Michaela Ahlberg

The grey zone : a practical guide to corporate conduct, compliance and business ethics

Trust in leaders at a low point We follow corporate scandals as they unfold in newspapers and other media. There seems to be a never-ending stream of illegal and unethical business conduct. The scandals relating to corruption and money funnelled through complex ownership structures to offshore accounts. Sweatshops with children and adults working under, what can only be described as, slave-like conditions. Leaders taking advantage of entrusted power, sexual advances, lewd and improper so-called jokes and discrimination. Adding harassment and bullying of employees who speak up, blind-eyeing unacceptable behaviour, companies are put to shame and struggle to explain how they ended up where they are and how they plan to credibly deal with the challenges. Words - Action - Change There are plenty of statements - words - out there, fine-tuned by communications departments. Everyone seems to want to "do the right thing". But how are these words put into action and is the action leading to real and lasting change? Dedicated ethics and compliance work enables you to put words into action and action into change. This book shows you how to put policies, procedures and compliance frameworks in place. Indeed hard work but not enough to ensure real and lasting change. To achieve change one must also look at the compliance methodology as a tool to make the dilemmas visible, enabling and empowering leaders to tackle them. Dilemmas are rarely black or white, different priorities and human factors add to the complexity of creating a grey zone of right and wrong. Leaders must step up and learn to navigate the grey zone to make decisions, defining who they and their companies truly are. Ethics and Compliance, empowering businesses and their leaders Ethics is the possibility, the capability and the courage to choose