Culture is the glue putting values into action

With government taking anti-corruption more seriously now, I think that we have to be aware that in corruption it needs three to tango: the government official who takes and the private sector person who is ready to give, and the lawyer who is willing to protect both against a significant fee. While we always complain about the ‘corrupt government agencies and their practices’, it is time now to get the house of the private sector in order also and address the legal system.

- Henry J. Schumacher

When we in business talk about competitive advantages, building and maintaining an ethical culture must be part of the agenda. The private sector has to build an ethical culture in practice.

What is the difference between ethics and building a culture of trust?

Ethics are a set of principles. An ethical culture is a culture committed to pursuing those principles — and sometimes the pursuit of those principles leads employees to take actions somebody else might dislike. Perhaps the employee reports suspicions of misconduct.

Either way, the employee in government, in the private sector or in the legal system needs to trust that his organization will support that decision to step forward. The apparatus of a corporate compliance program—the training, the internal reporting systems, the Code of Conduct, the due diligence procedures; all of it—should work toward the goal of a strong sense of trust within the organization.

When you view “building an ethical culture” from that perspective, suddenly several tasks rise to the top of the priority list.