FEEL 2016: Ethics and action towards it
On Thursday, 9th of June 2016, 4th FEEL conference about ethical leadership was held at Brdo pri Kranju, where 14 interesting speakers from various backgrounds gave lectures and shared ideas. Slovenia’s Minister of Public Administration, Boris Koprivnikar, claimed: “As soon as you enter politics, you are considered unethical.” The aim of the conference was to present new ways of achieving a more ethical and prosperous society.
Whistle-blowers and leaders that care
In the first module Prof. Kim Strom-Gottfred, PhD and Dr. Ana M. Sobočan addressed the issue of crafting ethical leaders. They highlighted a few important steps in building ethical leaders: Gathering information from observing ethical dilemmas; Consulting professionals on the issue and, most important, introspection and self-observation that eliminates any self-interest that has a negative impact on society.
Dr. Strom particularly emphasised the importance of standing up and reporting problems. It takes a lot to change corporate culture. We, as individuals, have to be champions of changing it. With the issue of whistle-blowers, the line is very grey. For example whistleblowing about tax avoidance within the company which then resulted in the company’s bankruptcy, is perceived as positive, since it eliminated practices that would eventually lead to collapse. But in the case of Snowden’s disclosure of classified information, which was often argued to have put many lives in danger, she unexpectedly quoted Dumbledore from Harry Potter: “It is hard to go against your enemies, but it takes even more courage to stand against your friends.”
Dr. Sobočan explained the issue of ethical leaders keeping power. She agreed with Minister Koprivnikar on his initial statement that we should rebuild a society to promote ethical values on all levels. Guests stressed the importance of trust as a fundamental base for the creation of such a society – with trust among citizens and between citizens and Government. Without people who have the power to initialize these concepts, we can expect no change.
Culture of donkeys between carrot and a stick
The second module explained the Stakeholders model of Edward Freeman, PhD. His theory explains that a company should not work in the interest of shareholders, but in interest of all stakeholders and interest groups. Even the term “ethics” defines society that enables growth of all participants. This model was further explained by dr. Igor Pribac, who added that acting in a moral way may have short-term costs, but ensures long-term survival.
Prof. Freeman stated that businesses should stop focusing only on profits and start fulfilling their larger purpose of creating value for society. Uroš Gunčar, from the Center of Excellence in Finance, pointed out example of Spanish Basque Region, which adopted standards of ethical treatment, so called Standards of Excellence. In last 15 years their GDP grew from the poorest among the Spanish regions to one of the highest in Europe.
All stories of success are based on capable people that take action. And if you treat them as donkeys that understand only carrots and sticks, you will not achieve anything. But if you treat them ethically and empower them, you will achieve miracles.
Theory in practice
Good practices were presented by representatives of Petrol, SPL Ljubljana, Mitol Sežana, Detektivska varnostna agencija and the Faculty of Economics Ljubljana. They all had in common education of leaders and employees, acceptance of codex of good practices, followed by constant evaluation of compliance. Representatives also pointed out that without looking at the mirror first, you cannot blindly accept certain practices of others. True change must occur from within and has to be self-developed in order to be effective. But once again, the main characteristic of ethical leadership was respect and trust between all those employed. All speakers emphasized that ethical responsibility directly translates to improved business results.
Let’s check our situation now. The whole conference was a reflection of today’s society. The first and second module focused on good theoretical practices and last one on business experiences. Unfortunately the government’s representative, Minister Koprivnikar, had to leave after 15 minutes, to deal with a political issue.
Without political action and change from top, those below cannot do much by themselves, but to reconvene again next year. If nothing changes, we will have to keep on quoting fictional characters, such as Dumbledore, instead of leaders of our society.
Aleksander Koren, EFnews
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