With each case of corporate rupture that is published in the media, there is always questioning about the effectiveness of the governance structure and its compliance programs, including the integrity program.
The main question concerns how the violation of the corporation's moral values materializes in a company that demonstrates that its structure has governance policies and programs, required by law and regulations.
How its happen in companies that report having state-of-the-art structured compliance policies and integrity programs, some with certificates from important institutions, where, in some cases, specialist employees participate in industry events lecturing on the quality of their programs of combating corruption, bribery and other wrongdoing. How do these violations occur?
Not to mention, for sure, how come the risk management system and the internal control system, as well as the internal and external audit, if applicable, did not detect this violation of moral values?
Of course, the answer is not simple, because, each case is a different case. The root cause of the violation can have several components.
However, one of the causes that is present in almost cases is the lack of commitment and true attitude, on the part of management, in relation to all these governance requirements, and their moral values.
It is as if, all of this were mere “bureaucracy”, in the negative sense of the word, and that this whole structure and policies only serves to show the market, society and regulatory bodies that the company is in “compliance”.
It is important to point out that one of the causes is centered on the condition that companies and specialist professionals focus a lot on the form, but forget the essence. They forget that it is not possible to only have compliance policies and integrity programs, if there is no attitude, awareness and organizational culture for this to be true.
As much as we live in a digital age, where automation is increasingly part of organizations, it is necessary to understand that companies are still driven by people, who do not act by algorithms, but by their emotions, creeds, knowledge, goals , vision of life and logically, for its ethics.
Greed, winning for the sake of winning, selfishness, are also part of people's attitudes, and logically, organizations need to take all these attitudes into account in their governance process.
The effectiveness of governance, compliance and integrity depends on having ethical people who are truly in line with the company's moral values.
Management, including HR management, must prioritize that the people who are part of company's staff present, at least, the following attributes:
Willing
It refers to the individual choice to always do the right thing. It focuses on the certainty that, among the existing options for action and decision, in the process of achieving objectives, the choice will always be the one that best suits the moral values of the corporation.
Responsibility
It is based on the responsibility to always choose and/or keep what is right. It is to recognize the responsibility it has to continuously promote, through behavior that actions and decisions must always be aligned with the values of integrity of the company.
Commitment
It is the individual engagement and involvement in always doing what is right, regardless of the obstacles, and the contrary forces involved, without exception. Commitment is demonstrated by daily attitude and behavior.
Accountability
The individual must always transparently assume the consequences of his acts and/or omissions in relation to what is right. He must act with diligence and timely report any act of violation of the moral values of the corporation that comes to his knowledge.
In my opinion, governance structures, compliance and integrity programs will only be true and effective when corporations recognize the importance of applying good management practices in conducting their business, by people who are truly willing, responsible, committed and diligent in carrying out its activities within what is right.
As long as companies do not excel in having people with ethics aligned with corporate moral values, everything that is said about governance, compliance and integrity will continue to be a great fiction.
Finally, I always like to remember that in the chaotic world we live in, simplicity within corporate activities is a competitive advantage, even when dealing with a complex topic like this one, however remember that simplicity is not superficiality!
Be happy!
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