Category: CSR/ECO/ESG

We recently did a poll on whether we need to see more positive news to create optimism and momentum to drive solutions and change or if we need to be confronted with the stark reality of climate change, with a clear split in the results.

(more…)

This post is also available in Dutch here.

Nelleke Buitendijk discusses a newly published study from her and her colleagues on the impact of grazing on agricultural grasslands. Highlights include that decreasing herbivore abundance may not directly translate to a decreased yield loss, and that management tools should be used with care.

Grazing by geese can cause a lot of damage to agricultural crops. Goose management aims to reduce such damages, for example by actively reducing population sizes. An alternative approach is to chase geese away repeatedly in certain areas – encouraging them to move to dedicated agricultural land where they are left in peace (so-called accommodation areas).

However, many of the goose species that now occur in large numbers were threatened with extinction only a few decades ago, and are still protected as a result. Therefore, we need to be sure that a particular management approach will result in a decreased impact on agriculture before applying it – especially when the approach can have a negative effect on the species in question.

We looked at the relationship between assessed damages on agricultural grassland and the number of geese to help us understand how changing the number of geese in an area can affect yields. We included barnacle, white-fronted and greylag geese in our study, and focused on the first harvest in accommodation areas in Fryslân, the Netherlands. The Dutch Center for Field Ornithology (Sovon) provided detailed monthly goose counts, which we combined with tracking data from geese we equipped with GPS-transmitters. We received reports on assessed damages from BIJ12, who handle compensations for fauna damages in the Netherlands.

More geese may not always lead to more damage

Our study in Journal of Applied Ecology shows that yield loss is higher when there are more barnacle geese, but the two do not increase at an equal rate: for every extra barnacle goose added to a field, the subsequent extra damage is a little less. This means that concentrating geese in accommodation areas might result in lower overall yield losses, while population reduction may not be an effective tool to lower damages.

The relationship also depends on the presence of other goose species, with highest damages occurring when there are only barnacle geese on a field. In the region we studied, white-fronted and greylag geese have little effect on the assessed losses to spring harvests. This is likely because these species start their migration to the breeding grounds much earlier than barnacle geese and well before the time of first harvest.

Small and large goose species have different feeding preferences

We also see that large flocks of barnacle geese do not occur together with large numbers of white-fronted and greylag geese. This is likely because the species have different food preferences. Barnacle geese have a small bill, and can easily handle short grass, which is more difficult for the two larger species. However, the larger white-fronted and greylag geese have the benefit of a longer digestive tract, which helps to digest tough foods avoided by smaller species. This means that an area suitable for one goose species may be unattractive to another.

It may even be suggested that larger species are pushed out of areas where barnacle geese are abundant, because the grass has been grazed too short. A study in Norway also observed this, with larger pink-footed geese leaving areas where large numbers of barnacle geese had moved.

If these areas are too small to accommodate multiple goose species, large goose species may be forced out of safe accommodation areas. Subsequently, the larger species would suffer more from active scaring or derogation shooting (i.e. chasing geese away by shooting at them, under permit) outside of refuges, while potentially contributing less to agricultural yield loss.

Implications for management of wild herbivores

Our results show that we need to be careful when using management practices such as population reduction or active scaring. These practices can negatively affect the animals in question, while not necessarily reducing yield loss. It is also important to ensure that any management targets the right species; some species may affect yields much more than others. Finally, to make sure all species can find refuge, accommodation areas should represent feeding grounds of multiple species, and should be large enough to prevent competition between them.

Read the full article, “More grazing, more damage? Assessed yield loss on agricultural grassland relates nonlinearly to goose grazing pressure“, in Journal of Applied Ecology

by Gael O’Brien

Sigal Barsade, a pioneering researcher on the impact of emotions in the workplace, leaves a legacy for leaders who want to get their culture right. Professor Barsade, the Joseph Frank Bernstein Professor of Management at Wharton, died at 56 in February 2022 of brain cancer. For nearly 30 years, she researched, taught, and consulted on “how emotions shape workplace culture and influence the performance of both individual employees and teams.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, business articles encouraged leaders to lead with empathy. Many did. However, leading with compassion is often more effective. Barsade’s and Olivia O’Neill’s research had already demonstrated that “Employees Who Feel Love Perform Better” and have more job satisfaction and loyalty. The love referenced is “companionate love,” emotions that Barsade knew belonged in the workplace like compassion, caring, kindness and warmth. However, many leaders, she said, haven’t made room for emotions at work or connected love to culture. Their focus is cognitive culture, setting the tone for how employees think and behave at work.

