Page 205 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

CHAPTER 12

MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT PART

OF THE PROBLEM

It is your responsibility as a credible activist to make sure that no managers or leaders, or
you yourself, are part of the problems discussed in Part One–ever! To be a part of the solu-
tion, you’ll need to influence leadership and others with company power to side with you
on this issue. Use the HR Tool entitled “Sample Memo to Influence Leadership about Shared
Compliance Responsibilities,” at the end of the chapter, on page 199, to convince manage-
ment that legal and ethical compliance should be shared. Taken as a whole, the memos in
the chapter provide a general way to reinforce what we’ve been saying about the importance
of legal compliance.

ADDRESSING A COLLEAGUE’S ISSUES ABOUT
NOT TAKING COMPLIANCE ISSUES SERIOUSLY

At times it’s not just the leadership who are lax about compliance; it’s our colleagues at the
management level across the organization as well. The HR Tool entitled “Sample Memo to
a Colleague about Shared Compliance Responsibilities,” on pages 199–200, shows how this
might be handled.

USE YOUR AUTHORITY WISELY

Make sure you have a sufficient amount of self-awareness to realize your own feelings when
you exercise any authority you may have in the workplace. Unfortunately, many people with
authority in any position are often unaware of their own experiences of authority and their
own use or abuse of authority, and thus we wind up with police officers who may become
physically or sexually abusive or governors who abuse their authority to try to have some-
one fired for personal reasons.
HR professionals must be aware of the horn and halo effects which are perceived by
many employees. Unfortunately, many employees have had negative experiences with HR
professionals and are fearful of them and expect to have more negative experiences with
them. Conversely, some employees wrongly think that HR can rescue them from whatever
workplace problem they may be having. If it is appropriate, ethical, and legal, HR should be
able to assist employees with any workplace difficulty; however, if the employee has vio-
lated a policy or law, HR can do little to help them avoid consequences.
Avoid Abusing Your Authority. An example of abusing your authority would be if you
are aware that someone is fearful of you and you play on that fear to make your job easier,

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