HOW CAN ETHICAL AND ENTERPRISING REPORTING CHANGE HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE COUNTRY

By Tosin Adesile

Enterprise and ethics reporting refers to the notion that business and ethics are not separate - that business knowledge and ethical understanding are critical components of good decisions made at all levels of organisations.

An enterprise/ethics reporting approach views individuals working in all areas of a company - for example , investor relations, marketing, operations or sales - as being responsible for ethics, and not just the people who have jobs related to ethics and compliance.

Every worker can take actions that embody the purpose, vision, values and ethical ideals of an organisation and its stakeholders. Enterprise ethics are most often initiated by ethical leadership which connect the goals of the organisation with those of the internal employees and external stakeholders.

By taking cognisance of the following facts, such writing can really go a long way in helping the human capital development of the country by receiving a boost. For example, to a good reporter, many stories are obviously important to cover – a house fire, a homicide, an election, a new state budget. But what about those slow news days when breaking news is sparse and there aren’t any interesting press releases worth checking out? Those are the days when good reporters are working on what they call “enterprise stories.” They’re the kind of stories that many reporters find the most rewarding to do.

Enterprise reporting involves stories not based on press releases or news conferences. Instead, enterprise reporting is all about the stories a reporter digs up on his or her own, what many people call “scoops.” Enterprise reporting goes beyond merely covering events. It explores the forces shaping those events.

For instance, we’ve all heard stories about recalls of faulty and possibly dangerous products related to children like cribs, toys and car seats.

Sometimes, a reporter could write about they discovered a pattern of inadequate governmental regulation as well as other stories.

In developing an enterprise stories, it is good to think outside the box. Most reporters will tell you that uncovering such stories involves two key journalistic skills: observation and investigation. Ethical journalism strives to ensure the free exchange of information that is accurate, fair and thorough. An ethical journalist acts with integrity.

The Society declares these four principles as the foundation of ethical journalism and encourages their use in its practice by all people in all media. Seek Truth and Report It.

Ethical journalism should be accurate and fair. Journalists should be honest and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information. Journalists should take responsibility for the accuracy of your work when necessary and verify such information. It is very important to also note that gathering, updating and correcting information throughout the life of a news story. Sources should be identified clearly without any misrepresentation.

The focus of writing ethics/enterprising story on human capital is to drive home the economic growth for developing countries. The concept of human capital refers to the abilities and skills of human resources of a country, while human capital development refers to the process of acquiring and increasing the number of persons who have the skills, education and experience that are critical for economic growth and development of a country’s economy. Developing countries have made considerable progress in closing the gap with developed countries in terms of school attainment, but recent research has underscored the importance of cognitive skills for economic growth. This result shifts attention to issues of school quality, and there developing countries have been much less successful in closing the gaps with developed countries. Without improving school quality as well as other important areas, developing countries will find it difficult to improve their long run economic performance. The significance and relevance of human capital development in the achievement of meaningful and sustainable economic growth and development have been widely acknowledged in various studies. In the absence of substantial investment in the development of human capital in any country, sustained economic growth and development would only be a mere wish, never a reality. Therefore, the place of human capital development in economic growth cannot be overemphasized. Human capital development is a key prerequisite for a country’s socio-economic and political transformation. Among the generally agreed causal factors responsible for the impressive performance of the economy of most of the developed and the newly industrializing countries is an impressive commitment to human capital formation.

Nigeria’s major objective has been to attain stability, material prosperity, peace and social progress. However, this has been hampered as a result of internal problems. These include inadequate human development, primitive agricultural practices, weak infrastructure, and uninspiring growth of the manufacturing sector, a poor policy and regulatory environment and mismanagement and misuse of resources. In order to ensure the economy delivers on its potentials, the country experimented with two development philosophies-a private sector-led growth in which the private sector served as the “engine house” of the economy and a public sector –driven growth in which the government assumed the “commanding heights” of the economy. The initial low level of private sector development, however, led to public sector dominance of the economy, encouraged by growth in the oil sector according UNDP 2009 report.

The onus therefore lies in the hand of the press particularly journalist to write changing story on enterprising as well as ethical story in order to create necessary change as far human capital development is concerned.