Barsade argued leaders needed to broaden their idea of culture. Emotional culture, she explained “is the set of emotions necessary for a group to enact to meet its goals.” Her work was ahead of its time and so relevant now. Her research on managing emotional culture, how emotions spread (emotional contagion) and balancing cognitive and emotional cultures were followed by next-step approaches. We’ll look at some. Getting culture right means leaders working with culture in its entirety (cognitive and emotional), modeling the behaviors and emotions they want to cultivate supporting employee and company success.

When culture isn’t approached that way, problems multiply. While expressing emotions connected to companionate love support healthy cultures, a recent study indicates toxic cultures are a driver in “the Great Resignation.” In addition, Navex’s 2022 Global Incident Management Benchmark Study documents that workplace incivility is on the rise. Do we really want culture to slide backwards?

Living the Work 

Growing up, seeds of Barsade’s big purpose were planted as she listened to her parents talk at dinner about their work days. She learned about the human dynamics of management from their stories. The discussions, she said, gave her an appreciation for the importance of one’s work life. As an undergraduate, she decided her career would involve helping improve people’s work experience. Before getting her doctorate in organizational behavior, she worked as an executive assistant to CEOs in different industries to gain workplace experience.

An advisee of Barsade’s wrote on social media after her death: “She was an unstoppable force. Fierce in advocacy for people and ideas.” Sigal Barsade operated out of high emotional intelligence. She expressed the kindness and care of companionate love, which increased her impact and drew others to her. She wanted business leaders to make room for “feelings people have and express at work.” Wharton Dean Erika H. James, wrote that Barsade “encouraged business leaders to think differently and widen their beliefs about what matters in the workplace.”

Thinking Differently About Culture  

The role of emotional culture

A theme throughout much of Barsade’s work is how emotions and managing them are central to building the right culture. Corporate culture contains both emotional and cognitive cultures and each transmits differently. Cognitive culture is often communicated verbally while emotional culture is often communicated nonverbally through facial expressions and body language.

“Companies that build the optimum ratio of cognitive and emotional culture for their employees,” Barsade wrote and “can succeed in generating the best worker performance with the lowest turnover.” However, when leaders disregard emotional culture, she added, “they overlook a fundamental part of being human and thereby stunt the potential of their companies.”

Employee satisfaction, teamwork, burnout, financial performance, and work absences are influenced by emotional culture. Positive emotions impact quality, better performance, and customer service. If negative emotions are constructive, they can be useful, but otherwise, they can lead to undesirable outcomes. The current rise in toxic cultures would be one example.

Aligning reality with the intention

Barsade wanted leaders to succeed and provided many ideas for identifying and managing emotional culture. Her big picture was to advocate that what’s expressed in mission statements and other company pronouncements is reflected in daily micro-moments. “For example, little acts of kindness and support can add up to an emotional culture characterized by caring and compassion.” Or a manager’s facial expressions and body language consistently looking angry can cultivate a culture of anger.

Identifying a company’s emotional culture

For leaders who don’t know what their company’s emotional culture is, Barsade suggested a process for how they could measure it:

• Start with “executives verbalizing modeling and rewarding the emotions” they want cultivated in the organization;
• Have “middle management and front-line supervisors transmit those desired emotions” to those reporting to them by verbalizing, modeling, and rewarding;
• Ask employees in a survey “to report on what emotions they see expressed by colleagues around them” rather than asking what they personally feel;
• Do interviews and on-site observations of emotional culture to provide more information; and
• If results indicate widespread negative emotions, leaders must “model the positive emotions they wish to propagate in the group.”

In “Quantifying Your Company’s Emotional Culture”, Barsade and O’Neill point out that groups can have more than one emotional culture. “Once (managers) gauge which cultures are prevalent they can determine which ones they must focus on the most to meet their strategic goals.” Leaders’ behavior is a key tool in changing emotional culture. Their emotional expressions and attitudes influence others.

Emotional Contagion

Employees and leaders at every level “continuously spread their own moods and receive and are influenced by others’ moods.” However, whether negative or positive, emotional contagion can also transfer across workgroups, zoom, “video, television, social media, and even email.”

Barsade wrote that the goal for managers was “an environment that enhances employee engagement and performance by paying attention to the emotional contagion occurring in your team.”  She suggested several “action steps.”

