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BUSINESS
- You can count all your degrees and money, but at the end of the day, all a person is, is a conglomeration of the ethics they have lived by, writes Sizwe Nxasana, CEO of FirstRand Bank.
Read Story - Ubuntu and good governance gain ground in business. But, writes Claire Gordon-Brown, compliance with norms or laws is not necessarily a true indication of an organisation’s values. The real indication is how people in the organisation behave.
Read Story - A national public conversation on values was launched this week to get South Africans thinking about their behaviour? Are positive values relevant in business? Clem Sunter says yes.
Read Story
- A national conversation is under way on positive values. This conversation is critical for business, writes Cynthia Schoeman, and compassion is key for bosses.
Read Story - South Africans are being urged to reflect on their individual and collective values. But, asks business consultant Itumeleng Mahabane, do values really count in business?
Read Story - We need to be build intolerance towards violence, writes Kenny Fihla, CEO of Business Against Crime
Read Story - South Africans want to work for companies with solid values, writes Michael Jordaan, CEO of First National Bank
Read Story - Experts say an ethics crisis is sweeping South Africa’s corporate landscape. Do positive values impact on the bottom line and the workplace? Yes, writes Stuart Graham, as South Africans submerge themselves in a public national conversation about values.
Read Story
YOU CAN COUNT ALL YOUR DEGREES AND MONEY,
but at the end of the day, all a person is, is a conglomeration of the ethics they have lived by,
writes Sizwe Nxasana, CEO of FirstRand Bank.
People often say there has been a moral meltdown in South Africa, but I disagree.
So many good things are happening. People are getting involved in rebuilding our society, but their efforts often go unnoticed. A lot of people accuse the government of being corrupt, but I have come across many very honest hard working people in government. I think South Africans still have a high level of integrity and moral standards which they ascribe to.
We tend to focus on crime and corruption and forget about the good things that are happening.
At the same time, though, I think we would be in a state of denial if we said we did not have a problem with crime, especially violent crime.
But what is causing the violence?
There are various reasons.
An important one, I think comes from the collapse of the family unit in our past.
The family disintegrated through settlements and migratory labour. Children were brought up by foster parents and in many situations this caused moral values to be completely lost.
Under apartheid there was very little respect for life. Perhaps that is why the crimes committed in South Africa today are so violent.
Hijacking is as prevalent in other countries, but we find that it does not go with murder. The hijackers may threaten, but do not kill. In South Africa, you are lucky if you escape with your life.
The gravity of the crimes is what distinguishes South Africa from rest. Respect for life is not very high. We need to change that.
Some also believe that it is their right to repatriate assets because they were disadvantaged in past. People have become greedy and will stop at nothing to enrich themselves.
One of key things our Constitution has done is create a high level of transparency and rights. Because this transparency is entrenched in the Constitution, corruption, for instance, is exposed a lot more quickly than in the past.
But at the same time many people have been blinded by the rights enshrined in the Constitution. They have taken this to mean that they can exercise their rights even if they infringe on the rights of others.
We need to make people aware that with rights comes responsibility.
How do we reach people? I think the most important place to start is through the family and at home.
If we build moral fibre on the homefront, it will be easier for schools and later companies to build on the foundation already there.
Many of the values that I live by today I was taught at home. Each time I face a difficult situation, my moral compass is always my home.
If, as a society, we miss the boat in bringing up children with an understanding of morals and ethics, it becomes difficult to infuse these lessons later on.
We must go back to the family unit through different avenues. This is important for the whole country. Government institutions, churches and NGOs must be involved in creating a society with moral fibre.
The work place is another important place where a code ethics can be instilled in people. The tone has to be set at the top. People at a senior level have a greater responsibility than those at a lower level. They need to set a good example. I would apply harsher sanctions to folk at a higher level than to those at a lower level.
As leaders we have to walk the talk by demonstrating our support for very sound and robust moral values by doing the right thing.
For one thing we can create a transparent environment where the media plays a role in exposing corruption.
We need to discuss and debate the kind of society we want to see ourselves build.
We must create an environment where society as a whole will challenge those who are not standing in line with their moral standards.
Hijackers, for instance, often come from a family or have neighbours who must see them come home with money. By stimulating the debate as Heartlines is doing, the hijacker’s family and neighbours will ask: “Where did you get this R100,000?”
Heartlines, aimed at sparking national debate and promoting positive values, has the potential to have a huge impact on society. The media is a very powerful tool to change opinions, to put matters of importance on the table.
