It’s one of the most frustrating feelings for leaders and managers – trying to hose down the damage created when unethical behaviour in an organisation or industry goes public.
My experience is that no matter how good your internal policies, there’ll always be someone tempted to operate in the grey area. It’s not easy to prevent or fix.
And hoping that no one will notice is a high-risk strategy. Eventually there will be sunlight shining on the problem for all to see.
As comedian Groucho Marx quipped, ‘time wounds all heels.’
Organisations and programs can flip from a position of trusted high-flyer to scorned pariah in the space of hours, days, or weeks.
Perhaps there is a troubling trend here.
Research by Roy Morgan reported last month that a sort of ‘moral blindness’ has emerged after the pandemic.
They say that poor behaviour in corporate Australia, under the ‘cover of COVID’ has led to dramatically soaring distrust, not only for individual brands but for corporate Australia generally.
When things go pear-shaped, the proven fix is for heads to roll at the top. And quickly. However, the wider flow-on costs and effects are not so easy to fix.
It is like a ‘taint’ that follows and lingers on people and organisations associated with unethical behaviour.
Industry leaders know how one business acting unethically (e.g., labour, environmental or safety practices) can draw public outrage and, by association, unfairly bring a whole industry into disrepute.
The collateral damage can be far-reaching. The owner of a small consulting business I spoke with last week explained how he is encountering the flow-on impact of amplified government distrust towards the big four consulting firms.
He perceives greater suspicion towards and a hesitancy to use consultants.
Nothing hurts morale or risks distrust more than when leaders tolerate employees who deliver results, but exhibit behaviours that are incongruent to the values of the organisation.
Put distrust on your risk register and let in the sunshine. Transparency is a great disinfectant.
Until next week.