HR & Organisational Ethics and Culture

Organizational culture, ethics, business values and employee relations are some of the key factors being considered by employers as well as employees in evaluating organizations performance today. Unlike the past when only the financial performance inputs where indicators of the organizations health, the intangibles of an organization play a more important role today than it ever did before.

What role can HR play in fostering a culture based of ethical practices and compliance?

Kathy Gurchiek tries to explain the role which HR can play.

That alliance requires that each participant understand everyone’s roles and needs in the organization. In addition, it involves leveraging HR resources such as training, job offer letters and information from exit interviews, said Joan Dubinsky, ethics officer at the International Monetary Fund.

Hiring is the most important element HR brings to an organization that is striving to create and maintain an ethical culture, O’Byrne said.The offer letter, for example, should emphasize to job candidates the importance of keeping a clean record once they are on board.

“HR sends the message about culture” at the organization and helps enforce special job requirements, he said.

Training also sends a message, and it “starts with the board of directors [and goes] all the way through the organization,” O’Byrne told HR News in a follow-up interview.

“Every employee has a role to play in the company’s ethical reputation,” he noted, and that integrity comes into play whether filling out an expense form, ensuring the privacy of a customer’s records or entering a number in the organization’s financial accounts, he explained.

A survey of nearly 2,000 legal, ethics and HR professionals released May 18 found that among employers conducting ethics and compliance training, 26 percent hold informal training sessions, such as discussing and distributing a code of conduct briefly during a staff meeting.