1. Dangers and Opportunities: Incorporating Ethics into Your Organisation Dr Suzanne Le Mire

2. Today
What is the best way to ‘create’ an ethics system and culture within your organisation? Conventional wisdom says that ethics is top-down, but is this always the way in which ethics works?
What practical strategies can be useful in encouraging ethical behaviour in a busy and complex organisation?
Which areas present particular points of danger, pressure or opportunity in the ethical arena?
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

3. AWB
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

4. Leighton Holdings
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

5. Bullying
Ms SB [2014] FWC 2014
Keegan v Sussan Corporation (Aust) Pty Ltd [2014] QSC 64
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

6. Causes of Unethical Behaviour
‘Bad Apples’
‘Bad Cases’
‘Bad Barrels’
(Kish-Gephart, Harrison and Trevino, 2010)
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

7. What makes an apple bad? Limited cognitive moral development
Machiavellianism
Moral relativists/idealists
Sense of control
Job satisfaction
?Demographics
Link: self-interest (Johns 1999)
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

8. How to avoid the bad apple
Demographics are unlikely to solve the issue
Selection
interviews that use hypotheticals
psychological testing
Training
training can enhance cognitive moral development
Employee satisfaction
Sense of responsibility
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

9. What makes a bad case?
Cases that are perceived as having a low ethical intensity are more likely to lead to unethical actions
Ethical intensity:
Magnitude of consequences
Social consensus
Probability of effect
Temporal immediacy
Proximity of victim
Concentration of effect (Jones 1991)
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

10. How to avoid the bad case
Adopt clear rules--explain legality/ethical implications
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

11. How to avoid the bad case
Make harms real
Make victims real and proximate
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

12. What makes a bad barrel?
Inadequate formal and informal ethical infrastructures
Powerlessness
Chaos
Unfair bureaucratic processes
Lack of transparency, accountability and capacity
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

13. How to avoid the bad barrel
Carefully considered and appropriate ethical infrastructure:
Policies and systems
No gap between policy/practice/perception
What is the perception?
Blind surveys/whistleblowing protection
Addressing chaos
Transparency
Accountability
Capacity
Competence and coherence are essential components of organizational functioning and a required foundation for an organizational culture of civility and professionalism (Hodson et al 2006)
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

14. Professionals within Organisations
How do embedded professionals effect change in their organisations?
Using formal authority
By building legitimacy through external and internal networking
Exercising influence by framing issues and adopting existing organisational infrastructure
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

15. Ethical opportunities
In context of in-house lawyers
Could be active as “corporate consciences”
Engage in ethical and regulatory education
Likely to have good knowledge of ethical dangers and opportunities within organisation (more so than external lawyers)
Can exercise influence within organisation and also influence external lawyers to act ethically
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire

16. Conclusions Unethical behaviour most commonly arises where there are:
Bad apples
Bad cases
Bad barrels
Practical steps can be taken to avoid these
Professionals within organisations are particularly well placed to initiate these steps
University of Adelaide Dr Suzanne Le Mire