La mondialisation, le leadership ethique et le GRHi

Abstract

Until recently the tendency had been to treat issues of personal ethics, organisational ethics, national ethics and global ethics as separate notions, linked in only tenuous ways. However, international initiatives addressing anti-corruption, such as those by the OECD and the United Nations, and the work of such bodies as the Caux Round Table, Transparency International and others, indicate that international actors will be of great significance in placing pressure on nations, and organisations operating within (and beyond) them, to improve their integrity. The impact of these initiatives will likely be slow in changing national cultures and even slower in changing the behaviour of organisations and, in turn, slower still in changing the people working in the organisations. To encourage more immediate impacts an enhanced process, which simultaneously forces the ethical leadership and enhanced organisational integrity agenda from the opposite direction, is required.

At the national level we have seen a developing focus on assessing national 'Integrity Systems', to assist in providing national perspectives on whether the institutions, policies and procedures exist to achieve an effective national integrity system. However, no matter how sound an integrity system is, it is the people, primarily the leaders at all levels, who drive organisational directions, create and sustain ethical climates and provide the major incentives or disincentives for people to behave with integrity in organisations and employee ethical behaviour.

This chapter therefore seeks to examine the role that values-based ethical leadership plays in developing ethical organisations that are sustainable in the continually changing global environment. Sustainable ethical organisations form the basis for strong national integrity systems, which lay the foundations for future global integrity outcomes. We argue that global integrity, through the foundations of strong ethical leadership in organisations and nations can provide that necessary predictability to enable the global community to respond to the demands of globalisation.

In making these arguments we recognise the considerable interplay of complex human relationships within individual organisations. In this context, the quality of the leadership is a critical dynamic, as it deeply influences the predictability of the behaviour of people in organisations. We also give considerable emphasis to the human capital aspects of integrity and how these can be achieved and sustained in ethical organisations through fully effective and integrity focused Human Resource Management principles and practices.