I feel very strongly that unless we begin to make some changes to the present general culture of doing business, we are going to descend into the chaos so prevalent in much of the rest of Africa. And although the odds are stacked against good ethics in this day and age, I’m not willing to give in without a fight!

Business today is tough! Achieving targets and preserving those elusive margins is becoming more difficult by the day, for business owners and for their employees. Its even more difficult when you know your competition are not charging VAT, or they’re bribing government officials, or they’re not even registered with the tax authorities, for anything!

Sometimes the difference between making it in business, and closing the doors comes down to what can be slipped ‘under the radar’ of good business ethics, or even what’s legal.
Opportunities to skirt the edge of the law abound. And then there are those ethical issues; they’re not illegal, but easily justified for expediency sake. There are a number of them around too!

In South Africa, we are faced with burgeoning corruption at almost every level of government. And let’s not kid ourselves; it exists in business too. Some business people have simply said that if they want to do business with government they have to pay bribes. So, who is to blame – the chicken or the egg? And how can we stop this?

Business Day of the 19th November contained an article on government’s intentions to fight corruption:

"President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet have vowed to deal with the "scourge" of corruption in the government in a determined and co-coordinated way to prevent it infesting every nook and cranny of society. The Cabinet yesterday delivered on Zuma’s promise in his state of the nation speech to make rooting out corruption one of the priorities of the government. It will set up an interministerial committee to investigate and make recommendations on "extraordinary steps" to deal with the cancer of corruption in the public service. The decision amounts to an admission by the country’s leaders that existing measures to combat corruption are not working, and that urgent action is needed. The task of the committee will be to devise a comprehensive anticorruption action plan to ensure all corrupt public servants are brought to book as swiftly as possible." (Linda Ensor)

These are noble intentions, but I fear trying to address the symptoms without finding the root cause will just be a waste of time and taxpayers money. One of the bloggers responded to the article with this interesting comment:

"Attack also the corrupt corporates that bribe government people. That is the source of the money. Make the biggest penalties for the giver as a deterrent. We need to nail all corporates that engage in criminal activities. Cartels are the number 1 problem. They have the money and the influence. Start at cartels and we will start to solve things." (Princess Zulu)

So, what Ms Zulu is saying is that if business didn’t pay bribes to government officials, they wouldn’t be able to take them. An interesting way of looking at the problem isn’t it? But sadly, I think her solutions will prove to be just as ineffective.

The North American philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, has this to say:

"For every thousand hacking at the leaves of evil, there is one striking at the root.’ We can only achieve quantum improvements in our lives as we quit hacking at the leaves of attitude and behaviour and get to work on the root, the paradigms from which our attitudes and behaviours flow."

We are faced with a new form of ethics in business, and in every aspect of our lives outside of business – a situational ethic. This means that whatever the situation demands, determines the ethic. If it feels right, it must be OK!

Let’s consider the following hypothetical situation:

I need extra sales to keep my business doors open. One government department will appoint me as an official supplier provided I pay the department head a sweetener! I think about it for a while, carefully considering the chances of getting caught. After all, in our legal system today, you’re only guilty if you have first been caught; secondly, prosecuted and thirdly, convicted. If you’re not caught – well, it might never have actually happened, isn’t that so? Let’s not forget, and this is most important, I will be acting in the interests of all concerned – my employees, my family – and ultimately, even the tax-man! So, I do it! And it wasn’t so bad – and we weren’t caught, and everyone is actually better off aren’t they?
In fact, it worked so well, I start to find a few more connections, cross a few more palms with ‘silver’ and life starts to look quite good. It’s not long before all conscience and the fear of being caught is forgotten!
But then one day, I find that my ‘connection’ in government feels that the sweetener needs re-sweetening, and its not long before I find I’m trapped by circumstances and the money I thought I was making (the profit on those extra sales) is actually going out in bribes. Not only that, the greedy swine has been tapping into other sources and now his profligate lifestyle has drawn the attention of the powers-that-be, and he’s under investigation – which means that I will be too!

This is human nature isn’t it? The psychologists tell us that once we humans start to step out into forbidden territory and taste the forbidden fruit, each subsequent act becomes easier, until our consciences are seared. Car-jackers get bolder, thieves go for bigger targets, and killers kill more easily and with little or no remorse. It even extrapolates to those ‘minor’ offences in life; like the way we drive on our roads. When I was growing up, I can clearly remember my father sticking behind a truck on a long and winding road, and not passing the truck even though he could see there was no oncoming traffic, just because there was a solid white line on the road. The thought of crossing that white line was too horrible to contemplate! The laws governing our behaviour on the roads haven’t changed much since those days, but there’s no doubt in my mind that very few of them are even considered worthy of contemplation (or being abided by) now. Even the most law-abiding citizen gets caught up in the mad-rush to mayhem – if everyone’s doing it, I might as well too!

But, as far as I’m concerned, someone has to take stand.

I don’t think that investigative committees or new laws are going to make the slightest bit of difference. They may make the opportunities a little more difficult, but if the current culture of entitlement doesn’t go through a major paradigm shift, we will simply go from bad to worse. The crooks will get cleverer and go underground.

The Chicago Sun Times published the following story (recounted by Norman Vincent Peale and Ken Blanchard in their book entitled "The Power of Ethical Management") that serves as a good example:

"When Johnny was 6 years old, he was with his father when they were caught speeding. His father handed the officer a twenty-dollar bill with his driver’s license. ‘It’s OK, son,’ his father said as they drove off, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 8, he was present at a family council presided over by Uncle George, on the surest means to shave points off the income tax return. ‘Its OK, kid,’ his uncle said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 9, his mother took him to his first theatre production. The box office man couldn’t find any seats until his mother discovered an extra $5 in her purse. ‘It’s OK, son,’ she said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 12, he broke his glasses on the way to school. His Aunt Francine persuaded the insurance company that they had been stolen and they collected $75. ‘Its OK, kid,’ she said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 15, he made right guard on the high school football team. His coach showed him how to block and at the same time grab the opposing end by the shirt so that the official couldn’t see it. ‘Its OK, kid,’ the coach said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 16, he took his first summer job at the supermarket. His assignment was to put the over-ripe strawberries in the bottom of the boxes and the good ones on the top where they would show. ‘Its OK, kid,’ the manager said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 18, Johnny and a neighbour applied for a college scholarship. Johnny was a marginal student. His neighbour was in the upper 3% of his class, but he couldn’t play right guard. Johnny got the scholarship. ‘It’s OK, son,’ his parents said, ‘Everybody does it.’
When he was 19, he was approached by an upperclassman who offered the test answers for $50. ‘Its OK, kid,’ he said, ‘Everybody does it.’
Johnny was caught and sent home in disgrace. ‘How could you do this to your mother and me?’ his father said. ‘You never learned anything like this at home.’ His Aunt and Uncle were also shocked.
If there’s one thing the adult world can’t stand, it’s the kid who cheats…."

In the next INSIGHT we’ll start looking at what it actually costs us to duck and dive good business ethics!