Artur Victoria asked:


This article or myself can advise you to think about the under described principles that will help to organize your company. I am available to help with it.

Prior to commencing an implementation strategy, it is strongly advisable, if not necessary, to carry out some forms of analysis of the organization to gain an appreciation of the nature of the organization, its ethical climate, organizational culture, the effectiveness of its governance, the quality of its leadership etc.

Of course, in practice, this may not always be feasible or acceptable, but it should be an aim nonetheless. Such analyses might include some of the following:

• An assessment of ethical climate possibly utilizing a credible, tested and available tool, such as Victor & Cullen’s Ethical Climate Survey (ECQ).

• A survey of employee staff attitudes about general management issues (not ethics per se) to gauge the organizational climate (as distinct from the ethical climate).

• An internal stakeholder analysis through significant consultation with a range of people in the organization, preferably taking a horizontal slice so as to tap all areas and all levels, to determine the degree of resistance or support for an integrity implementation strategy and

the various potential elements of it.

• A values analysis, to determine by what fundamental values the organization currently operates, the sources of these values, what matters of principle are sacrosanct and the degree to which these values are entrenched and have been adopted and adhered to.

• A corporate governance assessment, examining the degree to which the organization has embraced good governance practices and the degree to which integrity and ethics are seen as integral element of governance or external to it.

• A fraud and corruption risk assessment, to determine the level of risk inherent in the organization.

• An external stakeholder analysis to determine the level of satisfaction (or otherwise) of all external stakeholders, with the integrity of the organization, client/customer attitudes towards the organisations etc…

It is stressed that these steps are the ideal, but may not be practicable, acceptable or appropriate in every setting. To do all would be a mammoth task, so this is a wish list, but some are crucial. However, the degree to which one can go into an implementation phase well-prepared and armed with these types of parcels of knowledge, can be a determinant of the likelihood of getting the implementation strategy right, accepted and thereby achieving positive outcomes.

Characterising the “Ethical Organisation”

Three overlapping elements:

• Matters of Principle: the degree to which these have been adopted and adhered to;

• Stakeholder Analysis: the level of satisfaction of all stakeholders, with the ethics of theorganisation; and

• Corporate Governance: the degree to which the organisation has embraced good

governance practices.

The Influence of Ethical Climate

• Clearly the climate of an organisation can directly influence individual responses to ethical dilemmas.

• One very useful example of work in this area is by Victor and Cullen, through their use of their Ethical Climate Questionnaire (“ECQ”).

• Their considerable body of research since the mid 1980s, plus ongoing replication work by other leading researchers, has validated this research instrument and proven the impacts of ethical work climate on individual approaches to ethical dilemmas.

Main Elements of Vietor & Cullen’s Approach

• Ethical work climates are multidimensional and multi-determined

• Developed a scale with responses to 26 items, where 0 = Completely False through to 6 = Completely True

• Initially observed five climate types:

“Law & Code”, “Caring”, “Rules”, “Independence” and “Instrumental”

• More recently moved to six climate types:

“Professionalism”, “Caring”, “Rules”,”Instrumental”, “Efficiency” and “Independence”.

• “Caring” climates are perceived as having a strong positive link with ethical behaviour for example with “Instrumental” climates

• Organisational ethical climate appears to be a key defining factor in influencing individual ethical decision-making and behaviour.

V&C’s Initial listing of Ethical Climates (variously revised since then, by them and others):

• Caring: An expectation of a concern for people, combined with a concern for efficiency;

• Law and Code: An expectation that people will follow legal and professional standards;

• Rules: An expectation that people will follow organisational rules and procedures;

• Instrumental: An expectation that whatever needs to be done to further organisation’s interests, should be done; and

• Independence: An expectation that decisions will be guided by people’s own individual values and principles.

Key Elements:

• “Public” statements of values & expectations of organization

• Information sessions outlining values, standards, principles and guidelines

• Open Forums on Ethics

• Training in ethical decision-making processes

• Specific Training for Specialists (eg: auditors, purchasers, HRMs nurses, police etc.)

• Integral to all Management Training

• Include in all Employee Orientation

Awareness Raising

For any organization or profession that wishes to raise awareness of, and promote, ethical behavior, the following are possible areas of need:

• Initial “Launch” preferably by the CEO, or head of Professional Institute etc. firmly and widely announcing the new strategy, code, practices, expectations.

• Information packages & briefings for senior staff or members of the profession, highlighting their specific responsibilities for setting examples, awareness raising, ensuring compliance etc.

• An abridged version (brochure 7) of the strategy / code, covering key principles distributed to all interested parties, explaining points of access for enquiries or complaints about unethical behavior.

• Articles, interviews, items in newspapers/journals, eg: dailies, periodicals, local & community newspapers, ethnic press, professional journals etc. (as appropriate).

• Accepting/offering lectures and talks on the Strategy/Code at venues, conferences, seminars etc.

• Inputs into the formal education system, eg: conferring with teachers/academics to influence course content, making presentations to students etc; and.

• Collaborative projects (research, surveys etc) with other organisations carrying out ethics research: Industry Associations, Trade Unions, Universities, Public Sector, Professional bodies etc.

Ethics Education & Training: Common Deficiencies

• No values analysis done of the organization on which to base learning

• No established standards within the organization (nothing to teach!)

• No person or body charged with the responsibility for the integrity and ethics agenda

• Few, if any, other training programs include an ethics component (eg: Management Development)

• Few, if any, specially designed programs dealing with ethics for specific groups, professionals with special needs/interests (eg: auditors, purchasing and contracts staff, HR staff etc.), especially “at risk” groups.

Ethics Education & Training: Basic Principles

• If possible, should be mandatory for all members of the organization or entity and sometimes others peripheral to the organization (suppliers, consultants)



Caffeinated Content – Members-Only Content for WordPress