Written by Alumni & Friends
While interning at The West Australian newspaper as a journalism student, Amy Salapak realized she wanted to pursue a career in law.
After having several articles published in The West (including one on the front page), Amy’s interest in the law grew as she noticed the many similarities between the two careers – such as the research and fact-finding, interviewing skills, and understanding of the opposing view.
Currently in her final year at Curtin undertaking a Doctor of Business Administration, Amy has a wealth of legal extensive experience across the healthcare, anti-corruption, and higher education sectors. In her current role, she established an in-house legal practice as the inaugural General Counsel for Australia’s largest country healthcare provider, WA Country Health Service. In recognition of her hard work and dedication, Amy was named the 2023 Australian Government Lawyer of the Year and is a finalist for 2024 Australian Healthcare Lawyer of the Year.
As a Fulbright Scholar, Amy attended New Jersey’s Rutgers University Institute for Ethical Leadership where she investigated the role of ethics, regulation, law, and governance in the finance industry following the Global Financial Crisis. She is continuing this research focusing on corporate culture as a final year Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Curtin.
We sat down with Amy to learn more about ethical leadership in today’s increasingly complex business world.
What does ethical behaviour in business look like and why is it so important?
Ethical behaviour can be described as “doing the right thing when no one is watching.”
Ethical behaviour is important as it builds a reputation of trustworthiness and reliability. In turn, this creates a positive workplace culture and helps promote greater investment, client satisfaction, loyalty, and attract top talent. Ethical practices can also assist a business in mitigating its risks and potential legal liabilities.
How have views of good leadership changed over the years?
Leaders are no longer solely responsible for delivering a profitable bottom line. Today leaders are held to a higher degree of public scrutiny and are expected to be much more engaged across all levels of their workforce.
Establishing the right tone at the top is no longer enough when it comes to fortifying an organization’s reputation and relationships with all stakeholders. An effective leader is responsible for ensuring tone at the top, mood in the middle, and buzz at the bottom.
Essentially, leaders need to ensure that the values and norms of behaviour are role-modelled and reinforced across all levels of the organization. There is also a great focus on leaders being held accountable for an entity’s non-financial risks, including facilitating green, clean, and sustainable business practices.
What do we now expect of business leaders?
There is an expectation that our leaders should have integrity, be transparent, accountable, and deliver on what they say they will do. If there is anything the last few years have taught us it’s that today’s leaders must also be present and accessible, particularly in times of crisis or change, as these are the moments when people look to their leaders to lead.
Managing in today’s world is becoming increasingly challenging and more complex. To succeed it requires the collective efforts of the entire organization. Leaders need to engage with people at all levels of an organization to build trust, encourage innovation, and capability and facilitate succession planning.
How does unethical conduct impact the workplace?
Unethical conduct is about exploiting a person or situation to obtain some type of gain. It can also be described as conduct that does not meet community standards and expectations (as was a focus of the Australian Banking Royal Commission). In some cases, unethical conduct may also be unlawful (such as insider trading and fraud) and in other cases it may constitute things such as failing to declare conflicts of interest, taking credit for a colleague’s work, and exploiting legal loopholes for financial gain.
Engaging in unethical conduct can result in reputational damage, and a loss of trust and confidence by clients, suppliers, and the public at large. It can also impact the organization’s current and future financial performance, growth, and market share, including employee recruitment and retention.
Within the workplace, managing unethical conduct diverts substantial time, cost, and resources away from the core operations of the business. This can lead to reduced productivity and morale amongst staff, as well as adverse impacts on the organization’s culture.
In your opinion, what are the key traits that make an ethical leader and foster an ethical workplace culture?
An ethical leader is fair. It doesn’t matter if you’re a high performer or a lower-level employee everyone knows that rewards and sanctions will be applied equally across the organization without fear or favour.
Additionally, a great leader will listen and respond to issues or concerns that are raised by their employees and will actively promote a “speak up” culture where employees are not penalized for reporting unethical or unlawful conduct.
Finally, integrity is paramount. Ethical organizational cultures are built on trust and transparency and ensure that the organization’s actions, strategy, and goals align with its core values.
How can we all contribute to an ethical workplace?
An organization’s culture is both its greatest asset and liability. Establishing and maintaining an ethical workplace culture is critical to an organization’s long-term performance and success and managing its reputation and risk.
To do this, the organization’s values, goals, and the strategy in place to achieve those goals must be firmly established and communicated across all levels of the organization. There needs to be clear messaging as to what constitutes acceptable and non-acceptable behaviour and the rewards, incentives and consequences need to be aligned and consistently applied in respect of that behaviour. Additionally, leaders must also regularly engage with employees to ensure those goals are being met and changes are made where necessary.
At the end of the day, building and maintaining an ethical workplace culture is everyone’s responsibility.
Amy Salapak, General Counsel at the WA Country Health Service, 2023 Australian Government Lawyer of the Year and Fulbright Scholar
Amy is an award-winning lawyer, thought leader, Fulbright Scholar, and final year Doctor of Business Administration candidate at Curtin. As inaugural General Counsel to the WA Country Health Service, the largest country health service in Australia, Amy successfully established its in-house legal function and capability. In 2023 she was awarded Australian Government Lawyer of the Year at the Australian Corporate Lawyer Awards, and in 2024 she was a finalist for Australian Healthcare Lawyer of the Year. As a Fulbright Scholar, Amy investigated the role of ethics, regulation, law, and governance in the finance industry following the global financial crisis.