We need to send signals and messages all the time. It has to be a continuous process. Once we reach a certain level, we may reduce the level of media exposure.
I am not sure that the Scandinavian countries, who have very low levels of violent crime, ever stop talking about values. Society evolves all the time and culture evolves all the time and we need to constantly have discussion and debate.
When I was a child my mother told me that no matter how successful a person may become, when all was said and done, all they would be left with is their set of values.
You can include all your degrees and money, but at the end of the day all a person is, is a conglomeration of the ethics they have lived by.
UBUNTU AND GOOD GOVERNANCE GAIN GROUND IN BUSINESS.
But, writes Claire Gordon-Brown, compliance with norms or laws are not necessarily a true indication of an organisation’s values. The real indication is how people in the organisation behave.
Explicitly or implicitly, organisational values are at the heart of every case in the Wits Business Schools’ (WBS) more than 80-strong collection of case studies. This is not surprising. Just as individual values determine individual actions, so do organisational values determine organisational action.
Of course, the rub is that there can be a disconnect between what we say we value and the values by which we live. It’s not the values statement sitting in framed splendour next to the vision and mission statements on the head office wall that gives an organisation its values.
At the same time, codes of conduct that everyone has signed, or governance committees that comply to the letter with King 2 are not necessarily a true indication of the actual values of the organisation. The real indication is how the people in the organisation behave.
An example from our case study collection is the Leisurenet debacle. This organisation had all the required governance structures in place. Yet these did not prevent the fraud and unethical practices that took place there. In fact, they gave shareholders a false sense of security and helped to hide the dissonance between the stated values of the people involved and their lived values.
In this particular instance, the values that gave rise to the actions of the organisation’s leaders made the business unsustainable. Leisurenet collapsed and the directors are now standing trial.
Modern organisational theory holds that solid values are the foundation of a strong culture and improve the effectiveness of the organisation: that when employees do indeed try to live the stated values, the organisation stands a better chance of success.
Our cases certainly would seem to show this. We have a number of cases dealing with change initiatives that centred on aligning the behaviour of the people in the organisation with its stated values. In all of them, the impact of these interventions on the bottom-line and on employee satisfaction was hugely positive.
But this alignment took time and some very hard work. The cases seem to show that values need to be generated and agreed by everyone in the organisation. The leadership cannot simply impose them from the top. There needs to be a leadership-driven process to ensure buy-in to these values, and the organisation has to put systems and structures in place to ensure that employees live the values.
It is also clear from our cases that business does not operate in a values ivory tower. Over the years, some have tried to argue that economic relationships are not subject to the same moral standards as other social relationships. A deal has to make “business sense” and “business sense” need not necessarily be founded on socially accepted moral and ethical values. In terms of this view, the only stakeholder to whom business is accountable is the shareholder.
This amoral theory of business came to prominence during the transition from the pre-industrial to the industrial era, as society became more fragmented, individualistic and impersonal. If this view ever held true in the industrial era, our cases show that it no longer holds true in the post-industrial, global community.
The case study we wrote on the infamous Nedcor incentive scheme of the early 2000s is a good example. The shareholders had no problem with the scheme and hardly raised an objection. But broader society – and one particularly important stakeholder in the form of the press – most certainly did. Nedcor’s share price plummeted because the public perceived the scheme to be greedy and self-serving. Whether Nedcor’s directors at the time were motivated by greed and self-interest is not the point. The point is that this case shows that businesses do not operate in an ethical sanctuary. If organisational values are out of kilter with social values, the business will not be sustainable in the long term. To look out for the interests of the shareholder, businesses need also to operate according to a code of values that society finds acceptable.
This notion that organisations are community members, influenced by and accountable to the community in which they operate also comes through strongly in a series of cases that WBS completed on 10 South African leaders recently. Almost all of the leaders spoke of the importance of ubuntu in the value system of their organisation.
Ten years ago business saw ubuntu as a quaint African concept. Today it is being worked into the foundations of organisations throughout the country. It seems that South African organisations, so dominated by competitive, individualistic, white South Africans in the past, are now seeing the importance of embracing the values of a broader range of South Africans.
GOOD AND BAD SPORTS IN BUSINESS
A national public conversation on values was launched this week to get South Africans thinking about their behaviour? Are positive values relevant in business? Clem Sunter says yes.
