4th Issue (May 1996)

Editorial

Besides, 40 per cent of the respondents rated the work ethics of young people as low or very low.

The findings concurred with results of the annual ICAC surveys over the past three years, which indicated Hong Kong's youngsters were comparatively more tolerant of corruption than their older generation who had witnessed or suffered from this rampant evil in the 1970s.

Worries over these findings prompted the Conference on Work Ethics of Young People, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre on March 15 this year. About 450 people from 250 organisations in various fields - youth, business, education and social services - gathered to map out strategies to improve ethical standards of young people in Hong Kong.

Participants agreed Hong Kong must maintain an honest work force to continue a level playing field for business. The Chairman of the Conference's Organising Committee, Mr Eric Li Ka-cheung, said this could be achieved by helping our young workers establish positive values in life and foster good ethical standards at work. Through guidance, they would be able to uphold the principles of honesty, fairness and integrity in their personal pursuits.

At the Conference, the Chief Secretary, Mrs Anson Chan Fong On-sang, said the community needed efforts from parents, employers, schools and the mass media to educate our youth on ethics. Her remarks were supported by the new ICAC Commissioner, Mr Michael Leung Man-kin, Mr Leung said the anti-graft body would not be alone in promoting work ethics among the young people. For more comments from keynote speakers at the Conference, see page two.

In this issue we stress how corporate training can improve work ethics of employees and their skills in preventing corruption and fraud. You can contact the Hong Kong Ethics Development Centre for more information on its corporate training courses.

We thank Ms Jacqueline Gates, Vice-President of Ethics and Business Conduct, NYNEX Corporation in the United States, for her contribution to our guest column. She shares with us her experience in promoting work ethics in another part of the world.

Meanwhile the Centre successfully held the second Corruption and Fraud Prevention Seminar on March 8. The number of applicants to the seminar which focused on handling ethical dilemmas at work was nearly double the places available. A third seminar is being planned for July, in view of the tremendous response.

Last but not least, the Centre welcomes Mrs Catherine Chui as its new head of staff. Mrs Chui, who was previously Chief of the ICAC's Education Office, assumed the post of Executive Secretary of the Centre in mid-April. For more news about the Centre, see page four.

Corporate Training

A comprehensive code of conduct or an elaborate system control is no guarantee against fraud and malpractice if the people running the companies are ill-trained or unscrupulous. Listed below are some examples of how vulnerable staff can cause breakdowns in ethical control :

• Lack of legal knowledge
  Staff unwittingly break the law because of their ignorance. Their lack of legal knowledge may make both the companies and themselves victims of corrupt elements.

• Lack of will
  Staff may succumb to the temptations of the corrupt.

• Lack of analytical skills
  Staff may lack the skills to deal with ethical dilemmas, handle conflicts of interest, or stop the development of undesirable close relationships with their clients.

• Organisational weaknesses
  Unscrupulous staff may exploit weaknesses in the company's system control for personal gain.

More and more companies believe the long-term solution to reduce corruption, fraud and malpractice is to strengthen the ethics of their employees and build up an ethical corporate culture.

According to Professor Cheng Yiu-chung, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong who spoke at the Conference on Work Ethics of Young People, the promotion of work ethics will be beneficial because "it allows staff of business organizations to respect one another, improve internal communications and external relationship as well as company productivity and business performance".

At the same Conference, Mr Vincent Cheng Hoi-chuen, Executive Director of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Ltd, described ethical corporate culture as the air a company breathed. "Its shared values of integrity, probity, trust and discretion give rise to a system of informal rules that indicate how people are to behave, enables them to feel good about what they do, and improve their performance,," he said. To combat corruption and malpractice, Mr Cheng opined, companies must inculcate ethical conscience form the top and integrate it into the normal channel of decision-making. This would enable managers to make the right decisions when they encountered ethical dilemmas at work.

At a panel discussion of the same occasion, Miss Christine Wong Siu-ping, Human Resources Director of Giordano Ltd, said corporate training was important in enhancing staff quality. She said her company had undertaken a survey on staff attitude towards company culture, working conditions, role clarity and work ethics. The findings would form the base for formulating staff training programmes.

Another panel member, Mr Yeung Ka-sing, Personnel Manager of the Hong Kong and China Gas Company Ltd, said the ethical behaviour of staff directly affected the company's image. Therefore it was important that they understand their company's expectations and the standard of ethical behaviors required of them. To do this, the company published an easy-to-read guidebook for its staff.

