If ethics really matter in the company where we work, isn’t it time to invite an auditor to get an objective picture of it? Well, for now, there is no such profession as a “Certified Public Ethicist,” and I am not sure it would be a good thing if there were. However, I admire the efforts of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (The Ethics Officer Association, www.eoa.org), founded in 1992, to organize and develop this important field in labor relations.
The concept of an audit evokes fear and negative reactions in most of us. After all, who among us would show positive emotions upon learning that their tax return is being audited? Perhaps, then, we should call this area of “control” something else, such as an “inventory” or an “assessment” of ethics in the enterprise. For we must not forget that “audit” means “listening” (Latin audio – to listen). And that is exactly what I propose: it is time not only for a financial audit to assess the economic situation of the company and check whether it is really that bad or that good. Now is the time to conduct an ethics audit in the company to assess the ethos of our organization and check whether we are blue, i.e., “good,” or “red” – bad, as Don Tapscott, a classic of the genre, calls it.
Too much of what is considered business ethics today is narrowed down to damage control in extreme cases, while a broader and deeper understanding of mission, culture, and values is rejected, which often turns into direct conflicts of interest between employees or even – perhaps only in extreme cases – sexual harassment. Moreover, today’s business ethics is often replaced by so-called traditional morality, which may be suitable for spinning theoretical considerations but is completely detached from the experience and way of thinking of modern entrepreneurs.
So how should such an ethics audit in an enterprise proceed? Of course, a skilled and experienced auditor will be tempted to conduct this audit based on the “old” and “proven” quantitative method in order to analyze a phenomenon that has inseparable qualitative elements and, occurring on the margins, subjective ones. Despite the complexity of this task, we should not and cannot reject it. Let us try, however, to answer the basic questions: what should an auditor assessing ethics in a company look for and whom should they listen to? What should such an audit look like?
It seems that the method should consist of carefully studying, first and foremost: the company’s internal documents, relevant studies and external reports about the company, interviews with leaders and representative employees, customers, suppliers, shareholders, as well as a review of selected, special surveys and focus group discussions.
The subject of such research should focus on the following questions: are the company’s mission and its ethical values taken into account when making decisions and to what extent, how do company leaders and managers understand the company’s ethical values, how do employees understand the company’s ethical values, what is the management doing to teach them these values, is ethical behavior rewarded and unethical behavior punished in the organization, what topics are on the list of ethical problems that the company has had to deal with over the last two years and what caused them and how were they solved, what do managers and employees consider the most difficult ethical problem they have had to deal with, what ethical reputation does the company have among its employees, and what among its customers, investors, journalists, etc.
However, the goal of an ethics audit in any enterprise must be to provide a clear and uncompromising answer to two simple questions:
- what strengths and weaknesses did the current ethics audit in the company point out,
- what steps could the company take to strengthen its ethical position within two years?
You have ISO. Can you afford it?