically is thus arguably the first step. Dr Johan van Zyl, Group CEO of Sanlam will share his experiences at the World Bank, Santam, Sanlam and the University of Pretoria to give delegates an insider’s view of the value of top-down leadership in building an ethical culture. Professor Shirley Zinn will then tackle the challenge of how to get middle management and staff on board the ethics train. Brian Leroni, Massmart’s Group Corporate Affairs Executive and Sabine Dall’Omo, CEO of Siemens South Africa, will complete the loop by advising how to get an organisation’s supply chain and industry peers on board as well. “Getting ethical buy in from all levels of the organisation and its eco-system means moving away from a policing approach, in which people do whatever they think they can get away with, to a values-based approach, in which they do what is right. The latter scenario is by far the most preferable because it is dependable (and cost effective) in a way that the former never is,” says Professor Rossouw. “Attending this conference will give delegates new inspiration and insights to take back to their organisations—and really drive change and reduce risk.” EDITOR’S NOTE: For more information on the 5th Annual Ethics Conference to be held 18 May 2015 at the Gallagher Convention Centre please visit www.ethicsevents.co.za ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa In the wake of the first hike in personal income tax for 20 years the willingness of citizens to pay tax will be an indication of the strength of the social contract—the mutually beneficial agreement that commits government and citizens to work together to maintain a sustainable community.
“Tax morale—the willingness of citizens to pay their taxes—has sunk to new levels prompted by the small increase in personal tax plus an increase in other taxes such as the Road Accident Fund levy on the fuel price. The high levels of citizen unhappiness, and talk of a tax revolt, are an indication that our social contract is under strain,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA). “Government and citizens are both parties in this social contract, and both need to take decisive action to repair it.” The preface to a working paper on tax morale in developing countries for the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), states “…at a deeper level, taxation and fiscal policy are at the core of every society’s social contract. Citizens pay their taxes in exchange for public services and goods”. The OECD goes on to make the critical point that this exchange legitimates the political dispensation and the state itself.* For the social contract to work, both parties have to honour their commitments. At present, though, citizens are beginning to question whether it is just to suffer additional taxes when the state is not fulfilling its part of the bargain. High levels of corruption, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, coupled with sub-optimal service delivery are all prompting taxpayers to question the moral foundation of additional taxes. The perceived failure of the state to honour its obligations to taxpayers is worsened by the growing belief that the integrity of SARS, the tax-collection agency, has been compromised. Once seen as the cleanest and most effective organ of state, SARS is currently plagued by controversy—so much so that the Finance Minister has had to appoint an advisory committee to investigate. More worrying over the long term, though, are growing reports that SARS is becoming less even-handed in its treatment of taxpayers, and that individuals with powerful connections merit a different approach from SARS. Professor Rossouw points out that tax collection has to be seen to be fair, transparent and predictable in order to protect tax morale. This is particularly important given the far-ranging powers conferred on SARS to collect taxes it deems are owed. SARS officials find themselves in a position where they can be tempted to use their position to enrich themselves, thus making it imperative that the organisation ensure that its internal ethics is managed effectively. “Taxpayers who avoid paying their taxes are indeed guilty of putting the social contract at risk, and they should think carefully about doing the right thing. But, equally important, the state has to put its own house in order avoid tax revolt by citizens, and thus a breakdown of the social contract,” Professor Rossouw concludes. * Christian Daude, Hamlet Gutiérrez and Ángel Melguizo, “What drives tax morale?”, Working paper No. 315, OECD, available at http://www.oecd.org/dev/americas/WP315%20AE.pdf. ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa Companies or institutions, particularly those who have suffered a scandal of some kind, often resolve on a zero-tolerance policy for unethical behaviour. But this policy is likely to backfire if the right approach isn’t adopted, says the Ethics Institute of South Africa (EthicsSA). “A scandal has a hugely negative impact on an organisation and usually results in personal humiliation for its members, so deciding ‘never again’ is both understandable and laudable,” says Professor Deon Rossouw, CEO of EthicsSA. “But care needs to be taken because zero tolerance often translates into an overwhelming focus on the strict policing of rules, and that’s an approach that is not sustainable and can even be counterproductive.” The real issue here is the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation for actions. A focus on policing and enforcement means that individuals never internalise, and appropriate for themselves, the desired ethical principles. The unintended consequence is a mindset of “if it’s not forbidden, then it must be allowed”, simply because people become used to being told what to do, and do not apply their minds to doing the right thing. In fact, it can be that people then begin to exercise their creativity to get round the rules and, as we all know, human creativity seems to be inexhaustible in this area! Professor Rossouw says that the same factors can be seen at play when it comes to safety regulations, say at a mine after a fatality. Managers often observe that the moment employees leave the work environment with its strict safety rules, they indulge in highly unsafe practices. In other words, the safety-first principle has not been internalised. To realise the intention behind a zero-tolerance approach—to prevent any future ethical breaches from occurring—it is necessary to take the longer route of convincing an organisation’s members that ethical behaviour is beneficial to them and the organisation, and is thus worthwhile on its own account. As part of driving this message home, he says, the greatest effort should go into recognizing and praising those who do act ethically, setting them up as role models, with much less time spent on policing and enforcement. According to Susan Krauss Whitbourne, Professor of Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, we model our behaviour on “individuals whose actions seem to be getting rewarded”.1 It’s thus vital that organisations pay due attention to rewarding publicly individuals who act ethically, in small and large matters. As part of the same process, the organisation’s commitment to ethical behaviour needs to be made crystal clear in the words and actions of its leaders, and everybody who infringes the ethical code must be held strictly to account. “It’s a question of striking the right balance between encouragement of the right behaviours and punishment of the wrong behaviours,” Professor Rossouw concludes. “It’s not that we shouldn’t formulate and enforce rules, but we have to get the context right in order to change convictions—that way, we will change the way people behave even when nobody is watching.” 1 Susan Krauss Whitbourne, “We all need role models to motivate and inspire us”, Pyschology Today 19 November 2013, available at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/fulfillment-any-age/201311/we-all-need-role-models-motivate-and-inspire-us ENDS MEDIA CONTACT: Juanita Vorster, 079 523 8374, juanita@thatpoint.co.za, www.atthatpoint.co.za For more information on EthicsSA please visit: Website: www.ethicssa.org LinkedIn: Ethics Institute of South Africa Facebook: Ethics Institute of South Africa |
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