Getting back to basics – Who? Why?

Last week there was news that four Rio Tinto executives had been convicted of taking bribes and stealing commercial secrets.  They’d plead guilty to the bribery charges and denied the industrial espionage charges.  They will serve from 7 to 14 years in a Chinese prison.  All four have since been fired from the company.

Rio Tinto is by all accounts a good company.  It has a Code of Conduct that is well communicated – direct, easy to understand, all employees must read it when they join the organization, and attend annual sessions to understand what it means for them in their jobs.  It’s also publicly available on their website.

Rio Tinto is a company that benchmarks and follows best practice. The communication of the Code of Conduct certainly falls into that category.  [Full disclosure in a past life I was an employee of Alcan now a division of Rio Tinto]

So what happened?  Is this just a case of  “bad apples”?  Maybe.  But for the purpose of discussion let’s explore what could happen if we wanted to communicate a Code of Conduct and followed bench marked best practice without asking ourselves two basic questions – Who are we communicating with? And why?

Let’s start with who? Answer:  All employees.

Next question:  Who are all employees? Answer:  Well they are managers and miners.  And, in a global company like this one they’re from cultures and/or working in industries where the Code of Conduct is nothing new and in cultures and/or working in industries where the Code of Conduct is asking for a radical change in behaviour.

Why are we communicating the Code of Conduct? Answer: Something like to ensure appropriate [according to the law, our values, etc.] and consistent behaviour of all our employees.

From a communications point of view now I think it gets really interesting.  If you’re from and working in the West, the Code of Conduct is for the most part guidance and a reminder of behavioural norms that are well known and understand.  So reading it when you start your job and meeting with your colleagues once a year to discuss for an hour or so would probably do the job.

But, if you’re from, and working in, Africa the code of Conduct may represent a radical change of behaviour that goes against cultural norms.  And if you’re from the West working in Africa you may be comfortable with the behaviours described in the Code of Conduct but how do you get the job done without following cultural norms especially if you’re working in an industry where the competition is?

There’s not a one-size fits all solution to communicating even something as straight forward as a Code of Conduct.  So what does this mean for Communications?  How do we become more than message pushers?

Tags: Behaviour change, Benchmarking, Best in class, Code of Conduct, Corporate social responsibility, Cultural norms, Culture change, Disciplined approach, Legal