Today, we met with the head of the Center for Transparency and Accountability in Liberia. In talking about elections, corruption, and funding of political parties in the country one interesting example came up that captures well the issues that arise in ethical business practices.
During the country’s last elections, you could see company vehicles driving around with bumper stickers and other types of advertisements supporting different candidates. The problem, of course, was that companies themselves were not taking a position one way or another – these were simply the employees that had access to these vehicles expressing their own views and opinions. In the eyes of the unsuspecting public, however, it could be easily viewed as if companies were advocating for candidates of their choice.
How do you deal with such issues as a company? Certainly, instituting codes of conduct is important, but a greater challenge lies in enforcing those codes. In countries where companies’ participation in elections is heavily regulated (or prohibited) this could get a lot of people into trouble.
Published Date: February 16, 2007