As public concern mounts over unethical corporate behaviour, companies will want to ensure that their ethics programs are as effective as possible. This briefing describes how to measure the performance of an ethics program by creating a credible “performance story”.
Document Highlights
The cost to an organization of a real or perceived ethical lapse is high. Recent corporate scandals in North America have led to greater scrutiny of corporate behaviour and prompted regulators to crack down on businesses that cross the line. As public concern mounts over unethical corporate behaviour, companies will want to ensure that their ethics programs are as effective as possible.
This briefing outlines the challenges and common mistakes in measuring the performance of corporate ethics programs. It then describes how to measure the performance of an ethics program by creating a credible “performance story” that contains:
- clear high-level objectives for the ethics program; and
- a rigorous logic chain describing the planned activities and how they will lead to the desired outcomes.