“Bad sport!” Remember the phrase we often used at school when outraged by somebody breaking the ethical rules of the game even if he or she stayed within the ‘written rules’. We all knew an invisible line had been crossed. It could have been ungracious behaviour after a loss or gloating after a win or just bending the rules without committing a technical infraction.
These days, of course, with so much money riding in professional sport and so much pressure on individual players, there is no lack of bad sportsmanship displayed on television in games like soccer, rugby and – dare one say it – cricket. It may be a dive in the penalty area, a bit of ‘how’s your father’ in the scrum or staying put when you’ve clearly nicked the ball to the wicket-keeper. You could almost say that it’s a sign of weakness if being honourable in any way reduces your chances of winning. Such is the competition, it is foolish to be honest.
Hence, when we refer to a person as being a ‘good sport’, it sounds somehow quaint – as though one is recalling a bygone era when amateurs played the game and naked self-interest was at times overruled by generosity of spirit. Now, competitiveness on the field is everything and it applies equally in that other arena of combative human activity – business. We have become so results-orientated that it is virtually impossible for a business executive to lead a balanced life and have fun. The bottom line (that is of the profit-and-loss account) ensures that young executives check in their humanity at the office turnstiles to work 50-to-60 hour weeks as supposedly error-free automatons. Occasionally, 90 hours. Accordingly their social life is zero. ‘Good business’ is about making lots of money whereas ‘bad business’ is about losing the same. Neither term has anything to do with ethics, the contribution the company may be making to society or the happiness of the individual staff member. The bigger picture, and for that matter the small personal picture, are notably absent. Return to shareholders is the sole criterion. A mathematical objective.
So what’s the answer? Very, simply, be aware that every activity in life has a moral compass attached to it. Start being a ‘bad sport’ in business and it will catch up with you one day. Whether it is unfairly restricting your competitors, producing a product of doubtful quality, price-gouging in times of scarcity, pushing your employees too hard or just entertaining some dodgy environmental practices – the public will eventually find you out and judge you accordingly.
Being a ‘good sport’ on the other hand is what will make your business sustainable through the good and the bad times, and keep your staff committed. It does not entail codes of conduct or lengthy creeds on corporate governance. It means your actual behaviour springs from a decency of heart which in your earlier life would have won you silent accolades from your mates at school. Not prizes at the end of the term or statistics that go into the record books. Instead, affection for what you are and what you stand for. Values that are universal in time and space. Manners that makyth the man or the woman. ‘Good’ in its original meaning – the opposite of evil. Bluntly, you do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. And you make money at the same time.
A NATIONAL CONVERSATION IS UNDER WAY ON POSITIVE VALUES.
This conversation is critical for business, writes Cynthia Schoeman, and compassion is key for bosses.
Who was the best boss you ever had? Why was that person your best boss?
I have posed these questions over many years to many groups – from students to senior executives – but have only asked them to share the “why” part. Of the many reasons shared, the answers all tend to fall into two categories: compassion and development. The best boss was understanding, caring and supportive in a particular time of need. Or the best boss was committed to helping you grow and develop.
These roles – expressed as compassion or care and development or growth – represent two really crucial aspects of business, whether viewed from the perspective of the leader or employee, or from a motivational or productivity point of view. For leaders, it is as close as you can get to the “magic formula” - the approach which is most likely to get the best out of your followers (a critical goal in today’s knowledge economy). Why? Because it benefits all parties: the company, the leader and the employee.
However, compassion is generally not a word which is closely associated with business. Even if we take a more generous view of business and recognise the organisations that have moved beyond a pure profit motive, compassion is rarely one of the stated corporate values. Honesty, fairness, respect and responsibility are common ones, but not often compassion.
This does not mean that there is no compassion in business. But what the “best boss” exercise also reveals is that most people can only provide one example of such a great boss. So it is not as widespread as would be desirable. Yet given that the results are good – and often remembered many, many years afterwards – why would it not be more prevalent? Why wouldn’t this be the leadership approach of choice?
The answer perhaps lies on the twofold nature of compassion. Being compassionate entails the sympathetic awareness of someone’s distress and the desire to alleviate it. Therefore, just feeling sorry for someone or just caring is not enough. It also includes trying to help, actually doing something.
This raises some apparent conflicts in business.
The event or circumstance which warrants compassion is often not work related: coping with a sick child or a partner with AIDS or going through a divorce. If you subscribe to the “work is work and home is home” view, these issues will fall outside your range (although the impact will still affect your employee at work!). But, if you recognise that the impact of work and home co-exists in your employees, helping them – as a supportive leader or by providing access to suitable counselling - becomes mutually beneficial.