Training - The Fundamental Tool

Corporate ethics training can :

• Enhance staff knowledge on legal requirements;
• Enable staff to understand and realise ethical standards set by their company;
• Equip staff with skills to handle ethical dilemmas;
• Equip management with skills to detect early warning signs of corruption, fraud and malpractice; and
• Enable staff to abide by the company's code of conduct.

The Hong Kong Ethics Development Centre offers courses on :

• Legislation governing corruption and fraud in Hong Kong;
• Corporate system control;
• Ethical decision-making;
• Managing staff integrity; and
• Anti-corruption legislation in the People's Republic of China.

• Think Before You Leap
  A video depicting ethical dilemmas at the workplace. Together with discussions, staff will learn analytical skills to help them make ethically right decisions.

• Video For Young Workers
  A specially conceived video, with real-life cases of corruption and fraud, to evoke discussions on work ethics of young people.

Conclusions arrived at the Conference on Work Ethics of Young People on 15 March 1996

• To maintain the competitive edge of Hong Kong, the next generation must possess high ethical standards and the right aims for work.
• Honesty, trustworthiness and ethical staff are valuable assets of a company and the community as a whole. They can win the trust of clients and enhance the reputation of a company.
• Work ethics basically includes honesty, fairness, responsibility and respect for others and for work.
• The government, schools, families, social workers, the business sector, youth organisations and the mass media should cooperate and complement each other in putting more efforts to enhance the ethical standards of young people.

Ethics Training for Employees

Since that time, all employees have participated in training programs that help bring to life the ongoing ethics process at NYNEX - a process built on different elements, from ethical leadership to a code of business conduct to a confidential "800" number and various compliance programs. It is in this broader context that training plays a crucial role in promoting an ethical work environment.

The word "training" can be somewhat misleading when applied to the actual programs at NYNEX. No corporation can "train" its employees to act ethically in the same way that it provides job skill courses or computer training. Employees come to a job with a personal set of moral standards and values already in place.

Keeping that perspective in mind, the role of ethics training is to raise awareness about ethical business issues and educate employees about NYNEX's business conduct standards and the core values that NYNEX represents - namely, quality, ethics and caring for the individual. Our goal is to provide employees with the guidance and tools they need to apply these standards and values in the workplace and make sound ethical business decisions for NYNEX.

Ethics training and education at NYNEX are ongoing and are implemented through two distinct types of programs. First, there are corporate-wide programs, such as the training initiated in 1991 when NYNEX introduced to all management employees - from officers through first-line supervisors - its first unified "Code of Business Conduct".

Called "Ethics Awareness Workshop", the training package featured a videotape and leader's guide designed to help employees understand the importance of using the code and to encourage dialogue about ethical issues and decisions they may face on the job.

Having equipped management with the fundamental tools, NYNEX then included the union ranks through meetings with their supervisors.

The next building block enhancement, designed to bring awareness to a new level, was "Values and Ethics in the Workplace", an effort launched in 1994 also for NYNEX management employees. The training was developed to reinforce NYNEX's core value and help managers learn how to put those values into action in their organizations.

The cornerstone of this training was an ethical decision-making model - a structured step-by-step guide for employees who face an ethical dilemma. The model, which now is included in our current "Code of Conduct" booklet, demonstrates that ethical decision making is a continuous learning process.

The other type of training program we offer is a more targeted effort addressing specific topics or a particular job level or work function where there may be a cluster of related concerns.

One example is "NYNEX Ethics Seminar on interfacing with Government Officials and Employees," a half-day program which outlines the ethical standards NYNEX employees must follow when doing business in the domestic government sector. The Training uses hypothetical case studies to help employees refine their abilities to think through ethical issues.

Another targeted effort is "The Human Element," hard-hitting dramatisations that are presented on an ongoing basis to individual NYNEX work groups. The 20-to-25 minute vignettes are designed to help work teams focus on issues related to workplace harassment. The use of live drama heightens the impact of the message that NYNEX is strongly committed to a work environment free from any form of harassment.

Our most recent training effort, which still is underway, is a corporate-wide program initiated in Fall 1995 when NYNEX introduced a new, revised "Code of Business Conduct". The code was rewritten to present NYNEX's business standards in a more readable and less didactic manner, and it reflects NYNEX's continuing transformation as a corporation, highlighting the basic theme of helping NYNEX employees work ethically in an increasingly competitive environment in global markets.

The "Code Review" training package features a 30-minute videotape accompanied by a leader's guide to help supervisors frame their discussions about the video with their work teams. The tape includes three real-life vignettes, each dramatically portraying a key ethics issue employees may face in the workplace - respecting others in the workplace, the accuracy of company reports, and safeguarding the privacy of customer records. We chose video/drama as a vehicle because of its direct emotional impact.

