Archiv der Kategorie: Governance

Governance covers regulations and control aspects.

Let the staff whistle internally

In the first decades of the Internet the form of public sphere and sharing, above all, has changed. Politics, economy and our leisure time look completely different today. Although enterprises exploit in all areas the opportunities of the Information Technology, solutions for an internal culture of self-criticism are not yet sufficiently in place. Traditional hierarchies are just as provocative as centralistic nations. The official routine is not sufficient, in order to guarantee compliance. Information follows its own rules and finds its way into the public. Companies cannot afford any longer to practice business at the edge or even behind legality. To understand the price of a leakage, we have to wait until we will see the costs of the current crisis at Volkswagen. In any case it will cost billions Euros. Instead of pushing the Whistleblower into the arms of the broad public sphere, it would be better to open internal channels that permit the staff to fulfill their need and to whistle internally.

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The board and the executives must understand that the early uncovering of illegal activities ensures the viability of the enterprise. It is not a matter of betrayal, disloyalty or unfaithfulness to reveal or publish scandals by so-called whistleblowers, but a mechanism of the self-preservation. Nobody stands above or outside of the law. Unfortunately bosses perceive it differently. Whistleblowers are considered as traitors. The efforts of the enterprise are limited to the effectively published implementation of an internal revision. Their task is to discover flaws and to suggest improvement measures. Why not establishing an internal whistleblower system that allows all employees to communicate their observations anonymously, without being afraid of personal consequences? For this purpose it can be helpful to consider the following aspects.

  • Holistic focus
    There should be an internal understanding of the enterprise as a whole that stigmatizes departmental egoisms and personal agendas that create disadvantages for the enterprise.
  • Principle of subsidiarity
    Well delimited authorities distribute responsibilities across organizations. In the end the board is no longer automatically liable for failure on a lower level, but the actual responsible people. This is particularly valid for the report of serious offenses.
  • Publish company values
    Laws apply for all employees and executives the same way as for every other citizen. The internal publication of the obligation to comply with laws within the corporate values is important in order to eliminate the impression of the employees that they are in a lawless area.
  • Error culture
    Information that is received through an internal registration office should not be automatically basis for sanctions, but the starting point for eliminating drawbacks.
  • Zero-tolerance
    Illegal behavior should be treated internally in such a way as in the rest of the society. Not each case results in a legal case. Arbitration bodies allow learning from errors and facilitate an adjustment, without the need to unreasonably sanction the failure. In some cases it is inevitable to report certain people to official instances, since you make yourself guilty due to connivance.
  • Sense of injustice
    A new task for legal or the newly created compliance departments will be the education of the right understanding of the employees. Only with this sense of injustice, together with the internal procedure for whistleblowers, the enterprise can hope for better compliance of the employees.
  • Internal whistling
    Difficulties happen frequently at the individual workplaces. Employees can trigger corrections of erroneous trends for the advantage of the enterprise and thus for the own well-being. In some cases the difficulties become only visible from a holistic perspective. Then also executives have to participate.

The conception that large organizations are lawless areas is over, at the latest since the introduction of compliance departments. Whether an enterprise gets a sense of justice by employing former FBI officials may be a matter of calming of relations with US-authorities. However, compliance begins in the mind of each employee. In order to prevent inner conflicts of the employees, it is surely smarter to let them whistle internally.

Bottom line: Nobody stands above the law. And laws that must be obeyed can be found in all areas of the enterprise. An internal system for reporting illegal practices is better than pushing the employees into the public. The damage is then much larger. For this reason enterprises should let their staff whistle internally.

Rules rule rules that rule rules

In times of increasing bureaucratization it becomes more difficult to oversee the innumerable rules that must be followed. Since the employees act autonomously and each detail cannot be regulated from the top, they need a clear set of rules. In order to provide the best possible directions, the enterprises use for example COSO and COBIT as a guideline, i.e. standards for implementing the Governance. The trend to a constantly growing number at standards is foreseeable. Let’s remember the different standards in Project Management. Do we have to adjust ourselves to the fact that in the future rules rule rules that rule rules?

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A common denominator in the rules is the fact that they follow certain rules. The following aspects define the quality of the Governance.

  • Transparency
    In this case the decisions, the decision path and the principles of leadership should be made accessible to the employees. They should always be able to understand, for what reasons the top management deploys certain rules. At the same time they should understand the point of control for their own influence.
  • Economy
    In order to create a reasonable handling of scarce means, the procedures should be designed accordingly. These definitions prevent an uncontrolled growth of rules and procedures. Beyond that, they reduce the expenditure for the introduction of guidelines and enable over time an improved use.
  • Participation
    The employees are motivated by personal sharing and participation in the designing of the enterprise. They receive with the regulations the right and the obligation to participate in the decision making and the implementations. For this reason clear points of control for the participation of the employees are inserted in the procedures.
  • Competencies
    Through clear assignments of authority and responsibility defined tasks prevent Muda and friction losses. All areas are considered as well as the overlap of authorities and mutual obstructions are prevented. The employees know through the transferred rights and obligations, what they have to do – and what not.
  • Rule of law
    Through the bindingness to the rules for all, without exception, the individual is reinforced. In order to get a functioning interaction, it must be guaranteed that that all are equally treated. For this purpose it needs in case of conflicts a clear procedure as well as an independent board of arbitration that can be called by everybody.
  • Justice
    Through an adequate and demandable reconciliation of interests, the justice offers a general framework that goes beyond the detailed rules. The values of the enterprise need a common, fundamental understanding about what is right and what not. A respective understanding avoids a variety of detailed regulations.

In order to guarantee that the Governance is adapted to the respective conditions, a clear control model is required for the enterprises. Thus, COSO offers a framework for the financial reporting and Cobit for the IT. The Governance can be introduced correctly at the right place with these frameworks.

Bottom line: The build-up of a control system, the Governance, is an effective means, for steering enterprises or departments. Standards facilitate reliably the implementation. It is however important to resist the regulation craze. More is not necessarily better. Rules rule rules that rule the rules is the end of effective rule sets.