Building a Brand as an Ethical Organization

Linda Gravett, Ph.D., SPHR, September 1, 2003

• The essence of who you are
• Features and attributes
• Benefits
• Performance
• Set of values

Building a brand, using this set of characteristics, must be an intentional and thoughtful process.  I’d like to share some ideas on steps you can take so that there’s no gap in the company’s published values and the behaviors of each individual within your organization.

Drive Out Fear

Employees cannot fear retaliation in the event they question a coworker or manager’s actions.  If employees believe that they’ll be punished for bringing forward a questionable practice, they’ll either keep quiet and the unethical practice will continue or they’ll vote with their feet and you’ll lose an employee.

Some organizations have an ombudsman role to provide employees with a vehicle for discussing their own ethical dilemmas or the actions of others within the organization.  The ombudsman counsels the employee on appropriate courses of action and guides people through the process of reporting unethical behavior, if necessary.  Other organizations have a “hotline” so that employees can anonymously call and report questionable behavior.  This can allow for candid reporting of breaches of ethics; it can also set the stage for “tattletales” and mistrust.

I believe that employees should be involved in establishing core values, as well as developing and amending the Code of Ethics.  Employees at all levels should receive training to help them connect the written core values with dilemmas they face in their everyday work lives.  Share the Code of Ethics during the recruitment process.  Review it again during Orientation.  Reinforce expectations on a regular basis.

Establish Process Checkpoints and Measures

Yes, I’m starting down the return on investment path when I say “measures.”  I’m suggesting measures such as retention of quality staff at all levels, reduction in employee and management time spent in conflict and unhealthy disagreement, and increased productivity in work groups that are clear on expectations.  Your organization must establish its own measures by asking, “what does success look like?”

At the beginning of your ethics initiative, I encourage you to consider what an ethical organization looks like.  What kinds of behaviors constitute an ethical organization?  How will you know when you’ve achieved success?  In the research I conducted for my book, HRM Ethics: Perspectives for a New Millennium, I found these attributes most often mentioned as characteristics of an ethical organization:

• Suggestions are accepted from employees at all levels.  The managers don’t have to possess all the answers all the time.
• Information is shared.  If people don’t have information at frequent intervals about key events, the rumor mill gets started.  People will fill in the blanks, usually with inaccurate information.
• There is a healthy debate prior to making key decisions.  The discussion centers around stakeholders of the organization and what’s best for all stakeholders.  The debate is customer centered, as opposed to “me centered”.
• Recognition and appreciation are freely given.  People are given credit when they offer creative ideas and solutions.
• People admit errors in decision making.  We all make mistakes and need to learn from them as opposed to denying they ever occurred in the first place.  (Think about Presidents Nixon and Clinton!)

Just because your organization has core values posted prominently around the company, you can’t assume that every employee understands how those values apply to them.  New situations arise as time passes after training, so I suggest revisiting the topic of ethics periodically during the course of the year through staff meetings, brown-bag lunch discussions, and newsletter articles.

Align Values Across the Organization

Perhaps your company’s leadership has established core values such as embracing diversity, honesty, and integrity.  The leadership team may be clear among themselves what each core values “looks like” in action.  Their understanding needs to be shared and communicated across the organization.  Core values are just “wallpaper” when printed and hung on the wall of the lobby or conference room.  No gaps can exist in how people think, who they are, and what they do.

I joined an organization several years ago in part because a published core value was “embracing diversity.”  In a management meeting early in my tenure at this company, my peers started telling jokes after the official meeting ended.  The kidding around evolved into telling ageist jokes, one more cruel than the next.  Even though I was only 27 at the time, I thought, “I wouldn’t want to work here when I’m 40!”  And I didn’t.  People there didn’t live up to the core values.

In order to build a brand as an organization that has integrity and ethics, there are five action steps I’d like to suggest:

1. Determine the key elements of your culture you can employ to build your brand.  Perhaps you’ll select the way your organization recruits, promotes, and develops employees as an element.  Explore processes and systems currently in place.  Let’s say that one of your core values is embracing diversity.  How do you go about recruiting applicants?  Do you write separate ads to appeal to different age groups?  Do you advertise in sections of the paper read by Generations X and Y if you’re trying to recruit people from those generations? Do you consider applicants over 50 as viable candidates?  Do you turn to current Hispanic employees to help you recruit their friends and family?  If the answer is “no” to these questions, then you have some work to do to expand your recruiting horizons.
2. Determine the ideal state.  What does success look like?  What measures are critical to show that your organization has arrived at that ideal state (being branded as an ethical organization)?
3. Determine how your employees perceive organizational culture.  At this point it’s a good idea to assess whether current employees perceive the organization to have the attributes that represent the ideal state discussed above.  Several tools and options are available to determine this.  Culture audits, focus groups, or individual interviews are just a few options.
4. Determine the gap.  Most likely, there will be a gap between the ideal state and employee perceptions. Perhaps employees indicate that older workers are hired into the company but not promoted, for example.  Or, younger employees believe that no one listens to their opinions because of their relative inexperience.
   Or, people in one or two departments hoard information and don’t keep other departments informed of changes that apply to them.  Once you know where the gap is, specific and targeted steps can be taken to facilitate change.
5. Take intentional steps to close the gap.  The real work is here.  Intentional efforts must be made to leverage all employees’ skills, knowledge, and abilities to build a high trust organization.  The steps required depend on the findings in step 4 above.

Building a brand as an ethical organization will be worth the effort.  This is the type of company people yearn to work for!
 

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments about this article.  Click here for contact form.
 

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