This article written in the New York Times, shows just how fragile our ethics really are. It shows that we are more likely to judge others while doing the same ourselves and that often gradual erosion of morals or standards are a sure fire way of eventually breaking all the rules. In South Africa, many of us will nod knowingly, when we see ho corruption, which would have been exposed, now is quietly tolerated.
In the light of the code set out in the King III it may be worthwhile to set one's ethically deviation indicator to 0% tolerance when it comes to deviation, because it becomes apparent from the research in this article that we highly overate our moral compasses and that even sub-consciously we even change North, so as to maintain our own image of our moral superiority, while clearly having breached moral rules.
Even here is sunny Port Elizabeth, South Africa businesses of all sizes struggle on a daily basis with the compliance, risk and management issues posed by this this insidious creep of darkness.
There are many ways to deal with and counter this plague, but it needs us all to face our "dark sides" and to embrace the fact that we are not all perfect and that given that realisation; let us all commit our selves to a dedicated and committed ongoing battle against the erosion of our institutional morals, by setting higher standards and putting policies, procedures and people in place to actively seek and eliminate any signs of its occurrence or things that facilitate its spread. This is a war without end and we need to follow the fighting spirit of the words of Sir Winston Churchill when he stated in hi "We Shall Fight on the Beaches" speech delivered in 1940, to the House of Commons, Westminster on 4 June 1940.
We shall fight corruption and unethical behaviour in our country, in boardrooms, across IT systems and paper trails, we shall fight it as business, companies, departments, projects teams, employees, directors and most importantly as citizens. We shall fight it in our businesses, we shall fight it in our society and we shall fight it in our very homes; most of all we shall fight in our very own hearts and minds - we can never surrender.
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