At That Point
  • home
  • services
  • about us
  • our work
  • our thoughts
  • SAIPA Newsroom

Restoring Trust After State Capture

28/8/2017

0 Comments

 
Prof Deon Rossouw, Chief Executive Officer of The Ethics Institute, describes the three critical qualities that organisations ‘tainted’ by state capture must demonstrate to regain the trust of society.
 
Ethics is a precondition for safe, just, and prosperous societies. If ethics is not embedded in society and in organisations, the inevitable result is a breakdown not only of prosperity, justice and safety, but also of trust. We saw this happening to South Africa under Apartheid, and we are seeing it now again with state capture.
 
In the private sector, we have already witnessed the voluntary or forced departure of persons accused of abetting state capture in companies such as KPMG, Alexander Forbes, SAP, Bell Pottinger and others. Furthermore, in the public sector, senior executives have started to vacate their positions in state-owned enterprises such as Eskom, Transnet, Prasa, and SABC, and others are likely to follow soon. There is no doubt in my mind that this implosion in both the private and public sectors will come to its logical end, and the country will step into a new era.
 
At the dawn of this new era, organisations in both the public and private sectors that lost their reputation, as a consequence of their involvement in state capture, will have to start the long and arduous journey of regaining their legitimacy. This will require them to demonstrate three main qualities: openness, competence, and integrity.
 
Firstly, organisations that were implicated in state capture must come clean. They will only be able to regain trust if they are open about what went wrong. Sweeping under the carpet things that have gone wrong will not do the trick. The leadership of affected organisations will have to admit to their stakeholders and society at large that there were serious ethical failures that took place on their watch.
Secondly, organisations must demonstrate that they are competent in delivering their mandate to society. The trust of society in the affected organisations has been depleted because these organisations failed to deliver on their mandates – and thus broke their promise to stakeholders. Being ethical is not enough to restore trust. Ethics has to be complemented with competence.
 
Thirdly, organisations must display integrity. That means that they must commit themselves to well-articulated ethical standards, and must be seen to adhere to these standards. People only trust other people and organisations who predictably adhere to clear ethical standards. Unethical conduct alienates people who are affected by such conduct, and it fuels suspicion and mistrust. For organisations to restore trust in their integrity, they will have to demonstrate that ‘what we say’ is the same as ‘what we do’.
Trust can be lost quickly and easily. Restoring trust is a long process that requires patience in the process of slowly recovering lost ground. But above all, restoring trust requires committed and courageous ethical leadership.
 
For the full article go to https://www.tei.org.za/index.php/resources/articles/ethics-opinions/7438-restoring-trust-beyond-state-capture
 
ENDS
​
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Welcome to the newsroom of The Ethics Institute. For media releases prior to August 2014 please click here.

    Archives

    August 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014

    Categories

    All
    Africa
    Bribery
    Bribery Survey
    Business Ethics
    China
    Corruption
    Corruption Perceptions Index
    Deon Rossouw
    Dr. Leon Van Vuuren
    Ethical Living
    Ethics Officer Training
    Ethics Risk Handbook
    EthicsSA Conference
    Fraud And Corruption Prevention
    Kris Dobie
    Liezl Groenewald
    Massmart-Walmart
    Moral Crises
    Municipal Procurement
    Nkandla
    Personal Income Tax
    Social And Ethics Committees
    State Capture
    Tax Moral
    The Ethics Institute
    Whistle-blowers
    Youth

    RSS Feed

CONTACT US

office [at] atthatpoint [dot] co [dot] za
© COPYRIGHT 2021
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

  • home
  • services
  • about us
  • our work
  • our thoughts
  • SAIPA Newsroom