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Rebuilding South Africa's reputation will be an arduous challenge and calls for a values based response on all levels, writes Willie Thabe.
Reputation is the only currency individuals, corporates and governments can leverage. It does not matter how it is lost, the issue is that it is lost. Like virginity when it is lost, then it is lost.
Novice politician, Donald Trump, got let loose by the electorate into the White House and he broke everything from the county’s reputation, the nation’s honour and his own worthiness.
The US Attorney General’s nuanced response to the Associated Press, "to date we have not seen fraud on a scale that would have effected a different outcome in the election", could be understood as tentative and suggestive of a lack of absolute certainty.
The US corporate landscape is teeming with reputation wrecking incidences. Enron. Wells Fargo. Volkswagen.
"We assume it’s only the Ken Lays and Bernie Madoffs of the world who will cheat people. But what about the ordinary engineers, managers, and employees who designed cars to cheat automotive pollution controls or set up bank accounts without customers’ permission? We tell ourselves that we would never do those things. And, in truth, most of us won’t cook the books, steal from customers, or take that bribe," wrote Christopher McLaverty and Annie McKee in an article for the Harvard Business Review.
Truth be told, all of us face an endless stream of ethical dilemmas at work and in broader society.
Corruption
The equivocation of the ruling party on their own resolution does not augur well for the resolve to tackle corruption. Just consider the response of the governing party to some of the allegations coming out of the Zondo commission which seem to provide "prima facie evidence".
The impeccable nine-decade history of silky smooth McKinsey and company suffered irreparable reputational damage when they offered R650 million to Transnet and SAA in the aftermath of being entangled in the Gupta influenced parastatal dealings.
At an individual level, the attachment and seizure of businessman Edwin Sodi’s assets and his court appearances has destroyed his reputation of being perceived as a successful entrepreneur.
From an ethics perspective, there are fundamental tenets that underpin one’s reputation. Strong reputations - whether at the individual, corporate or government level - are associated with owning a distinctive position in the minds of resource holders based on a consistency of behaviour.
The distinct positioning is buttressed by a focus of actions and communications around a single core theme, perhaps easily discernable at the levels of corporates and governments but it also applies as the level of the individual.
Individuals have fundamental beliefs about ethical behaviour that are reflected in their interaction with their general environment even without being overtly communicated as the case might in corporates and governments.
It is important to note that outsiders are only convinced by a sustainable consistency of action and communication whether overtly or covertly. From a corporate point of view, whether in the public or private sector, one would expect a seamless consistency of message among all the departments.
Whether at an individual or corporate level, strong reputations are only sustained by actions that are consistent with espoused principles of identity.
One researcher described spin as an anathema to reputation building. All the efforts to manipulate external images rely purely on advertising and public relations which fail when they are disconnected from the person or company’s identity.
Transparency in the way individuals and companies conduct their affairs enhances their reputation and the converse is also true.
Initiatives and messages
In his address to the 1999 at Harvard University, the Federal Reserve board chairperson Alan Greenspan made the following remarks:
"In today's world, where ideas are increasingly displacing the physical in the production of economic value, competition for reputation becomes a significant driving force, propelling our economy forward. Manufactured goods often can be evaluated before the completion of a transaction. Service providers, on the other hand, usually can offer only their reputations."
Based on research and common sense, we can conclude that reputation management’s central tenet arises from initiatives and messages that are in tune with the distinctive values of the personality of an individual, company or government, and which are meaningful to all constituencies and stakeholder groups.
It is therefore a product of enlightened self-interest that is reflective of the values of that particular individual, corporate or government.
The reverberations of the dealings associated with the state capture phenomenon has dented and sometimes destroyed many an individual’s repute. The resultant loss of reputation has made individuals, companies and investors to be extremely circumspect in their dealings with public enterprises.
Self-analysis needed
The domino effect is that the circumspection shown at a micro-economic level aggregates to a significant macro-economic impact that South Africa can ill afford.
We are now rated at the lowest credit rating that is not only reflective of the level of economic performance, but incorporates the perceived geopolitical risk as well as loss of reputation.
The country’s reputation was phenomenally high at inception based on the nature of the transition and the commitment to build an all-inclusive but highly effective economy, placing South Africa higher than almost all countries in Africa.
Rebuilding of our reputation quotient is an arduous challenge that calls for a values based response from all levels: the individual, corporate and the government.
In the words of Socrates: “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” Regaining a lost reputation is even more challenging because it calls for fundamental self-analysis and a clear definition of what you desire to appear.
- Willie Thabe is the managing executive of Angavu Ethical Solutions.
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