Business executives, be ethical:Team Sentrail
LOCAL brokerage firm, Team Sentrail has called on business executives across the business divide to strictly uphold business ethics so as to promote integrity among their employees and gain trust from key stakeholders such as investors and consumers.
This, the company said, required a robust internal ethics programme calculated to yield a corporate culture that is anti-capitalist, pro community and socially responsible. World over, ethics have become an essential function of corporate culture.
Corporate culture and ethics are interrelated because the former often drives the latter. A company’s corporate culture is the ideas, beliefs and values that it strives to create in its working environment and within employees.
To some extent, an organisation’s culture can be articulated in its mission statement or vision statement.
The corporate culture is also the social and psychological environment of an organisation; it symbolises the unique personality of a company and expresses the core values, ethics, behaviours, and beliefs of an organisation. Ethics typically are a large part of a company culture.
Amidst growing scrutiny of business practices, it’s more important than ever for companies to conduct their corporate the right way. Ethics programs are an exceptional tool for promoting moral conduct. Organisations also need employees dedicated to ethical decision-making.
According to the 2018 Global Business Ethics survey, employees are more likely to apply ethical reasoning when their company clearly demonstrates why business ethics is important. However, while corporate ethics programs have become common, the quality varies.
Speaking to a Sunday News crew, Team Sentrail founder and CEO, DZ Isheunesu said: “Corporations have a critical role in developing good ethics in business. Today’s business executives must understand the link between business ethics and business success. The first step is to create an ethics program that establish policies and procedures and also to oversee allegations of employee misconduct.
“In addition to establishing formal programmes, companies should create ethical workplaces by hiring the right talent. High integrity and honesty is the secondmost important skill for business leaders, according to a recent survey.
“A well-implemented ethics programme can also reduce losses. Twenty-two percent of cases examined in the 2018 Global Study on Occupational Fraud and Abuse cost the victim organisation US$1 million or more. Companies that practice questionable ethics may also experience a decrease in stock price and severed business partnerships, which can affect profitability.
“In addition, business ethics is linked to customer loyalty. Most consumers prefer to no longer buy from companies they perceive as unethical. They actually express support for ethical companies on social media. Business ethics cultivates trust, which strengthens branding and sales.”
The entrepreneur added “to make the connection between corporate culture and ethics prevalent, a company can create a mission statement with a direct reference to ethics. Companies must then assess business activities through the prism of its ethical code to determine the effectiveness of the corporate culture.
“A company’s corporate culture typically is an unseen part of a working environment. It dictates how a company should act and react to both internal and external parties. For example, buying lowcost materials and passing finished goods as high quality even though they contain inferior materials might be unethical. Therefore, dropping current suppliers and then negotiating with other rival businesses will not be a hostile process when a company desires a strong, ethical corporate culture,” he said.
Ethics can be a difficult concept to define in business. In many ways, there will always be different perspectives to different individuals. For example, adding morals to an ethical code of conduct is possible under certain scenarios.
A significant reason to link corporate culture and ethics is to ensure the same definition and understanding of ethics among a group of people. Companies can define a code of conduct based on their owners’ beliefs, the ethics of society or some other basis. -Advertorial