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Technology leaders can use policies that communicate shared responsibility and implement tools that enable employee engagement in efforts to cultivate upstanding organizations.

The rise of millennials and growth of social media have made personal technology use—and information-sharing—integral to workplace culture. Adam Kronk, director at the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership, discusses how CIOs and other leaders need to consider these realities as they work to promote ethical behaviors on the job, and how they can enlist technology as an ally.

You have noted that millennials have greatly impacted ethics and compliance programs because of their heavy use of technology. How should CIOs think about these workers’ attitudes toward technology use and efforts to promote ethical behavior?

Kronk: There was a time when businesses felt compelled to drill the perils of information-sharing into millennials. Most companies still do a decent amount of that. But it’s almost a losing battle to say, “You can’t be on Facebook while you’re at work.” The paradigm in society in general is shifting from “information is to be protected” to “information is to be shared.” That’s increasingly an expectation in any situation, business or otherwise. In this environment, CIOs have an opportunity to consider how IT can facilitate information-sharing in a responsible way, an ethical way, and in a way that doesn’t create a disadvantage for the organization.

How can ethics programs influence the use of technology?

Most people understand how easily information can be shared and how quickly it can spread, but perhaps it is more important now than, say, 10 years ago to regularly remind them this is something they need to care about, and why.

In terms of using ethics training to influence people’s use of technology, I like a technique my parents employed when I was headed out the door to a social event in high school. They never said, “Don’t break the law.” Instead, they said, “Represent us well.” It’s a very different message, communicating trust while also affirming that our actions have an impact beyond ourselves. Rather than telling people not to do this or that, explain that “because we value X, we have this technology policy in place to support that value.”

Your center has studied companies that have used technology to foster an engaging and ethical culture. What do these examples tell us about the role technology can play in those efforts?

We hosted a speaker from Google’s people analytics (HR) department at our annual forum. They’ve developed a platform to continually collect and share employee feedback. And when considering employees for promotion, they favor those who exhibit what they call feedback-seeking behavior. They want information—from their peers, supervisors, and the teams they lead—on how they’re doing as leaders and how they can improve. This platform facilitates that information-sharing and feedback.

We’re frequently asked whether a company’s values even matter. Enron had a fantastic code of conduct, but that obviously didn’t prevent its downfall. What can a company do to make values matter? A huge one is to incorporate the organization’s values into performance reviews. Does your manager ever talk to you about any of the company’s values, or relate your performance or your job to those values? People talk about the things that matter to them. There’s no faking it. If the company’s values never come up in conversations, leaders are sending a message loud and clear.

If technology can be used to bring those values front and center, and to give policies some teeth, or at least some airtime, then that’s a step a company can take to elicit ethical behavior from its employees.

In efforts like the Google feedback system, the CIO can be instrumental, but it involves engagement with the CEO or others on the executive team. They want to make sure this is an authentic initiative, rather than just something that the masses are going to roll their eyes at when it’s launched. And so that comes down to messaging, participation, and the tone set at the top.

Editor’s note: Mr. Kronk’s participation in this article is solely for educational purposes based on his knowledge of the subject, and the views expressed by him are solely his own. This article should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for the Notre Dame Deloitte Center for Ethical Leadership.

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