• “Be consciously aware of your own mood. If it’s not one that will be useful to your team, change it;”
• “Use nonverbal behaviors to communicate emotional contagion;”
• “Make direct eye contact with everyone on the team;”
• “Neutralize a negative team member;” and
• “Create a positive emotional culture within the team.”

What Matters in a Workplace

Whether in a company’s location or a home office, what matters in the workplace are people and how the company’s culture impacts and motivates them.

In a 20-minute talk to leaders preserved on YouTube entitled “All You Need is Love … At Work?,” Barsade summarized what matters most in workplaces. She spoke through the lens of emotional culture’s role in fostering business success. She reminded leaders that employees don’t leave their humanity or their emotions at the door when they walk into an organization.

The focus on the importance of humanity is a theme echoed in a recent Fortune article about what it takes to be a great employer now. Cisco has ranked first in 2022 and 2021 on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work for list. One reason for that, according to Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins, is that:

“Employees don’t want to be employees, they don’t want to work for managers and they don’t want to work for executives. They want to be human beings who work for other human beings. And I think authenticity and the importance of being human, understanding the things they’re dealing with as humans, and building that into how you approach them, is so important.”

Sigal Barsade would agree.

Photos of Sigal Barsade courtesy of The Wharton School.

Gael O’Brien is a catalyst in leaders leading with purpose and impact through clarity, presence and connection. She is an executive coach, culture coach, speech coach and presenter. She publishes The Week in Ethics and is also a Business Ethics Magazine columnist, on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University, and a Senior Fellow Social Innovation, the Lewis Institute at Babson College.

Related

(more…)

by Gael O’Brien

EY, the consulting and audit firm, possesses a real sense of irony about ethics.

When the huge global firm earlier this month announced proposed plans to split into two separate organizations – one doing mainly auditing work and the other doing consulting and advisory work – most analysts cited it as an effort to help avoid conflicts of interest between the two businesses. The headline of a Bloomberg Tax article in May 2022 (before EY leaders voted on the split) was “EY Consulting Split Aims to Free Firm from Ethics Crackdown.”

“We firmly believe that we can embrace the changing landscape, build businesses that redefine the future of our professions, create exciting new opportunities, and deliver greater long-term value for EY people, clients and communities,” EY said in announcing the planned changes.

What EY didn’t discuss in its announcement was that only three months ago, in June 2022, EY agreed to pay a $100 million fine and comply with a 16-page Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Order that included twenty “undertakings” the firm would pursue over three years to address ethical issues involving “failures to act with the integrity of a public company auditor.” Specified violations included:

• Hundreds of audit professionals from 2017 to 2021 cheated on exams (especially ethics portions) needed to maintain their Certified Public Accountant (CPA) licenses;
• Significant numbers of employees knew cheating was occurring but didn’t report it;
• EY’s ineffective regular emails on integrity and not cheating; and
• EY intentionally misdirecting an SEC investigation.

Integrity Lite?

Integrity Lite is about words without anchors, like “doing the right thing” (one of EY’s values) and self-justifying the idea that you’re not cheating when, in fact, you are. Ironically, EY’s February 2022 Global Integrity Report helps explain why integrity often stays aspirational and ethical standards aren’t top of mind.

The report surveyed nearly 5,000 board members, senior management, managers, and other employees. Some findings:

• While 97 % of respondents agree integrity is important,
  • only 33% “believe behaving with ethical standards is an important characteristic of integrity;” and
  • only 50% “cite compliance with laws, regulations and codes of conduct as being an important characteristic of integrity;”
• Of all surveyed board members,
  • 42% agree unethical behavior in senior or high performers is tolerated in their organization (up eight points from 2020);
  • 18 percent “would be prepared to mislead external parties such as auditors or regulators to improve their own career progression or renumeration;” and
• “While 60% of board members say their organization has frequently communicated about the importance of integrity in the last 18 months,” only 30% of employees remember it.

These red flags indicate that integrity matters in the big picture but respondents didn’t identify with integrity’s key attributes. For integrity and ethics to take root in every-day work settings, leaders need to explain, model, and act on values and the code of conduct. That works depending on how leaders see and respond to ethical and integrity issues in their own company.

Missing Integrity’s Point

At EY, ethical and integrity issues were words conveyed in values and the new Global Code of Conduct but clearly not a high priority.

