02 Mar 2009 |
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BOOK REVIEW LEAP Africa: Organisations and the Ethical Imperative By Reuben Abati ______________________________ LEAP Africa, Building A Culture of Ethics: A Practical Guide for Leaders in the African Public, Private and Non-Profit Sectors. Lagos: LEAP Africa Ltd/Gte,, 2009, 140 pp. Building a Culture of Ethics is the latest publication by LEAP Africa, a Lagos-based NGO focussing on the issues of leadership creation, mentoring and empowerment. It follows two earlier publications by the same organisation namely Defying the Odds: Case Studies of Nigerian Organisations That Have Survived Generations (2006), and Get on Board: A Practical Guide to Building High Impact Boards of Directors in Nigeria (2007),all of which fall under a continuing commitment to ensure and promote leadership, effectiveness, accountability and professionalism in both the private and public sectors, and in society generally. Building a Culture of Ethics deals with a special problematic in businesses and organisations: the presupposition that money is all that matters and that the end can always justify the means without due regard to the why and how of business and its moral dimension. In this publication, LEAP Africa and its team of researchers and analysts argue that there is something more important in business and the life of organisations than profit for its own sake and these are: ethical culture, developing an ethical environment and allowing high values to provide the oxygen for organisations and its relationship with its various publics. The ethical imperative is often understated in the face of competition and greater uncertainties in the environment but this book argues forcefully that the cost of discounting the moral dimension is high and debilitating. The book lives up to its billing as “a practical guide”; it is also a useful commentary on the responsibility of leadership in organisations, on corporate governance, and corporate social responsibility in addition to being an advocacy material on leadership issues.. That the theme of the book is current and relevant is not in doubt. It is now an accepted proposition in African states that the biggest threat to development in the continent is the widespread culture of corruption. Nations and multi-lateral organisations within the continent have therefore, in the last decade been preoccupied with the establishment of national integrity systems, targeted at checking corruption and its negative impact. Multilateral institutions have been most active in providing opportunities for knowledge sharing and the deepening of the capacity of institutions and legislation in these respects. The role of organisations, both private and public, as centres and vehicles for the facilitation of corrupt practices is a prominent aspect of this discourse, the reality is that anti-corruption institutions, exercising oversight functions have implicated many of such organisations involved in dubious deals and violations of best practices. The ultimate point is that the ethical challenge is not limited to politics, it covers bsuiness as well and for African countries to connect with global markets, they must aspire to raise the standard and integrity of financial and business practices in their jurisdictions. In dealing with this subject, the authors of Building A Culture of Ethics manage to demonstrate that the ethical challenge is in fact international. For there is the mischief of assuming that ethical misconduct is racially determined and that African organisations are more predisposed to be corrupt and indisciplined because it is in their nature to be so. The reference to Africa in the title of the book is not an endorsement of this myth in any way, the analysis reveals a much broader relevance and concern. In all respects, the book is a clearly phrased reminder of the risk that businesses and organsiations run when they seek to “cut corners” and compromise standards. Unethical conduct it is argued, is ultimately counter-productive, ethical conduct may bring initial pain, but on the long run, it is the surest path to building integrity, patronage, culture and profit, and to achieve this requires leadership, personal choice and moral courage. The book could not have been published at a more auspicious moment. The current global financial meltdown has been traced convincingly to ethical violations. In Nigeria and across Africa, businesses and organisations are involved in all kinds of sharp practices, which cover all aspects of business operations. State laws are violated, bribes are freely solicited and offered, the work environment is fraught with sexual harrassment, suppliers and other stakeholders are compromised, some employers do not pay salaries on time, the staff collect bribes from customers, directors are guilty of conflicts of interest, the environment is abused, tax is avoided, sub-standard products are imposed on the public and so on. In Building a Culture of Ethics, these misdemeanours are decried, the myths which are used to justify them are dismissed. This is a book about leadership and responsibility. The authors are optimistic that organisations can change their habits and become more ethically responsible. Through examples and the report of a 2008 survey conducted by LEAP, they provide useful guidelines. But in a study of this nature, methodology is important, there is no concrete evidence to prove the reliability of the methodology adopted in the research preparation for this book. The various findings indicate that there is a serious interest in ethical conduct in many Nigerian organisations. Mere administration of questionnaries (as indicated in