Another apparent obstacle is the pursuit of productivity and results. Surely accommodating everyone’s personal problems would inevitably impact negatively on achieving results - which are, after all, not simply optional extras, but essential for business? Compassion does not imply that someone’s responsibilities and deadlines disappear – or even that it negates necessary discipline. Rather, it should be a two way exercise which addresses both parties’ needs.
Is being compassionate a “soft” approach which allows your employees to take advantage of you? Or is it an “investment” approach stemming from the recognition that your employees represent your intellectual investors?
Being a compassionate company requires that compassion, like other values, should be understood, visible and lived, and that behaviours, systems and policies relative to compassion are consistent and congruent. Employees should understand what it entails and what it doesn’t, and what compassion means in terms of their behaviour and their work.
Whether compassion is actually lived, and to what extent, will reflect whether you are consistent and congruent. It will also reflect your organisation’s ethical status as regards your ethical boundaries. In other words, who does the value apply to and who not? To all your staff or just the gold-collar workers? If compassion is selectively applied, it is likely to be called into question. Espousing a value you don’t live won’t simply lose you the credit. It will move you into negative territory and may call all your values into question.
And what about external stakeholders: shareholders, labour groups, suppliers, your local community, etc.? Does compassion apply to them in the same way that values like honesty and fairness of course should? You could argue that compassion is likely to be limited to those with whom you work. Do your suppliers expect you to show them compassion? What would warrant that?
Although examples of being compassionate to most external stakeholders may not readily spring to mind, the one for whom it does is your local community. In this instance, you need to take into account business’s role in society. The significant power and influence which business wields today brings with it the power to shape society: to not only make money, but also to make a difference.
This highlights the critical choices our business leaders face: Will they and their businesses be a positive role model for compassion and mutual growth and development for all stakeholders? Or will they be selective? Will they succumb to compassion fatigue – a growing reluctance to help a group of people in need as prolonged exposure to their plight breeds indifference? This could affect long term problems such as AIDS, or problems to which we are exposed over a long period of time such as unemployment and poverty. Or will they fake it for self gain and growth? One path leads to sustainability and shared rewards. The others don’t – although all stakeholders get to share the costs of poor choice!
Cynthia Schoeman is an independent Consultant and part time lecturer at Wits Business School where she teaches on a number of academic and Executive programmes. She previously ran the Senior Executive Leadership Forum (SELF) for the Business School. She has researched the role of values and ethics in business extensively and is frequently asked to speak and consult on the subject.
SOUTH AFRICANS ARE BEING URGED TO REFLECT ON THEIR INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE VALUES.
But, asks business consultant Itumeleng Mahabane, do values really count in business?
There are many people – and they are not all hardened and pressured chief executives - who wonder why we bother business about those values which lie beyond shareholder returns and profit maximisation.
They do not understand why we believe that, on the whole, the business of business should focus on building prosperous and, presumably, happy societies. After all, what could possibly be more in the public interest? And this in truth is what values and ethics are about.
To these people, insisting on good values in business is akin to being obsessed with police brutality, when society is under siege and policemen’s lives are at risk while daily as they fight the good fight against the bad men. In short, these people have done their calculations and decided that there is common good which outweighs whatever little niggling concerns we may have.
What these people miss is that the insistence of values in these instances is, as with all other reasons for values, about setting for ourselves high standards. And we set for ourselves high standards rather than shortcuts in the pursuit of excellence. In other words, values are about sustainability. To quote Harvard professor Lynne Paine: “People sometimes forget that business ethics at its core is about excellence and high attainment rather than misdeeds and malfeasance.”
The increasing recognition and importance of reputation management has created an opening for more visionary business leaders to acknowledge the financial value of ethics. In recent years I have seen more attention being paid to good ethics. More managers are waking up to the ways in which positive values contribute to a company's effective day-to-day functioning, as well as its reputation and long-term sustainability.
Of course there is more to core values in business than ethics, though increasingly, because of corporate fraud and profiteering that so strongly dominate these days, it is increasingly assumed that these are the only manifestations of bad business ethics or values.
Values can simply be about the minimum acceptable standards or behaviour expected of the way employees, employers and consequently the company, conducts itself.
