While Boards and the C-suite have started to recognize that their actions, attitudes and decisions have a direct influence on the cultures of their organizations, the truth is that corporate conduct is not shaped solely by the few people at the top of the corporate ladder.

While no company can expect to be "ethical" with an apathetic (or worse, unethical) CEO or other C-level executives, an ethical culture needs to be embedded into all levels of a company’s personnel. It is likely that most employees take their cues about what is and is not acceptable practice in their company from those immediately around them: their manager and their peers, rather than directly emulating senior management. Therefore, if a company is serious about effecting positive change in its corporate culture, it should explore methods of influencing peer-to-peer behavior.

How can a company promote positive role modeling and high standards of conduct within the ranks, rather than just at the top?  One option is to complement company-wide ethics education programs with smaller-scale unit/team culture building and training programs that connect the corporate mission and values to the day-to-day work and challenges of the individual teams. Such programs, which encourage teams to articulate their own missions and goals that connect to the values of the company, show employees how corporate values come into play in their daily tasks and force employees to think about the impact that any misconduct may have on their co-workers and the reputation of their entire team.

The objective of such an approach is to set a high standard for conduct and accountability within a work group, but it is a standard set and agreed upon by members of the group. It is also a standard that is encouraged by an employee’s peers and, if necessary, enforced by those same peers. The team charter and mission statement ultimately arrived at should clearly dovetail with the company’s Code of Conduct, mission and values, but at the same time provide an individual articulation of how a team is contributing to that mission and upholding the corporate values at a "local" level.

Of course this approach will invariably result in differences between one team/department’s values and the next. But by allowing the tailoring of the corporate values to the department’s mission, a deeper sense of connection and commitment to the overarching goals of the organization is fostered. Furthermore, in the foreign offices of multi-national organizations, where the resident employees may have a harder time connecting the corporate values to the local culture and customs, the local culture building approach helps a company bridge that gap.

"Tone at the Top", "Message in the Middle" are extremely important, but "Behavior at the Bottom" is critical in fostering an ethical culture and preventing a crisis.

In future newsletter articles, we will discuss more specific programs based on the team/unit culture-building model.

WORKING VALUES LTD. is a business ethics and training company. Through a variety of products and services, including Web-based compliance and ethics programs, on-site training, video and award-winning ethics games for employees, Working Values aims to align employee behavior with company values. For more information as to how Working Values can narrow your company's Behavior-Standards Gap, visit www.workingvalues.com or contact cgebler@workingvalues.com. For news on ethics in the workplace, visit SmartPros Ethics & Compliance.