Carolyn Taylor says Australian businesses need to adjust their 'she'll be right' attitude (Flickr: Tony Eccles)
Carolyn Taylor says many Australian companies have a dangerous "she'll be right" attitude and the problem areas of bullying and sexual harassment are accidents waiting to happen.
"I see a little bit of a belief that we can control behaviour by policies instead of recognising that culture is about values and standards," Ms Taylor told ABC Radio's The World Today.
"You can't mandate. It's not about what you tell people to do - it's about how you hold people to account.
"Every organisation has a culture. The question is whether it's the culture you need to avoid the kind of risks that can blow up in the high-profile disasters we've had recently."
Ms Taylor points to the global cases of Toyota, Goldman Sachs and Enron where poor management culture has damaged corporate reputations and financial bottom lines.
She believes the $37 million sexual harassment case confronting the retailer David Jones should prompt other companies to review their culture in addition to policies and procedures.
"The first question to ask is if it's an isolated incident or is there actually a pattern of behaviour that has been allowed, or even encouraged over a long period of time by the way that people in an organisation will 'walk their talk'?" she said.
Ms Taylor says high-profile cases of poor corporate culture should be lessons to companies trying to improve their workplace, but she worries the case studies are too quickly consigned to corporate history.
She says short-term thinking is a growing problem.
During her Australian visit Ms Taylor will work with the likes of BHP Billiton, Alacetel Lucent and Vodaphone Hutchison to advise on ways to improve corporate culture.
By business editor Peter Ryan
Updated Fri Sep 24, 2010 4:27pm AEST
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