Tailoring messages to specific cultures in ways that local employees can understand is critical to spreading an ethical culture through global organizations
Corporate communications departments have a unique opportunity to rebuild trust among employees in their companies’ efforts to develop and maintain a culture of ethics within a global organization.
That was a central takeaway from a panel discussion, ‘Ethical communication during an era of heightened transparency,’ that served as the lunch keynote session of the sixth annual Global Ethics Summit held in New York on March 20 and 21. Hosted by the Ethisphere Institute and Thomson Reuters, the event focused on leadership strategies for driving governance and performance and attracted hundreds of corporate executives and governance, ethics and compliance professionals from around the globe.
Paul Gennaro, senior vice president and chief communications officer at AECOM, who moderated the keynote panel, encouraged participants to work across functional areas to foster ethical corporate cultures -- and rebuild public trust. ‘When I speak with colleagues in the corporate communications profession about priorities and goals, I encourage them to seek out their peers in ethics and compliance,’ he said. 'We have an opportunity to lead the way.'
Gennaro was recently named one of the top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business for 2014 by Trust Across America Trust Across the World, which communications veteran Barbara Kimmel created in response to the global financial crisis to help enhance trustworthy behavior within organizations.
The keynote panel included Gary Sheffer, General Electric’s vice president of corporate communications and public affairs; Grace Wu de Plaza, deputy ethics and compliance officer at the Nature Conservancy; and Dr. Edward Queen, director of the Ethics and Servant Leadership Program at Emory University’s Center for Ethics.
‘An organization must strive to minimize the costs of doing the right thing; it has to make it as easy as possible for employees to do so,’ said Queen. ‘Examples of this can be as straightforward as simplifying the procedures for people to get advice on addressing ethically challenging work situations or making it easier for people to report perceived wrongdoing.’
Creating an ethical corporate culture that is authentic and durable remains a challenge for many governance and compliance officers. In an era of heightened transparency and increasing financial pressures, many departments are being asked to do more with fewer resources.
However, Sheffer believes that as companies expand into new countries and encounter different cultures, it is best to communicate in a context that is easy for local employees to understand. ‘At General Electric, we change our messaging according to the target audience,’ he said. ‘In India, for example, we created Bollywood advertisements to foster employee engagement, and we continue to do the same in other countries.’
Echoing Sheffers’ point, a panel discussion on March 21, titled ‘Cultural Considerations for Codes of Conduct,’ explored how cultural considerations should be taken into account in a global compliance program.
‘All employees have the responsibility to act with the highest degree of integrity and in full compliance with the law,’ said Susan Frank Divers, assistant general counsel for ethics and compliance at AECOM, who chaired the panel. ‘In order to gain a clear understanding of ethical and legal guidelines, companies must rely on a user-friendly Code of Conduct that caters to different cultures and regions.’
AECOM is one of several organizations that the Ethisphere Institute has included on its list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for at least four consecutive years. Among the other multi-year honorees were Texas Instruments, Gap, and Ford Motor Company.