Over the years, the focus of all our training efforts has evolved, just as the role of the Ethics Office has grown to meet NYNEX's - and its employees' - changing requirements. After initial training modules that helped employees gain a general understanding of the importance of ethics in the workplace, we refined the focus of the training to help employees make daily job decisions using NYNEX's core values as a framework.

We also have changed the fundamental approach of our training programs, moving away from an emphasis on passive employee compliance toward a focus on accountability and active employee commitment to living out NYNEX's core values.

The reason for this shift is simple. Too often ethics training can take on a dictatorial "thou shalt not" tone that can alienate employees. This is why we have made a conscious effect in our recent training initiatives and our revised code of conduct to take a more positive approach, one that stresses individual responsibility to understand NYNEX's standards and values and make sound ethical decisions that put those values into action. Ultimately, the role of ethics training is to empower each and every employee to make these decisions.

In our training initiatives, we rely on a variety of educational methods, precisely because employees have different learning styles that need to be addressed. Methods include videotapes, live action dramas that present questionable behaviors, ethical case studies and face-to-face meetings. We also are exploring PC-based interactive multimedia training, which can provide an opportunity to communicate a consistent message to all employees.

Discussion and dialog are perhaps the most important part of any ethics training initiative. NYNEX employees continue to communicate their need to discuss relevant ethical issues directly with their supervisors. In addition, the NYNEX "Guideline" is an "800" number employees can call, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to ask confidential questions and raise concerns about business conduct issues.

For those who are developing ethics training programs, one recommendation I can offer is to gain input from employees about their most pressing concerns and use that information as the foundation for designing programs. A training effort is much more effective when it address issues that are meaningful to employees. At NYNEX, we use our "Guideline" and training sessions themselves as a channel for gathering information about the topics employees most want to discuss.

Another important lesson we have learned is that ethics training often generates additional questions from employees. This has been demonstrated by the increased numbers of calls to the NYNEX "Guideline" following training and education programs. We view this increase as an encouraging sign that the programs are doing precisely what they are intended to do: prompt employees to think carefully about ethical issues and concerns.

I believe that ongoing ethics training is vital for all companies, particularly one like NYNEX that is undergoing sweeping changes. While we cannot always offer employees the clear-cut answers they may seek about ethical matters, we can reinforce a core set of standards and values that will enhance their abilities to make sound ethical decisions on behalf of NYNEX in a fast-changing environment.

A company's success ultimately depends on the sound decisions of its employees, so any program that supports and guides them through that process is invaluable.

Finally, ethics training at NYNEX is an integral part of the larger vision that drives the Ethics Office: to promote integrity, advocate respect for others and revitalize a sense of "Community" at NYNEX. Helping employees acquire the essential tools to make sound ethical decisions in the workplace complements our efforts to promote a strong sense of responsibility to others and a concern with the greater goals of the organization.

The better we become at developing ethics training programs that truly speak to the needs of our employees and our changing business, the more effective we will be in bringing to life the ethics process and the vision of community that underlies it - a belief in working together for the common good.

Jacqueline Gates is Vice President of Ethics at NYNEX, a communications and media corporation that provides a full range of services in the northeastern United States and select global markets.

Training and Seminars

In addition, the Centre will start a new series of training seminars in August/September. The first one is on work ethics for sales and marketing managers.

Apart from seminars and workshops, the Centre has the resources to help commercial and industrial organisations implement codes of conduct. We organise training programmes and other activities to educate employees, especially the younger staff, on the importance of integrity. They will learn how to confront corruption and handle ethical dilemmas. Call 2587 9812 for more information.

Publications

The Centre has made available the Chinese-subtitled version of the training video "Think Before You Leap," which depicts ethical dilemmas at the workplace. The version was produced following suggestions by human resources managers to cater for Putonghua-speaking audience. Call 2587 9812 for details.

Consultancy

Business Ethics Participation Programme

The response was extremely favourable : more than 200 trade and professional organisations have launched their own business ethics programmes.

This year, the Business Ethics Participation Programme aims to enhance the ethical standards of the youth work force, as follow-up to the Conference on Work Ethics of Young People held in March. The Centre encourages business organisations to provide activities for their staff, especially those at middle and junior levels, to promote work ethics and a morally healthy corporate culture.

The Centre also encourage trade and professional organisations to start award schemes to honour workers who make outstanding contributions to ethical standards in their fields. Assistance had been provided to eight such schemes to show public appreciation to their members/workers. Interested organisations can call 2587 9812 for more information.