Belanjawan 2021: Women and integrity

Malaysian women have achieved much progress and stand at par with their counterparts in developed countries.

In fact, in many areas of life they are even more progressive in response to government policy, which gives significant attention to women’s empowerment as they constitute more than half of the country’s labor force.

In Malaysia women have good access to educational and career opportunities and have entered most of the professions that were once the bastions of men such as in the engineering, technical and public works sectors.

Access to economic opportunities is growing as more women are prepared to venture into business and entrepreneurship.

However, women still face discrimination in terms of wages and remunerations on the factory floor, in menial and manual labor, that is, wherever physical work is required.

They are also disadvantaged in promotions to higher management positions in the private and public sectors, where the jobs require more arduous and exacting responsibilities.

In fact women themselves often turn down these career prospects and are not prepared to undertake them because of their family and domestic commitments.

In politics and government, women lag behind men in holding leadership positions and getting their voices heard in planning, policymaking and advocacy matters.

The 30% quota is far from being met in cabinet and state executive councils, in the federal parliament and state assemblies.

The underlying patriarchal system prevalent in male-dominated sectors, such as the family and socio-cultural community, is a major drawback that prevents women’s full participation.

The 30% quota reserved for women is testimony to women’s unequal status in the country’s development and acts as an artificial, contrived benchmark now that many more women have the capacity and qualifications.

Where women perform equally well, for instance in academia and politics, the quota deters progress and does not help to optimize their contributions to the nation.

Policies must be in place and laws amended to realize the full potential of the country’s women as a formidable work force.

An important consideration is the appointment of women to positions where they are able to contribute their innate abilities as well as the special skills acquired through education and training.

Because of their role as wives and mothers who handle family matters and multitask efficiently on a daily basis, women are especially suited to management and organizational work.

The smooth-running of any outfit that involves managing different focus groups, laying down rules and regulations for their proper coordination and ensuring outcomes is best managed by women.

As managers women will do well in setting up guidelines for the right work attitude, conduct and behavior of team members and creating a workplace culture focused on ethical standards and practices.

In today’s volatile, ever-changing environment numerous variables affect people’s perceptions and thinking, some of which inevitably filter into their workspace.

To counter adverse influences, it is important to build a work culture that places the highest importance on ethics and principles of good conduct and behavior.

Given positive changes in the socio-cultural mindset, conducive ecosystems in the workplace and the right attitudes towards women’s leadership abilities at all levels, the nation’s good governance and integrity movement can be successfully effected by putting more women in key positions in any organization.

With the rampant and widespread occurrence of workplace crimes today, creating ethical standards and imposing strict controls must be given top priority in any kind of organizational or workplace management.

Employees will be clear about the department’s or organisation’s expectations, obligations and prohibitions when standards are set forth clearly and without ambiguity,

These ethical standards in the workplace, which are partially based on laws and regulations and partially on the work culture the organization establishes become the foundation for employees to know exactly where they stand in enhancing their own and the organization’s image to achieve greater outcomes.

In a workplace which abides by rules and regulations, fewer human resource issues arise, staff morale takes priority and productivity is ensured.

Morals and ethics go hand-in-hand and should be of concern to all organisations.

Operating an ethical and moral workplace depends not only on how its owners, managers and board members behave, but also its employees and how they interact with one another, with stakeholders and clients, and with the society at large.

The word integrity crops up regularly in the course of explicating the notions of morals and ethics, good governance and management.

In fact, it should stand as the basic principle of engaging people and “doing business”, whether it is in the public or private sector.

At the individual level, personal integrity is the hallmark of a person’s standing in society and the communities he or she represents.

Integrity is essentially the quality of being honest and upright, which involves showing a consistent and uncompromising adherence to strong moral and ethical principles and values. It can be simply regarded as the trustworthiness of a person and his or her actions.

In a family, integrity is the binding force when members are honest and truthful with one another.

The family culture and value system are sustained by a set of living principles that builds a strong home and family relationships.

Where there is trust, there is harmony in efforts to achieve the best outcomes for family members. As heads or leaders of the family, parents are responsible for upholding the highest standards of integrity, which their children will emulate.

At the workplace, apart from the necessary qualifications and skills, employers look for outstanding personal attributes in the people they hire.

A person who demonstrates sound moral and ethical principles, such as honesty and truthfulness at work, will catch the attention of the organization’s leaders as these qualities are central to the professional integrity of the organization and affirm its good reputation among stakeholders.

In society, a professional is one who willingly "adopts" and consistently applies the knowledge, skills and values of a chosen profession.

To do this, professionals must have the integrity necessary to uphold work principles as well as the social standards or moral values of the society they belong to.

The integrity of people in the workplace is of great importance as these traits foster a positive workplace culture where there is open communication, good decision making and a strong moral compass guiding all decisions and actions.

Among the attributes, which show a person has personal and professional integrity are truthfulness, trustworthiness, honesty, uprightness, righteousness, self-awareness, decency, sincerity, responsibility, accountability, loyalty, principles and morals. These are the multifarious facets of integrity.

