Power, Ethics, and Accountability: A Leadership Crisis in Media – The Financial Stakes of Cultural Leadership

As an accomplished HR executive and author of “Mastering a High-Value Company Culture,” the recent allegations surrounding Skip Bayless and the overall reported cultural problems at Fox Sports remind me of a problem that has haunted Corporate America for some time now-the noxious nexus between power, gender dynamics, and leadership accountability-a challenge that requires a change in our approach toward incentivizing and rewarding ethical leadership.

The allegations against Joy Taylor and Charlie Dixon expose a disturbing pattern where power dynamics and professional advancement get intertwined with inappropriate relationships and alleged harassment. The failure of organizations to hold executives accountable means their potential exposure to legal consequences, while it actually shows that dollars and cents come before ethical behavior-a disastrous message that rusts out organizational culture from top to bottom.

In my book “Mastering a High-Value Company Culture,” I stress that accountability needs teeth. In other words, organizations must directly link the payment of executives to their performance as leaders regarding ethics and culture. Here’s how it is done:

• Link 30-40% of executive bonus structures to metrics of culture and ethical leadership
• Include employee engagement scores, turnover rates, and ethics violation reports in performance reviews
• Claw back in the event of leaders’ failure to uphold ethical standards
• Forced forfeiture of unvested equity if executives are found responsible for creating toxic work environments

• Establish independent oversight committees reporting directly to the board
• Guarantee severance package to vetted whistleblowers
• Provide career transition support: career placement services
• Provide non-retaliation agreements, including financial consequences
• Tracking of whistleblower careers post-reporting; tracker should be kept confidential

• Require documented proof of cultural impact at the time of promotion in executive positions.
• Include 360-degree feedback about ethical leadership in promotions.
• Succession planning should have “cultural leadership capability” as a core competency of candidates.
• Evaluation of candidates: review history of creating inclusive and safe work environments.
• Team turnover rate and employee satisfaction scores should be considered in advancement decisions

Charges against Fox Sports epitomize how failure in accountability for misconduct at the top creates a cascading effect of cultural toxicity. Every organization has to go beyond simple compliance and build systems where ethical leadership hits the bottom line. We will attach new incentives for our leaders to build healthy workplace cultures by tying compensation with cultural metrics and providing protection for individuals blowing the whistle.

1. Restructure Executive Compensation

• Revise bonus structure to encompass cultural metrics
• Create transparent scoring systems for cultural leadership
• Regular assessment of cultural impact

2. Improvement of Protection Mechanism

• Independent Ethics Review Boards
• Substantial Financial Security for Whistleblowers
• Ongoing support/career protection going forward

3. Reform Promotion Criteria

• Clearly defined metrics on leading culture
• Employee feedback mechanism when determining advancement
• Regular reporting on leader cultural impact

4. Increased Board Accountability

• Regular reporting to the board about cultural health
• Whistleblowers to have direct access to board members
• Cultural metrics and compensation decisions at the board level

The message should be clear: leaders who can’t create and maintain ethical cultures will be substantially punished through their finances, and those who do well at building healthy workplaces will be rewarded and promoted. It’s not about avoiding lawsuits; rather, it’s about building sustainable, high-performance organizations where ethics and business success go hand in hand.

The organizations take these steps to show that leading the culture is not a nicety, but rather is a core requirement of advancement and compensation. It’s only then that we will create real financial stakes for our cultural values that will result in sustained cultural change in how leaders approach their responsibilities to build healthy workplace environments. The era of vague commitments to “doing better” needs to be brought to a close. Organizations need to put their money where their values are and develop concrete financial consequences for cultural leadership. Our employees deserve nothing less.