By Isaac Ato MENSAH
Accra- 3 September, 2018.
We have written so much on the Ghana Banking Scandal (Part 1-5).
One of our regular readers (let us call her Sheila) has insisted that she wants a ‘purely ethical exposition’.
So let’s roll….
Ethics is about making the right choices for ourselves and the society in which we live.
These choices are revealed in our speech and acts of omission and commission.
‘No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth,’ says Plato.
‘And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free,’ says the teacher from Galilee (John 8:32).
The ancient Egyptians believed that within our hearts reside our minds (thoughts and intellect) and our emotions.
The heart therefore had to be weighed against a feather and prove lighter than the latter before the soul could pass on peacefully into eternal rest.
And we have been warned in two holy books that, ‘Without a pure heart, no one can see God’ (1 Peter 1:15-25; Matt 5:8; and the Holy Qu’ran in Surah 8:24).
In any progressive and well governed society there is an urgent need for a leadership of sound core values and accountable management.
Time saving Truth from Falsehood….Falsehood needs clothing to cover shame; Truth doesn’t.
Chris Jones, writing in The Conversation of April 25, 2017 states that ‘Trust is essential to caring and social cohesion’ and this is required for ‘moral leadership’….make that ethical leadership.
Jones further describes categorical ethical qualities that appear to have been lacking in our national banking regulators and leadership,
‘Knowledge and expertise to understand one’s world, place and role in it is extremely important.
It is to know the importance of speaking truth and acting with integrity.
It doesn’t withhold, but discloses.
It doesn’t mock, but respects.
It doesn’t intimidate, but inspires.
It doesn’t manipulate, but motivates.
It doesn’t bully, but protects’.
He also prescribes leaders ‘who have the ability to honestly deal with their own weaknesses’.
It was Paul Lawrence of Harvard Business School who gave a four-factor criteria for ethical leadership; prosperity, peace/trust, knowledge and justice.
Lawrence argued that these are innate drives characteristic of all humans.
‘Leaders honestly ask what other people are entitled to, and then promote it at all cost,’ Chris Jones declares. Ethical leadership ‘doesn’t put a veil over injustice.’
‘This asks tremendous courage, because one is often on one’s own, threatened, bullied and even reviled,’ he further pointed out.
The Islamic perspective to this last point is interesting and relevant.
It is that, ‘individual autonomy (ijtihād) can do much to oppose and even eradicate authoritarianism and patriarchy’, state Nuran Davis and Yusef Waghid in The Conversation of August 17, 2016.
Are you ready for a lone battle…….and suffer death on the cross?
To the Amen corner- those who do not want to rock the boat or be called “DIFFICULT” or “TOO KNOWN”, Dr Stuart Palmer, Head of Ethics Research at Australian Ethical Investment admonishes us to stop making tribes of our opinions.
‘We need to have conversations with people who know things we don’t, and with people we disagree with,’ Palmer is quoted as saying.
In short beware of sycophants, bootlickers and the loafers after a harmonious mediocrity.
La Vérité “Truth” by Jules Joseph Lefebvre. The naked Truth does not feel ashamed…but shines a light upon herself.
Mark Pastin writing in the Huffpost of June 20, 2016 highlights available research data organizations can use to improve their ethics.
He states, ‘The first factor is a work culture in which employees are never retaliated against for reporting concerns. Many studies show that organizations in which employees report errors do better on quality measures……..Employees in all organizations fear retaliation to some extent, especially when reporting on their managers. This fear of speaking up allowed unethical practices to persist at GM and Volkswagen even when many employees knew better.’
Now doesn’t that remind us all of The Emperor’s New Clothes?
One of my mentors has always declared emphatically, ‘The crowning glory of a man’s life is to do the will of God; it is not eternal life’.
Time…..saving the innocent….
So, to Sheila and co, and all those involved in the Ghana banking scandal, and all of us, this is a good and true ethical guide.
At all times, simply try to do the will of God, that’s all.
How do you know the will of God? He is in your heart.
If you still can’t feel him, then just ‘listen to the still small voice of the spirit within you’, suggests another mentor and former employer.
And leave the rest for Him.
Or Her?
And remember….
Even if you escape so called punishment, there shall be divine retribution.
If you don’t believe in divine retribution, then ‘you’re a foolish atheist or an irreligious libertine’.
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