In June 2019, the SEC sent EY a formal request asking whether EY knew of any current evidence of cheating. EY had just learned an audit professional had received an unsolicited exam answer key and reported it to a manager who told Human Resources. EY didn’t share the information with the SEC because it wanted to do its own investigation: it addressed instead resolved cheating issues. Nine months later, EY’s investigation finished, it sent information to the SEC. The 2022 Order gave EY credit for “a robust investigation,” but said time was lost and issues overlooked. The Order noted how investors were potentially impacted by EY’s delay:

“EY’s continued misrepresentations to the SEC Division of Enforcement significantly hindered the SEC’s ability to take action that would protect investors from audit professionals who do not understand their ethical obligations, fail to act with appropriate professional integrity and have not met – or needed to cheat in order to meet – minimum professional requirements to demonstrate their knowledge of important accounting principles.”

Included in the “undertakings” are “…policies, procedures and controls relating to ethics and integrity.” Also, EY is required to hire two consultants: one to review EY policies and procedures and the other to review EY disclosure failures. EY created a crisis that could have been avoided. However, being redirected to focus with greater intentionality on culture can enable words on paper to become actions.

Barriers to Ethics and Integrity

Increasingly, disconnects are getting in the way of creating cultures where ethics and integrity have a strong presence. Leaders looking for the disconnects find and resolve them if they want integrity to define their culture and stakeholders’ perceptions.

A barrier to strengthening ethics and integrity is leaders who see their culture as healthier and more ethical than it is. Creating with others company values and code of conduct can make the words chosen already feel engrained when they aren’t.

According to a 2022 Ethics and Compliance Initiative report, only about 15 percent of employees (from small to large organizations) “perceive a strong ethical culture in their organization “A useful question for managers to raise with their teams is: ‘what should a team with integrity act like and what do we need to do more of or less of?’”

The insights in EY’s Global Integrity Report 2022 would’ve been very useful guiding EY in 2019. For example, the Forward indicates another disconnect:

“The challenge is a growing gap between what organizations’ senior leaders say is important and what they are prepared to do for individual gain. What is sometimes called the “say-do“gap is not lost on employees as their confidence in the integrity standards of their management is much less than the managers’ confidence in themselves….”

Many EY audit professionals said they didn’t report exam cheating because they didn’t realize sharing answers was cheating. Others said they didn’t realize they’d violated the code of conduct. Troubling answers. Heavy workloads or not passing the exam previously were excuses from those who cheated. While cheating has no defense, it raises the question, if you want competent professionals, how should a culture support them? If EY had made temporary work adjustments or involved senior CPA’s in ethics training support would that have strengthened the culture and reduced cheating?

Simple Ideas for Reinforcing Ethics and Integrity

To support healthy work cultures, strengthening ethics and integrity is imperative and it will take long-term strategies. However, progress can be made by acting on what makes ethics and integrity more accessible, visible, and tangible. This short list is intended as a thought starter.

• Fifty-five percent of Fortune 100 organizations identify integrity as a core value. However, until a company defines integrity or any value clearly, so employees understand what specific qualities and behaviors are expected, the value lacks power. Managers can play a key role with their teams clarifying and modeling what’s expected if senior leaders set the stage.
• The statistics of only 30 percent of employees remembering emails sent about integrity argue for rethinking how communication can be more interactive and less passive connecting employees to important information.
• Companies including their core values in Job Postings enable applicants to see that values are taken seriously. Prospects are likely to read everything in a posting. Seeing the values sends a message that will likely stay with them if hired.

Leaders need to guard against being ethically mute. The more they create teachable moments bringing stories involving integrity, ethics, or values into a discussion, the more employees understand the behavior expected.

• Companies having internal events for interested employees could create an integrity-ethics roundtable discussion on ethical decision-making using material from business news stories. It could also be used for managers to talk through with their teams ethical problems that arise. Employees need this practice so they are better equipped in understanding and acting on ethical dilemmas.
• The McCombs School of Business (University of Texas at Austin) created over 30 Ethics Unwrapped videos on topics making ethics more accessible. The videos are about 5-minutes, informative, easy to watch and cleverly done. This video on Bounded Ethicality is an example.

Strengthening integrity and ethics strengthens leaders and culture. It also sends Integrity Lite to the recycling bin.

Photo: Raysonho @ Open Grid Scheduler / Grid Engine, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Gael O’Brien is a catalyst in leaders leading with purpose and impact through clarity, presence and connection. She is an executive coach, culture coach, speech coach and presenter. She publishes The Week in Ethics and is also a Business Ethics Magazine columnist, on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University, and a Senior Fellow Social Innovation, the Lewis Institute at Babson College.

 

Related