Policies that dampen your spirits

Oct 15, 04

Keppel Corporation is among the first companies in Singapore to create a policy to protect whistle blowers (Search for ?Making every Keppelite accountable’)

While such policies are supposed to represent enlightened management, I can?t help but feel that organizations should be focusing on creating a culture that thrives on trust, integrity and openness.
The need ?to protect whistle blowers? would become redundant if only leaders spent more time to

  • Practise and demonstrate values of trust and integrity
  • Create space for dialogue and interaction
  • Create an environment for respect and understanding
  • When Warren Buffet stepped in to bail out Saloman Brothers in the year 1990, these are the words he used to address Saloman?s managers on the standards he would use:
    ?Anything not only on the line, but near the line, will be called out.?

    His test of integrity was very simple:

    He asked employees to apply the ‘newspaper test’ to their every decision: Would they be prepared to read whatever they were about to do in a local paper, “there to be read” by “spouse, children, and friends”?

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