The Integrity at Work Conference 2019 brought together employers and experts to explore how to promote ethical behaviour in the workplace.
‘Recent scandals in Ireland’s banking, policing and energy sectors have highlighted the damaging consequences of ethical misconduct. It’s important that employers from all sectors foster ethical leadership for the benefit of workers, stakeholders and the public’ said TI Ireland Chief Executive, John Devitt.
Representatives from over 70 organisations in the public, private and non-profit sectors attended the conference to share experience and insights on supporting staff to act with integrity.
Addressing the conference, Citigroup whistleblower and business ethics speaker, Richard Bowen highlighted the need for employee feedback in fostering an ethical culture.
‘In companies with strong ethics programmes, 94% of employees who reported misconduct were satisfied with the outcome. By contrast, in companies without an ethics programme, only 20% of employees who reported misconduct were satisfied. It’s clear that ethical breaches are addressed more effectively when employee feedback is actively encouraged’.
Amanda Shantz, Associate Professor of Human Resource Management, Trinity Business School, discussed the findings of her award-winning research: ‘Building an Ethically Strong Organization’.
‘Two essential ingredients to ethical leadership are a strong vision and a deep commitment to stakeholders. In our survey of 1,557 employees and managers, the majority of respondents (43%) said their leaders fell short in these areas. To bring about lasting change, organisations must hire and cultivate leaders at all levels who promote ethical behaviour’.