For a company whose reputation for accuracy and honesty was built on faithfully reporting the news, its a bit offputting to find the BBC in the headlines as much as it is these days. Today's edition finds BBC Director General, Mark Thompson, apologising for a pattern of deception extending across many of its high-profile phone-in competitions - including on charity programmes for Comedy Relief, Sport Relief and Children in Need.
The importance of strong values was one of the themes highlighted in the recent Tomorrow's Global Company Inquiry - a multi-stakeholder process that included BP, Infosys, Ford, Amnesty International and the International Institute for Sustainable Development. While many people scoff at the fluffiness of values, this BBC episode underlines why intangibles are so important, and can have tangible impacts.
What is the Beeb's response? As reported in today's FT, all staff will now be required to attend an ethics course. Moreover ... Mark Thompson has warned that some senior staff may be suspended.
What?
A pattern of systematic ethical lapses which results in the BBC lying to its audience, with impacts also on the reputation of several high profile charities, and the reaction: staff attend a course, and there is a risk that some staff are suspended.
Yes: staff should be helped to understand what is expected of them in the workplace. Changing employee behaviour requires helping them understand what is right and wrong, but also showing them that ethics is an important part of their job.
So a course on ethics might help. But only an idiot or a crook would think that falsifying competitions is acceptable behaviour - in particular at a company whose business model is built on trust. If heads do not roll, staff will understand that upholding the BBC's values is not really an important part of their job. That will not be their fault, it will be Mark Thompson's fault for not sending the right signals.
If, however, staff cannot be fired for serious unethical behaviour because of the terms of their employment contract, that is an even bigger problem.
RSS feeds