Most organisations would argue that they have a set of core values that define how they do business. Yet ask their employees what those values are they would be hard pressed to tell you. At best, this implies that these companies may on occasion act out their values, but in the main do not. Therefore, the company’s application of its values is rare. In short, the company is inconsistent – which might be why management consultants are doing better than they ever have.
Values should matter because they are to business about standards and quality. They are about acceptable ways of achieving sustainable excellence. If they do not matter to businesses and managers, they should.
A study by American-based consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide found that companies with lived out core values - a measure based on employee assessments of senior management’s consistency, communications and other trust-determining behaviours - generate financial returns
What is instructive, but not surprising, about the study, is that values and the consistent application thereof in a company is determined by managers and business leaders, and the extent to which they set an example through their own actions. Given that most employees rarely see their top management in daily action, perception management and communication are critical factors in driving values. This also explains why an increasing number of people consider staff to be the core constituency in any reputation management strategy. This brings me to another reason values matter.
If indeed values are about consistency and quality, then invariably and inevitably they are about reputation. As more people accept that reputation is at the heart of a company’s value and success, so too are they making the link between values and reputation. There is an increasing acceptance internationally of the link between corporate and brand reputation, financial valuation and performance.
If one accepts that consistency is important not simply as a value, but as a value-adding business principle, and that leaders must lead by example, then it becomes clear that there is one core value that is applicable to all business. Honesty. It seems a no-brainer, but while leaders expect this as a minimum from their staff, they often do not apply it to themselves. Managers, for example, are often less than honest about issues such as retrenchments. True, sometimes this is not intended malice, just a time-buying tactic. Still, it breaks trust and compromises the values of a company and its people.
So while values matter – in business as in all spheres of life – it is whether they are lived that matters most.
**Itumeleng Mahabane is a business consultant
SOLID VALUES KEY TO CURBING CRIME
"We need to be build intolerance towards violence",
writes Kenny Fihla, CEO of Business Against Crime
Perseverance is one of the values dealt with by the Heartlines programme. It is a value that is key in everything we do in life, but is especially key in turning the tide against crime.
We come from an extremely high base of crime, but over the past few years there has been a steady decline in various crime categories. The reduction might not be significant enough for people to take notice, but if we persevere, we will continue with the downward trend.
We are dealing with criminals who are entrepreneurs and who constantly change their modus operandi. This requires that we persist with the measures that are implemented.
South Africa also needs to persist in rebuilding a positive value system, as this is key in the fight against violence and crime.
The high prevalence of indiscriminate violence can only be explained by the collapse of values in society. Rebuilding and instilling these values can not be done in a year or two. It requires persistence and constant engagement, especially with our children.
If we have enough initiatives like Heartlines, which has people thinking and talking about values, then people will modify and change their behaviour. People will become increasingly intolerant towards violence and crime.
There is no single route through which we can reach all potential criminals. We have to try various approaches.
But not everyone is born is born a criminal. I believe in the inherent good of human beings. People need to be given a second chance. Only in exceptional circumstances should they not be given that chance.
If one looks at the process of how someone becomes a hardened criminal, it starts with petty things, such as a cell phone theft or bag snatching. But then it evolves, turns into murder and serious hijackings. As the person gains confidence he or she – and mainly he in South Africa - becomes a hardened criminal.
We should be trying to break that process and integrating those people into society. Society tends to be very emotional and quite angry. Once justice is done we should be prepared to forgive and give second chances, otherwise we would be writing off hundreds of thousands of South Africans.
Many communities have schools that are doing exceptionally well, even though they are in underdeveloped townships. This is because of passionate principals who have thrown everything they have into their jobs and their schools. There are amazing stories throughout the country. We need to look at the positive spirit that South Africans have, despite having to overcome the odds against them. The overwhelming majority of South Africans share the view that there is goodness in all human beings.
The majority of prisoners are young African males under the age of 35. If we want to turn the tide against crime, and violent crime especially, we have to target this segment of the population.
A good place to get access to this group is in schools. Business Against Crime has Tiisa Thuto (the Strength in Education Programme), which is aimed at fighting crime by developing a positive value system in schools. This is why we are supportive of the Heartlines initiative to spark a national public conversation about values.
The project targets parents, teachers, pupils and members of school governing bodies. More than 100,000 school children have been reached by the project in Gauteng alone.
We need programmes like this to encourage positive value systems. We need to constantly engage with communities - through social clubs, sports clubs and churches.
