Benefits of mitigating ethical risks in corporations

Ethics is the discipline that deals with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation.

It involves systematising, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behaviour. Ethics seeks to resolve questions of human morality by defining concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime.

The bottom line of ethics is “doing the right thing”.

Does Kenya have a definite and clearly pointed moral compass? Our direction-givers, notably the politicians, religious leaders, professional bodies and labour unions usually point their followers or members to some direction.

Are such directions aligned with our understanding of what is right, good, virtuous and just?

There is a proliferation of religious faiths in the country courtesy of the freedoms granted by our liberal Constitution.

However, such a plethora of religious affiliations has not positively correlated with our collective ethical standards.

Chapter Six of our Constitution discourses on “leadership and integrity”. It elaborates on the requisite conduct, financial probity and restriction on activities of State officers.

Certainly if we were to strictly adhere to the spirit and letter of this chapter we would have been able to resolve more than 75 per cent of our current national problems in one fell swoop.

The State loses billions of shillings annually due to unethical practices of officers and the political elite.

The private sector also stimulates corruption in the government in its pursuit for procurement contracts among other favours.

The government should develop a solid framework for the systematic implementation of Chapter Six of the Constitution.

During the first term of Mwai Kibaki’s presidency, the country had a ministry responsible for ethics. It is high time such a ministry is re-instituted and resourced with capable staff to lead the country in finding its ethical direction; we are currently in an ethical jungle.

Unethical behaviour lies at the root of most of the problems that ail our country. The missing variable in our equation for economic and social success is an “upright people” willingly observing acceptable moral values and ethical standards.

It is high time the government and Kenyans in general become unorthodox and place more emphasis on individual responsibility.

The reasons our development agenda gets derailed and our collective problems get complex by the day is the chronic failure to “do the right thing” both at individual and government level. A low ethical index precipitates low-energy and the warped sub-optimal thinking we currently experience in our society.

Ethics presumes the existence of patterns and rules that transcend the individual. Therefore, if  ethical risks are not proactively mitigated, we shall never ascend  above the self-driven cognitive capacities of selfish individualism.

The principles of ethical behaviour are located in the psychological structures of the individual and are determined and refined by social factors – role demands, class interests, national policies, ethnic antagonisms, religion among others.

Our liberation from the prevailing collective all-pervading sub-optimal performance lies in the proactive identification and relentless mitigation of ethical risks.

Living within the perimeter of Chapter Six of our Constitution is a sure moral and ethical compass that will never play false in our journey into a great nation.

Dr Jonah Mosso, Risk Management and Governance Specialist.