This post is brought by Director of Ibix Insight LLP, Dr Carrie Pemberton Ford - Carrie has been working in the field of gender equality and developing inclusive thinking in the processes of local government, the public sector and businesses for the last decade
'Fairer' Ethics
An examination designed to test the honesty and integrity of young investment bankers has been failed by 200 of them since its relaunch in April 2013. An article featured in the Times business section, reports that the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment saw 98 per cent of 10,000 candidates for its online ethics test achieving an A or B grade, which left 200 scoring C,D or E. This indicated a level of moral and ethical thinking deficit which barred them from progressing their careers and taking the Capital Markets Certificate 3 examination. Jane Austen's pen might well have had a few sharp moments describing the Pride and Prejudices of the Banking world had she been writing today, rather than describing the cultural transformation of class in early nineteenth century Britain.
Sound ethical and moral thinking are essential qualities for those who want to move forward in banking today - at least when tested in the controlled environment of the examination room. But what can be done to ensure or at least raise the level of likelihood that this same conscious commitment to fair, sound and ethically informed thinking will be realized in the pressures of the trading floor and negotiating rooms? There the white heat of group think, homo-sociality and challenging financial bottom lines all pressure compliance to the organization's way of 'fixing' and 'doing things round here', rather than reflecting on the wider and frequently disturbing ethical impacts being navigated through every sanitised dollar or sterling exchange?
Organisational culture is another key area which must be addressed in the quest for delivering a safer and more accountable banking system, and not simply the testing of ethical rectitude in the individuals being brought into play their part in the wider 'set' culture. The recent Salz Review commissioned by Barclay's bank specifically named some 'cultural shortcomings' in the bank which generated the problems of the Libor-rigging scandal last year. The report called for a 'transformational change' in the banks processes and culture - in order to restore public confidence. The group had become over-focussed on profit and bonuses rather than paying attention to its wider employee base or the interests of its customers. The 'drive to win' philosophy which was generated in critical aspects of the company, over-rode the wider ethical and societal implications which banking needs to recover as a part of its raison d'etre of doing business.
In a presentation just after the libor scandal broke, former cabinet minister and champion for women's equality in the work place, Patricia Hewitt informed the cluster of consultants who had come to discover some business pearls from her perspective as the Chair of the UK India Business Council and the former Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, that if women had been represented more substantially on the boards of the affected banks, the series of crises which had broken over the banking world might well have been averted.
This is the mighty contention for the coming decade which we must address with energy. The argument goes like this. Incorporating women across senior management, at board level and across the operational divisions of a business in real time will assist in breaking cultures which have led to neglecting the interests of customers, and the wider landscape of key stakeholders and the society which is impacted beyond the bottom line. We know that creating diversity in the mix, disrupts homo-sociality and the seamless generation of group think. If the global recession had NOT hit every household in Britain would have been an estimated £7,500 better off than they are today according to economists tracking the impact of the last 5 years of financial slow down.
No less a person than the new governor at the Bank of England Mark Carney has raised the stakes significantly on the importance of gender inclusion across the board, by paying attention to the representation of women on the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England, in interviews given to the BBC and at Press Conferences undertaken in his first full week of office. The inclusion of a Canadian to disrupt the thinking of the Eton/Winchester block in the City's square mile could herald a change which will bring a new spring to the economic step of Britain, and move forward equality and a new accountability across the workspace of banking in Britain.
A point which would not have been lost on Jane Austen peering out from bob cap and curls on our new ten pound notes - nor on the campaigner who realised her presence there Feminist campaigner Caroline Criado-Perez. Following her successful campaign for the British writer to feature on the bank note Caroline received around 50 abusive tweets an hour over a 12-hour period. Gender equality it would seem endures as a pressing cultural issue to address in banking, business and wider society, however genteel we claim to be when gender buttons are not being pressed.
