[BLOG] Tone at the Top

By Ade Ademokunla

“Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely”. It is evident by our collective public and private leadership abuse of power experiences that this age long quote by Thomas Jefferson is a truism and will remain relevant as long as the human race exists.

Good governance requires setting the right tone at the top from an ethical and moral leadership perspective in both private and public sectors. Hence, from a successful nation building stand point, it becomes significant to institute the enforceable policies and controls. The “Tone at the Top” is now the world’s best practice. It calls for developing and monitoring ethical and moral policies/standards as agreed to by organization leaders and stakeholders.

Do you know your company’s “Tone at the Top”? Do you have a transparent “Tone at the top or a code of conduct” primarily for your company’s leaders?  Who is responsible for the audit and when last was it audited for compliance?

Research has proven that abuse of power is less among successful companies with a “Tone at the Top” policy, especially among the ones that have an independent compliance assurance monitoring.

It doesn’t take rocket science for someone to figure out that a car driver would most likely stop at a camera red light junction, knowing very well a policeman is on standby somewhere watching the traffic flow. The merits of SOD (segregation of duties) cannot be over emphasized in both private and public sectors of our fragile economy, as well as the principle of checks and balances for sustainable development in African countries.

An African adage says “if the head of a fish rots, there’s a strong likelihood that the entire fish is bad or will go rotten”. The establishment of strong toned policies at the top and enforceable codes of conduct for both business and public leaders is a must in order to reduce corruption, malpractices, increase investors’ confidence in a nation, strengthen the economy, boost the country’s image and improve sustainability.

 

Ade Ademokunla, MBA, CIA, CFE, CSOE, CRMA

Africa managing partner & CEO @ Resource Result Ltd.

E-mail – adewale@resourceresult.com

Website – www.resourceresult.com

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