Appendix 1) cannot be enough as a measure of the nature of things. Company officials ordinarily strive to be politically correct when they are required to fill questionnaires, In the future, a study of this nature should rely more on discreet investigations. And since the focus is Africa, there should be more examples from other African countries. In terms of the broad principles it articulates however, the book is informative and enlightening. The authors identify critical issues and offer practical guidelines on possible approaches, with supporting illustrations and success stories. There are five chapters, each written in lucid prose, and heavily illustrated in a reader-friendly manner. The fifth chapter is contributed by Soji Apampa, a well-known expert on the subject of business integrity, the authors of the remaining four chapters are not indicated. The book is constructed around four major premises. The first is that creating a culture of ethics in an organisation is a leadership responsibility. The leaders of an organisation must show good personal examples and be consistent in doing so. An ethical leader helps to build a strong and sustainable company culture, but the task must begin at a personal level in terms of the leader’s review of his or her personal choices, values, and habits. Character is critical, and CEOs must learn to become men and women of character and virtue. On page 19, it is submitted that “when leadership displays ethical inconsistencies, this confuses and sends the wrong signals to subordinates. A leader who frequently changes style, will always be second best at being soembody else. A CEO who is committed to building a culture of ethics must be ethical in all areas of his or her life and over the long term.” The second key submission is that the culture of ethics must “pervade every aspect of the personal relations, business operations, and the decision making processess within the organisation”. In Chapter 2 titled “Building a Dream Team with Ethics”, LEAP AFRICA demonstrates how this can be achieved. An organisation’s ethical values must be properly communicated to staff; ethics in this context must be systemic, not situational and there should be firm and known sanctions for violations in order to build standards. It would appear however that organisations that provide a more enabling environment for self-actualisation on the job tend to find it easier to secure staff buy-in and ownership of ethical values. The third proposition is that an organisation’s ethical code of conduct must be extended to all its stakeholders, including the government, customers, suppliers and contractors. More often than not, ethical violations are justified on the grounds that the source is external, but it is here argued that organisations should not feel compelled to submit to the blackmail of corrupt stakeholders. It is suggested for example that one way of dealing with this is “the äbility and willingness to walk away from a relationship with an unethical stakeholder”. But how easy would it be for organisations to walk away from an ethically challenged government and market? The book offers practical guidelines, it deals with matters of how and why, but is it really so easy as argued, to build an ethical culture in an unethical environment? There are many grey areas ceertainly. One important submission nonetheless is the emphasis in this part of the book on corporate governance and social responsibility. The fourth theme is the fiduciary and ethical responsibility of company directors in building an ethical environment for business, and providing ethics-driven, purposeful leadership. In Chapter 5, Soji Apamapa argues that all of this requires moral courage, the ability to take risks and vote for values. From one chapter to the other, LEAP AFRICA offers examples of companies with strong ethical codes; the issues treated in this regard include policies on conflict of interest, bribes and gifts, and the organisation’s relationship with staff. The organisations that are cited in the book including ExxonMobil Producing Nigeria Limited, Nokia, Zain, Reckitt Benckiser, LaFarge WAPCO, and Express Discount Limited may feel encouraged by what appears on the surface, as a form of endorsement, otherwise properly qualified in the opening pages of the book, but it is more of a challenge, than a compliment, and that challenges lies in the area of sustainability. The tone of the publication is persuasive, optimistic and advisory. Perhaps a little more emphasis could have been placed on live stories of organisations that failed ethically and the cost in this regard in terms of external sanctions. And this is a moot point: people tend to be persuaded more by a demonstration of the actual cost of their omissions rather than hortatory advice. LEAP AFRICA should also have considered drawing attention to existing laws that define ethical conduct in businesses and organisations, and the oversight, ombudsman role that can be played by such forces in civil society as the media, and consumers and shareholders associations. There is an Appendix 4, an outline of Nigerian Taxation Policies, but the legal environment could have been treated more extensively in the main text. The sub-title talks about a focus on “public, private and non-profit sectors;” there seems to be a much greater emphasis on the private sector. Nonethelesss, this is all told, a very thoughtful and enlightening publication that should be found useful by those in leadership positions in organisations, and by the general reader who is convinced that business and leadership are not all about money and profit, but values and character.
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