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BUSINESS PLANNING & TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Return to Article: Creating Cultures of Responsible Conduct

The SAIP Institute at the University of St. Thomas offers companies a framework for conducting operational audits that enable company executives to determine the extent to which their company's practices reinforce or undermine the organization's moral ideals and aspirations. This method, known as the Self-Assessment and Improvement Process (SAIP), is modeled after the approach to self-assessment pioneered by the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Program.

The SAIP is a multistage process that helps companies enhance their performance on issues of corporate ethics. By answering the SAIP's systematic inventory of questions, executives develop an understanding of company practices that affect relations with customers, employees, investors, suppliers, competitors, and communities. The SAIP's scoring system then enables them to evaluate how well vital values have been integrated within these practices. By highlighting areas where improvement is needed, the SAIP enables leaders to formulate and launch initiatives that will better align their firm's systems and processes with its stated moral aspirations.

The SAIP Institute recently helped a major hospital system tailor the SAIP to its operations. Over the past several years, the system had introduced several initiatives designed to more fully implement a set of core values within its strategies and procedures. The customized assessment process provided the system's leaders with a more rigorous evaluation of these efforts' results. It also helped them pinpoint opportunities to better incorporate the organization's values—for example, by fostering a more participatory work climate and refining its approach to clinical practices.

To be effective, audits of this kind cannot simply be a one-time event. Rather, they must be performed periodically. Undertaking the SAIP on a regular basis helps instill within an organization the discipline of ethical self-examination and continuous improvement.