The Ethics Practitioners Association Stephan Bezuidenhout Chief - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Empowering Ethics Professionals

The Ethics Practitioners’ Association

Stephan Bezuidenhout

Chief Executive Officer

• The dawn of democracy in South Africa was accompanied by a growing

awareness of corporate social and ethical responsibility

• Government introduced series of laws
• Private sector took initiative through King Reports (I - IV)

Corporate Social and Ethical Responsibility

• Starts with “Leadership, ethics and corporate citizenship”
• Recognition that good governance starts with – and cannot be sustained without

– ethical leadership and corporate responsibility

• Two principles address the governance of social and ethics performance;
• Corporate Social Performance
• Corporate Ethics Performance

King IV - Social and Ethics Governance

• “The governing body should ensure that the organisation is and is seen to be a

responsible corporate citizen” (Principle 3)

• Concept

implies that

• rganisations

have responsibilities beyond their shareholders

• Also impact on employees, society, the economy and the natural environment

Principle 1 - Corporate Social Performance

• “The governing body should govern the ethics of the organisation in a way that

supports the establishment of an ethical culture” (Principle 2)

• Ethics of the company is governed well
• King IV introduces elements of ethics management process

Principle 2 - Corporate Ethics Performance

• Companies Act:
• “Reaffirm the concept of the company as a means of achieving economic and

social benefits” (Section7(d))

• Companies are not regarded as mere vehicles for creating wealth for

shareholders, but also for producing wider economic and social benefits to society

• Social and Ethics Committee a mechanism for ensuring this

Companies Act on Social and Ethics Governance

• “The governing body should govern the ethics of the organisation in a way that

supports the establishment of an ethical culture”

• Increased focus on organisational ethical culture
• Move beyond ethics management programmes and focus on organisational

culture

• May tick all boxes insofar as the mechanics and reporting of ethics management

activities concerned, ethical culture is fragile and underdeveloped

Organizational Ethical Culture

• Organisations

assign responsibility to a purposefully established intra-

• rganisational function

The Ethics Office - Ethics Practitioner

• The Ethics Practitioner ensures that an organisation conducts its business in

a manner that is aligned with the organisational values and standards of behaviour as espoused in its code of ethics

• Integrating ethics in the business strategy
• Challenging corporate values, standards and business decisions
• Safeguarding and embedding organisational standards of behaviour
• Debating difficult ethical issues
• Advisory, education and training on ethical standards
• Manage safe-reporting mechanisms
• Ethics investigations

The Ethics Practitioner

• Types of unethical conduct in the workplace
• Crimes such as theft, fraud and corruption
• People related transgressions such as victimization, bullying, discrimination

and harassment

• Other questionable conduct such as nepotism and conflict of interest

The Ethics Practitioner

• HR structures
• Governance structures
• Company Secretariat, Compliance, Risk and Audit functions – combined assurance
• Close relationship with Forensics functions
• Investigations
• Safe-reporting mechanisms

The Ethics Practitioner and other Professionals

• Philosophy approach most beneficial
• Conceptual Analysis
• Integrity
• Respect
• Critical Thinking
• Utilize different mechanisms and tools for solving ethical dilemmas
• Utilitarian Theory
• Deontological Theory
• Virtue Theory

Tools for Ethics Practitioner

Empowering Ethics Professionals

Purpose

The EPA will empo empower er it its member members, and indirectly, their empl employer er or

• rganisation
• ns to build and sustain

good corporate citizenry - ultimately bene benefiting ng Sou South Af Africa as as a wh whole. The EPA will provide re researc rch an and bes best pr practices es, ne networking ng op

• ppor
• rtunities and ac

accredit itatio ion to its members. The result is having sk skilled an and cr credible ethics professionals that can in influ fluence an and gu guide ethical leadership in their respective organisations.

Vision

“E “Empowering Ethics cs Professionals”

www.epa-africa.com info@epa-africa.com

Empowering Ethics Professionals

Thank You

Credit to The Ethics Institute’s Handbook series for graphs, diagrams and research