If we use these conduits then we will reach the majority of young people. We have to create an environment that is intolerant of violence.
It is important for people to try and stay positive. It is easy to get overwhelmed by negative sentiment, but you have to keep the bigger picture in mind. There are a lot of positive things happening out there that do not find their way to the news rooms. There is more to South Africa than crime.
For one, our economy is growing at a rapid rate. We are beginning to create more jobs than people entering the job market.
Our services and infrastructure are developing rapidly. Our democracy is solid and stable. The media is free. There is transparency and an independent judiciary that has made important decisions against the government and Parliament.
If you take a holistic view, then this country is improving and can only get better. That gives me great hope.
SOUTH AFRICANS WANT TO WORK FOR COMPANIES WITH SOLID VALUES,
writes Michael Jordaan, CEO of First National Bank
South African corporations are doing a lot of good work, much of it unheralded, but at the same time I believe our companies do not do enough to instill a code of ethics in their workers.
I realised how much our staff want to work for a company with “heart” when we launched our own values and internal values campaign at a recent leadership workshop and they responded overwhelmingly positively.
Various world rankings show how well our companies do when it comes to corporate social investment, but our firms still need to communicate their commitment to ethics and creating a better South Africa.
It is important for firms to live by what they say. You can have a code of ethics and a mission statement, but the company’s leaders have to set an example. In fact, it is vital that we in the corporate world do all we can to pass on a code of ethics to society.
South Africa has a very high level of violent crime. I believe the reason for this is a lack of basic human values amongst some in society.
If people are hungry and they steal, we could argue about whether this is morally wrong or not. But do they steal because they are hungry – or greedy? And why kill when it is not necessary? It goes back to basic human values.
In India, you will find more poverty and wealth than in South Africa. Yet despite these relative deprivations, there is crime, but very little violence. This has something to do with the value system in India. There is respect for life.
Crime is an incredibly sensitive issue for all South Africans. There is a general sense that we should do more about apprehension and punishment, but even if we have the toughest police and the finest criminal justice system in place, the solution has to start with values.
The majority of South Africans are inherently good. Most are opposed to crime. Do we care for our children? Yes. Are we friendly? Yes. What then has gone wrong? Our value system seems to have been eroded by a desire for material possessions.
This is where I believe HEARTLINES could have an enormous impact. If more people start talking about values such as honesty, forgiveness, compassion and self control this will have a ripple effect on the rest of society. Everyone can play a role.
One of the projects that FNB sponsors is the Homecoming Revolution. I am often asked what we should tell people who have lost family members to crime, or who have been raped. How do we convince victims of violent crime that it’s in their interests to stay or come back to South Africa?
There are factual and emotional issues regarding this question. Crime is generally coming down, despite the latest uptick. Police statistics reveal this, as do figures from our sister company, Outsurance has first-hand crime statistics by virtue of the claims they settle. A while ago my mother was attacked. She nearly died. If we had not got her to a hospital by plane we may have lost her. But you can’t judge an entire country because of the actions of individuals. She is still here. Crime knocks you. But you have to take the good with the bad.
The Homecoming Revolution is not asking people to come back to South Africa because it is perfect. It is asking them to come back and make it better. I think people want to come back. They like the lifestyle here and most people want to contribute.
Another initiative that FNB sponsors is the Good News Campaign. Three years ago people were despondent about the situation in the country, but we felt that many good things were happening. People talked only about crime, but there had been a number of achievements of which we could be proud.
We sponsored a book with a multiple choice quiz about all the positive things in South Africa. The book was handed to thousands of people and, I think, it made an impact on the way they felt.
Another project First National Bank ran was the National Anthem Campaign. We found that all our children knew the anthem from school, but that, largely, the adults didn’t. We distributed more than a million pamphlets and held a competition. Children could win prizes if their parents could sing the anthem. They learned the words quickly!
We see it as important for people to have a sense of national pride and patriotism. It encourages a stronger set of values. Unlike arrogance, pride can be a wonderful thing.
Projects like Heartlines, the Homecoming Revolution and the National Anthem Campaign do not make FNB more profits. But we believe they have the potential to make South Africa a better place which indirectly benefits all businesses and individuals.
Heartlines is an initiative that gets people thinking about who we are as individuals. I believe it has the power to change the nation. In the end it is all about values – not just the country’s but our own.
EXPERTS SAY AN ETHICS CRISIS IS SWEEPING SOUTH AFRICA'S CORPORATE LANDSCAPE.
