AIM’s Ackerly says there needs to be initial training about what is contained in codes of practice, and why they exist, and then the focus must be on how to apply them. “Everything else should be what staff see every day. It must be visible in the workplace and measured,” she says.
Although people may have the relevant knowledge, training can provide the “a-ha” moment about its relevance to their day-to-day duties. “This can be done through storytelling, quizzes, and group discussion about how this would apply to me,” says Ackerly.
At a minimum, there needs to be formal conduct training annually, or whenever the rules change, Ackerly says. In addition, codes of conduct need to be part of staff meetings, the strategic planning day and whenever companies are reviewing their business.
The challenge of applying codes is that they can bring staff and executives into conflict with other organisational goals: sales targets, for example.
Staff need to be trained about who to go to if they cannot make the call.
Bad calls need to be challenged, says Faraday-Brash, or they can become entrenched in the corporate culture. “When bad behaviour is committed over and over, it is because there is a payoff for the organisation. When it is denied, justified, rewarded or ignored, someone has put it in the too-hard basket or like the consequences that the behaviour brings.
“It might be that sign-off is made by people at too low a level, or too much responsibility is left to too few people.”
Codes are self-regulated
The accounting profession fought a long battle to maintain self-regulation following auditing scandals and company collapses in the early noughties. Media is facing the same challenges.
While individual companies face potential loss, entire sectors can suffer if a lax attitude to conduct, rules, laws and ethics become entrenched.
Self-regulation is limited: industry associations such as CPA Australia have fewer powers to enforce rules on their members that the ACMA has to control broadcasters. Competition between companies can be a mechanism that erodes strong ethics and adherence to codes. As company directors facing increasing corporate regulations know, the bad actions of a few can lead to a burden on the many.
A powerful argument against creating regulations is that there will always be people who love to find ways around “black letter” laws. Once they have, they open the doors for others to follow.
The accounting profession successfully argued that there would be fewer breaches of proper conduct if broad principles – such as honesty and integrity – guided behaviour, rather than narrow definitions of what that behaviour is. However, self-regulation has a price: ensuring that participants are trained in its application.
Says Faraday-Brash: “You have got to have a day-to-day understanding of how any policy and process affects them in real life. Applied understanding and real conversations between staff about issues that could arise are far superior to online training where genuine commitment can’t be tested.”
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