When ethical lapses occur, they usually happen in dark and poorly policed corners of a company. Given that bribery and corruption risks continue to confound many organizations, the focus, however, remains on employees and their responsibility to make the right decisions. For many top-performing companies, building and sustaining a winning culture does not happen overnight, but it is seen as a process—one that must be consistently reinforced by leadership.
At General Electric (GE), the common perception is that employees count on each other to do the right thing as opposed to taking an easy way out of an ethical dilemma. “When you talk about doing business the right way, it is not that complicated, you don’t need a 125-page Code of Conduct, and it’s not only about the rules, but do people understand and believe in them?” said Alex Dimitrief, General Counsel and Senior Vice President, General Electric, during his opening keynote at Ethisphere’s recent Global Ethics Summit. “In my opinion, 10 minutes from a company’s CEO, 10 minutes from the CFO and 10 minutes from the General Counsel at a staff meeting or town hall discussing why integrity is important to a company is worth thousands of hours of training.”
Long-term Commitment to Integrity
For many leading companies, doing business in emerging markets does present a myriad of challenges. In some countries, where corruption is rampant, companies are tasked with doing business in the right way to build credibility and increase profits. In cases as such, Dimitrief stressed that keeping the focus on integrity as companies enter into emerging markets, is one of the many factors that can make a business sustainable over the long term.
“Being one of the companies that government officials know that they can trust to do business in the right way and won’t betray their trust, and the trust of their people is a huge advantage for us,” added Dimitrief. “In the business we are in, we are thinking about our shareholders and being in business for the next 100 years.”
Another important issue that Dimitrief highlighted is fostering a speak-up culture. At a company as large as GE, with thousands of employees scattered around the globe, the question becomes: How does GE create a culture where employees feel safe to raise their hand? Dimitrief said that fewer, but enhanced training sessions are more effective, while shorter and concise principle-based policies can help drive greater transparency across the organization.
In effect, workflow and processes can directly impact a company’s ethical climate as well. Adding on more processes to an already complex structure can have an adverse effect on business operations. “It is a mistake to treat an ethical failure as a failure in process,” added Dimitrief. “When someone strays from the principles of integrity it would be unfortunate if the reaction—as it sometimes is—would be if we can only add one more approval requirement.”
Communication, More Transparency and Interaction
When it comes to best practices, Dimitrief said that company leaders should continue to focus on building their programs by working together, interacting and collaborating with their peers in the industry.
“As I said at the recent Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) meeting, the best insurance policy that you have is a commitment from the top to the bottom of your company to integrity,” said Dimitrief. “Roundtables like BELA where we had 15 leading companies that are committed to integrity just get together as the General Counsel and the Chief Compliance Officer and share best practices is an area where we can learn from each other…and we all can benefit from a system of integrity.”
The Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) is a community of companies who realize the inherent value of ethical leadership and its effects on company performance. For more information about BELA, click here and check out our recent BELA roundtable coverage.