Do positive values impact on the bottom line and the workplace? Yes, writes Stuart Graham, as South Africans submerge themselves in a public national conversation about values.
“Greed is good, greed works.” This famous line from the movie “Wall Street” was uttered by the crooked businessman Gordon Gheko, played by Michael Douglas, but one doesn’t need to stretch the imagination too far to hear the words coming from Brett Kebble or Schabir Shaik.
Mining magnate Kebble, who was assassinated in Johannesburg last year, is accused of plundering hundreds of millions of rands of shareholders’ money from the companies he worked for. Durban businessman Shaik was found guilty by the High Court for having a corrupt relationship with the former deputy president.
The problem of fraud is not unique to South Africa, of course. One only needs to hear the names Enron, Arthur Anderson, Xerox or Parmalat and images of crooked men dressed in dark suits come blaring to mind.
Kebble and Shaik are just two of the better known cases in South Africa, where experts say white collar crime and dishonesty in the workplace is rampant.
Just recently the National Bargaining Council (NBC) released a report which found that companies doing business in South Africa were twice as likely to be defrauded as their counterparts in the rest of the world.
A survey in 2005 showed that 83 percent of South African companies reported fraud. Globally only 45 percent of companies were targeted by white-collar crime.
The report estimates that the South African economy loses about R40 billion to white-collar crime every year. The problem, the report says, is one of the most serious threats to the stability of the economy.
Auditing firm KPMG found in its latest fraud survey that 81% of its respondents indicated that their companies had been a victim of fraud. Another 64 percent thought that fraud was a major problem in South Africa and 68 percent believed that it would increase in the future.
The respondents of the KPMG survey say one major cause of fraud is a weakening in society’s values.
Willem Punt, a business specialist at Ethics South Africa agrees that the country is experiencing a values crisis.
“The lack of values is so deeply entrenched in business and the private sector that it is becoming difficult to conduct business without resorting to unethical conduct,” he says. “We are facing a serious crisis.” Punt says an important reason for South Africa’s ethical breakdown is the culture of civil disobedience developed under the apartheid government.
“This culture has in certain cases escalated beyond control to a culture of entitlement. “People fell that they are entitled and that their rights are divorced from their responsibilities,” he says.
Punt says that today there is a culture of extreme materialism. “People are respected for how much they can consume rather than for traditional values like honesty.” The key to the solution, he says, lies in the workplace because that it where most adults spend the majority of their time “The organisation has the responsibility of setting ethical standards for its workers and then explaining what those standards mean,” Punt says. “Once that is done we can start looking at schools and at cases where there are community and religious activities.”
Punt says ethics needs consistent application. “At the moment we have disjointed initiatives and there is a lack of resources,” he says.
Another problem is that unethical people are often the ones that are promoted through an organisation.
“Often the ethical ones are left behind and they become demotivated,” he says.
At a theft and corruption summit in Johannesburg recently, Richard Horner of the Governance Institute said companies needed to have a set of values to create an ethical business environment.
“Despite efforts by organisations and legislators to secure company and state assets, white-collar crime is unfortunately one of the most serious threats to the stability of the economy,” Horner said.
It’s not all bad for South Africa. Just a few years ago the King II Report was published in South Africa, setting a code of corporate conduct for companies. It was the first report of its kind to be released in South Africa.
Today the Johannesburg stock exchange requires a company to be King II compliant before it is allowed to list.
Not too long ago the Institute of International Finance, a global association of financial firms with over 330 member institutions, rated South Africa among the best performers in corporate governance in emerging markets.
Nigel Payne, a member of the King II board wrote in an article for Accountancy SA that one of the difficulties the King committee faced was providing sufficient empirical evidence that good corporate governance paid.
“In recent years, research has been developed which increasingly supports this proposition,” he wrote. “In its Investor Opinion Survey published in June 2000, Mckinsey & Co, working with Institutional Investors Inc, found that the value of good governance could be quantified and was significant.”
Payne said compliance with all of the King II guidelines should improve company performance and significantly reduce the risk of business failure for reasons other than commercial viability.
South Africa which has produced ethical business giants such as Rembrandt founder Anton Rupert, Harry Oppenheimer, who built up Anglo American and Eric Molobi, who founded the Kagiso Trust, should be leading the way for African business. Unfortunately, Gordon Gheko’s philosophy on greed seems to be the one people are relating to best at the moment. – Heartlines Features