It is indisputable that as daughters, wives and mothers, women play a vital role in shaping the family culture and its ethical-moral values.

Their role and responsibility in the family require them not only to promote good conduct and behavior among family members but to check on them when they step out of line.

This implies that they themselves must be exemplary role models especially to their children.

As a partner in the marriage, it is also incumbent upon them to ensure that both parents show ethical conduct and behavior.

The belief that women tend to have higher, more steadfast ethical standards and act more ethically than men is supported by current research which shows women identify themselves with moral traits such as fairness, honesty, and loyalty more strongly than men.

Men, on the other hand, seem to have more lenient ethical standards driven in part by their desire to prove their masculinity.

While women agonize about making an ethical decision, men see it as just a pragmatic business decision that puts them on top of the pecking order.

In these challenging modern times, the lack of integrity is known to have serious ramifications as seen in the upsurge of unethical business practices and corporate crimes.

It is therefore essential for an organization to achieve a balance in gender attitudes towards work by countering men's tendency to downplay ethical standards with women's inclination towards principles and moral values.

A country’s real progress lies in the highest standards of governance and integrity shown in its public and private sectors, it would be in everybody’s interest to empower women by putting them in leadership positions where their natural tendencies to make ethical choices will play an important part in the establishment of ethical workplace culture and practices.

Besides their natural organizational and management skills, women will add great value to the organization in imbibing principles of integrity.

Thus in Malaysia’s development, one of the areas which can be effectively prioritized to boost national development and achieve greater prosperity is to enhance women’s role in promoting integrity.

It is the writer’s belief that women can be effectively mobilized as leaders in the country’s integrity movement.

Women comprise more than half of the country’s workforce and as employees they can be trained to augment their natural abilities to promote good ethics and morality at the workplace.

• Public awareness and education on what governance and integrity mean; their attributes and characteristics should be promoted in different contexts through advertorials and campaigns in the public arena (TV, print media, social media, billboards, civil society platforms) as well as designated spaces within organizations.

• Efforts to create awareness and educate the public must be reinforced by the relevant national agencies such as MACC and INTEGRITI.

• Proper training infrastructure focused on moral and ethical principles to be set up for all levels of staff in the organization through their Human Resource Department and Integrity Unit.

• Adoption of best practice methods and strategies successfully implemented in model countries such as New Zealand, Sweden and Japan.

• Public-private sector and community role models to address target groups on governance and integrity matters with a view to getting them involved in CSR programs and activities which promote good values.

• Stakeholders must be invited to contribute knowledge, information and experience of unethical or immoral conduct and behavior (financial mismanagement, power abuse, dishonesty, cheating, lying, bribery and corruption), which are damaging to the organisation.

• Elicit feedback on poor ethical and moral standards shown in the bad attitude, conduct and behavior among different groups in the community, for example enforcement agencies, staff and students in schools and institutions of higher learning, government departments, the business community, political parties and politicians. Bribery and corruption cases reported regularly in the media are good topics for discussion. • Management must set up peer monitoring and counseling services to remove apprehension and fear of remand from superiors where those who are found to have committed an offence will be given a hearing and a chance to reform.

• An effective recognition and acknowledgement mechanism must be in place to reward those who are exemplary in manifesting different aspects of good governance and integrity.

Good governance and integrity are key to managing a successful organization or company.

The two concepts, however, need to be fully understood in order for members and staff to be fully cognizant of the ethical standards, good conduct and behavior expected of them.

Apart from knowing what the terms and their various attributes mean, people must be made fully aware of the ramifications of the lack of moral and ethical standards in the management of an organization or business.

Office crimes, such as cheating, financial abuse, misappropriation of funds and criminal breach of trust, are the damaging outcomes of mismanagement and poor governance.

The absence of good governance is conducive to an ecosystem of financial abuse, bribery and corruption and opens the door wide to negative influences from within the organization and from outside.

The lack of integrity underscores all dishonest practices, conduct and behavior.

Integrity is the bedrock of good governance and the moral and ethical standards it promotes.

Everyone in the organization should imbibe a high standard of personal integrity in order for its policies to work smoothly.

It goes without saying that, like parents at home, the leaders at work must be exemplary in holding the highest moral and ethical standards for the people lower down the organizational rungs to follow.

Upholding standards of integrity comes from the role models at the topmost rung.

However, there seems to be a lack of real understanding of the terms “governance” and “integrity” among the public.

There is therefore the need to disseminate information, educate people and create awareness especially among those who are less exposed.

It is necessary to organize forums and workshops where people are engaged in sharing ideas about what constitutes good governance, in identifying the multiple meanings of integrity and determining which meanings are contextually relevant for them.

By conducting interactive sessions facilitated by informed trainers and moderators, knowledge and experience contribute to real understanding and acceptance of these values.

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* Datuk Halimah Mohd Said is the Founder & Former President of Association of Voices of Peace, Conscience and Reason (PCORE).