South Africa in need of higher business ethic standing

Ethics in business has come under increasing scrutiny over the years as businesses use more and more underhanded means to beat their competitors to a customer?s door.
In addition, it has become a highly emotional subject in many countries due to government and business corruption explains Manpower SA and clinical psychologist Dr Giada Del Fabbro.
"The real problem with the topic of business ethics is not just the cost of being caught or reprimanded but the impact on the perception of the company. In today?s world a message and a single customers sentiment can be disseminated around the world in a matter of seconds and attract an audience.
One only has to look at the rapid fall of many technology and cellular phone companies over the last few years to see just how quickly a global business leader can disappear,? explains Lyndy van den Barselaar - Managing Director for Manpower South Africa.
Manpower has been voted as one of the most ethical companies for a second consecutive year by Ethosphere, resulting from a strong ethical culture which is passed from the top down.
All Manpower Group employees have to take and repeat an ethics course every year. Around the world, senior personal are under increasing pressure, especially with the current global economy, to improve performance, which often leads to extreme tactics in order to meet targets.
This lack of ethics in conducting business often affects far more people than those engaged in questionable tactics. Often it is those that aren?t even aware of the corruption that suffer the consequences.
This is happening around the world where unscrupulous business people are leading to the loss of innocent peoples jobs, savings and even entire pensions. This has led to outrage in many countries around the world.
Unfortunately, South Africa has also had its fair share of unethical behaviour with ministers being found guilty of shady practices and misappropriation of funds. "A large aspect of the problem is that despite so many businesses and governmental employees being exposed, it still does not seem to be curbing the problem - the minute one scandal seems to have died down another surfaces.
The costs do not only impact on business through the loss of funds but also in their solutions to the problem, many having to set up specific departments to deal with controlling and curbing unethical behaviour. But in spite of all these anti fraud initiatives, corruption still seems to be a major problem.
This further impacts on investment. A country with a negative image of high corruption is also chasing away foreign investment or attracting the wrong kind of investment that capitalises on the corrupt dealings of officials and businesses,' says van den Barselaar. "Many believe unethical behaviour is purely driven by greed.
But this is not so, as performance pressure and debt also play large roles in driving a person to unethical behaviour. Sometimes, these individuals will even justify their behaviour to themselves,' states clinical psychologist Dr Giada Del Fabbro. From a psychological point of view, many employees will actually rationalise their unethical behaviour.
"You will always get a certain personality type which will lean towards this kind of behaviour, with a psychopathic tendency to exploit situations for their own benefit. Businesses themselves however can also take on certain "personality? traits as an entity in their own right. Just as an individual may act unethically to further themselves, so too can businesses.
More interesting though, is the fact that some corporate cultures can actually encourage this. Take for example situations such as a sales environment, where the number of sales are vital to the employee retaining their position or even getting paid. Under these circumstances and pressures, achieving higher sales may take precedence over acting ethically and can cause an entire business entity to display similar "corporate? psychopathic behaviours in order to acquire business.'
"In order to combat this rise in fraud during recessions, HR departments should run ethics workshops or talks and also examine the corporate culture their policies and procedures are encouraging. However, we cannot dismiss that there are individuals who, regardless of the situation, or what a business my do to minimise the behaviour, will still act unethically,' explains Dr Del Fabbro.
"In order to combat the spiralling problem of unethical behaviour it is important for businesses to setup their codes of business conduct and ethical behaviour from the start.
These need to be adhered to and transgressors taking to task. It?s important for employees to see that those guilty of unethical behaviour get caught and punished in order to curb the proliferation of it.
Putting certain checks in place and providing channels for staff or customers to easily and ly point out acts of ethical misconduct will also go a long way to stamping it out,' concludes van den Barselaar.