GRC Solutions host regular Compliance forums in Sydney and soon to be Melbourne. The forums are well attended by practitioners charged with organisational development, governance and workplace practices. Last week I took the time to attend the forum topic The How and Why of Building an Ethical Organisational Culture presented by Stuart Palmer of the St James Ethics Centre. I was hoping to expand my repertoire of argument that self-directed compliance e-learning (e.g. Code of Conduct and Ethics) is an inadequate mechanism for attaining an ethical organisational culture. I was not disappointed.
No doubt my distillation of what I got from the forum will not give justice to the salient points that Stuart provided. Nevertheless, here are my takeaways as I compared what Stuart was saying to the typical compliance e-learning that I see in many organisations:
Now, I appreciate compliance e-learning plays an important role in managing corporate risk, and occasionally it teaches the compliant staff member something they didn’t already know. However, too many times I see organisations over-rely on what compliance e-learning can do for their culture and climate. To build an ethical culture takes conversation, consistency and commitment – far more than what self-directed compliance e-learning can achieve on it’s own. Compliance e-learning should always be only one part of a holistic strategy in building an ethical organisation.
In my E-Learning Academy blog post, I have provided tips to improve the instructional design of compliance e-learning.
Thank you to Stuart Palmer and to GRC Solutions for providing practitioners with a forum for discussing these vexing organisational challenges.
Thanks for this piece Alison. This is an important discussion. I agree – compliance e-learning will never create a compliant culture. Compliance e-learning can only be effective in passing on a message IF the ethical and compliant culture is already in place and is actively part of everyday activity. Such a culture is surely one where everyone values, respects and takes care of everyone else. This can only be achieved through interaction between people, as you say, conversation, consistency and commitment.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Robyn. You have a good point that the effectiveness of compliance e-learning in passing on a message is dependent upon the existing culture. Much appreciated.