Measuring your Integrity Temperature
Measuring your Integrity temperature through the Integrity Thermometer
For Board and management it is essential to have a clear picture on the ethical issues occurring at all levels of the organization and the overall status of company integrity.
The current turbulent economic times have created an environment where there is a higher risk of fraud and/or misconduct. Cost saving measures, reorganizations and take-overs, etc., are contributing factors. Fraud and/or misconduct may lead to scandals that are widely covered in the press, badly damaging an organization’s reputation. To fight fraud and misconduct, however, the first line of defense remains the ‘integrity’ of an organization and its employees. A sound integrity policy should be embedded in a company code and should give employees the freedom to report and discuss unwanted conduct. Good conduct should be anchored in an organization’s structure and processes (e.g. reward systems, recruitment and selection procedures, the administrative organization and internal controls).
A multitude of initiatives to raise and keep integrity up to standard, still do not offer organizations insight into the degree to which they are ‘in control’.
Many Corporate Governance Codes in the world also include the requirement to have internal monitoring mechanisms to determine periodically the ethical quality of the work environment and the level of compliance with internal codes of conduct. Auditors are increasingly obliged to evaluate the ethics and integrity of the internal organization.
It is essential that the board and management of an organization have a clear picture of the ethical issues occurring at all levels of the organization.
Board and management should have answers to these questions in order to enable them to develop a supplementary or new policy, or to qualify the current policy as adequate.
The KPMG Integrity Thermometer can provide answers to the above questions. The Integrity Thermometer is a brief and proven questionnaire that assesses (in hard copy or digital form) the extent to which unwanted behavior may occur, the employees’ attitude in this respect and how the organization contributes to (un)wanted behavior. It comprises generic and customized questions.
Download our brochure “Integrity Thermometer“ or take a look at our fact sheet Fraud Risk & Integrity Management
The current turbulent economic times have created an environment where there is a higher risk of fraud and/or misconduct. Cost saving measures, reorganizations and take-overs, etc., are contributing factors. Fraud and/or misconduct may lead to scandals that are widely covered in the press, badly damaging an organization’s reputation. To fight fraud and misconduct, however, the first line of defense remains the ‘integrity’ of an organization and its employees. A sound integrity policy should be embedded in a company code and should give employees the freedom to report and discuss unwanted conduct. Good conduct should be anchored in an organization’s structure and processes (e.g. reward systems, recruitment and selection procedures, the administrative organization and internal controls).
A multitude of initiatives to raise and keep integrity up to standard, still do not offer organizations insight into the degree to which they are ‘in control’.
Many Corporate Governance Codes in the world also include the requirement to have internal monitoring mechanisms to determine periodically the ethical quality of the work environment and the level of compliance with internal codes of conduct. Auditors are increasingly obliged to evaluate the ethics and integrity of the internal organization.
It is essential that the board and management of an organization have a clear picture of the ethical issues occurring at all levels of the organization.
- Which forms of unethical conduct occur in our organization and to what extent are we aware of them?
- Are the statistics on unethical conduct that are known to management only the tip of the iceberg, or do they represent the full picture?
- What is the nature and seriousness of these forms of behavior and what are the attitudes of employees towards such behavior?
- Can any trends be determined in the behavior of employees?
- What should we do to address the situation?
Board and management should have answers to these questions in order to enable them to develop a supplementary or new policy, or to qualify the current policy as adequate.
The KPMG Integrity Thermometer can provide answers to the above questions. The Integrity Thermometer is a brief and proven questionnaire that assesses (in hard copy or digital form) the extent to which unwanted behavior may occur, the employees’ attitude in this respect and how the organization contributes to (un)wanted behavior. It comprises generic and customized questions.
Download our brochure “Integrity Thermometer“ or take a look at our fact sheet Fraud Risk & Integrity Management
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