Debenhams's Code of Conduct - Case Study Example

?Critical analysis of Debenhams's of conduct Introduction Conduct encapsulates the actions that a member of a certain occupation or an individual needs to execute to do justice to the profession e.g. journalists need to reveal the truth. Conduct is also about the type of character than an individual needs to have to be able to fulfill his/her responsibilities within the profession e.g. policemen need to be courageous. Likewise, the definition of conduct can be illustrated in an organizational context in which case, the code of conduct essentially covers the features that an organization needs to have e.g. fair systems of performance assessment, promotion, and employee appraisal (Miller, 2002, p. 14). Stonehouse (1991) defines the code of conduct as “a statement about practice, or what we will strive to do” (Stonehouse, 1991). Since conduct is different from aesthetics, therefore, a good code of conduct should not address such issues as those of self-presentation, rhetoric, and style. A good code of conduct covers more than just moral principles; it also refers to the ideals of the good; “an engineer might insist on load bearing standards well above what the law requires because of his commitment to the ideal of safety. Sanctions – sanctions applied in the context of an appropriate complaints and discipline system - ought only to be deployed in relation to minimum standards (morality) but not in relation to ideals (ethics)” (Miller, 2002, p. 4). Essentials of a good code of conduct Bowie and Schnieder (2011) emphasize the construction of a foundation of the code of conduct before a company can make one that it expects all of its employees to follow and work in accordance with. Essential components of a good code of ethics according to Bowie and Schnieder (2011) are that it should be applicable to everyone, it should remain consistent even at times during which the market is inconsistent, it should promote accountability and transparency, and it should help the organization apply the core values to the developments in regulations, technology, and all other factors that can affect the conduct of employees on the job. It is vital for a code of conduct to have involvement of the staff, and the management of individual operations and disciplinary processes should be assigned to the staff members (Bowden and Smythe, 2008, p. 584). Codes of conduct should not be just described as rules that dictate what actions need to be executed and what must be abstained from as such a visualization of codes of conduct is quite narrow. A good code of conduct mentions virtues in addition to actions. Debenhams’s code of conduct On Debenhams’s website, there are three sections under the heading of “corporate social responsibility”. These sections include supplier code of conduct, disabled access, and policies of environmental and ethical trading. Debenhams shows only the supplier code of conduct on its website. This supplier code of conduct comprises 10 sections in total including introduction, legal requirements, employment, the safety and hygiene of working conditions, environment, representation of the workers, monitoring, inspection and assessment, sanctions, and ILO conventions. Out of the ten sections, only the third section i.e. employment has eight sub-sections titled payment of living wages, working hours not being excessive, employment of children, employment being freely chosen, disciplinary practices, lack of discrimination, respect for the freedom of association and the employees’ collective bargaining right, provision of regular employment (Debenhams, 2012a). Under the heading “disabled access”, Debenhams commits of providing the disabled people with access to the problem older stores. By providing this service for the disabled people, Debenhams gains an edge over other street retailers that do not provide the disabled people with this access. Debenhams essentially wants to project the image that the disabled people have all the rights of access that the non-disabled people have and that they are in no way second class citizens. One of the spokespersons of Debenhams said, “We have today confirmed in a statement to the Disability Rights Commission Debenhams' continuing commitment to providing disabled access to products situated on all floors in its stores throughout the country” (Debenhams, 2012b). On its website, it states that Debenhams has already provided the mezzanine floors with access platforms in the Derby store and intends to eradicate all problems related to accessing the mezzanine floors for the disabled customers in another 17 stores that have similar issues of access, which would incur a cost of ?300,000. Under the section of policies of environmental and ethical trading, there are six sections in total including policy for animal testing, policy for genetically modified organisms, policy for leather, hides, and fur, policy for renewable timber sources, safer chemicals, and conflict diamonds. Debenhams has used this section to show its commitment to environmental health and safety. GirlGuiding UK code of conduct for reference The GirlGuiding UK’s code of conduct mentioned on its website states that the company respects all employees’ human rights whether or not they are directly employed by the manufacturers or suppliers (GirlGuiding UK, 2012). GirlGuiding UK necessitates all manufacturers and suppliers to adhere to and support certain principles including the general principle, discrimination, disciplinary practices, wages and working hours, child labor, forced labor, working conditions, environment, and respect for the rights to collective bargaining and freedom of association. Analysis of Debenhams’s code of conduct As per the definition and essential components of a good code of conduct described by Bowie and Schnieder (2011), Debenhams’s code of conduct is good as it helps the organization apply the core values to the developments in regulations, since the supplier code of conduct of Debenhams states that the code’s provisions constitute the minimum standards but at the same time, do not prevent any company from exceeding them, and that the companies that apply this code should comply with all applicable laws of the region. The code also tells that when provisions of the code and that of the law address the same subject, those that provide the greater protection must be applied. Debenhams’s code of conduct is also applicable to every employee since the code does mention “all workers” when it talks about such matters as employee wages, working hours, and employment of children. Moreover, the code clearly depicts that Debenhams condemns all sorts of discrimination. According to Bowden and Smythe (2008), a good code of conduct must involve staff and assign duties and responsibilities to individual members of the staff. Since Debenhams has only established a code of conduct for the suppliers, the code only dictates the dos and don’ts related to the suppliers. Although the code does mention what the practices for the employees are, it does not mention who is supposed to do what. Therefore, there is no assignment of duties and responsibilities to any staff member in Debenhams’s code of conduct. Comparison of Debenhams’s and GirlGuiding UK’s codes of conduct suggests that while there are many areas like child labor, discrimination, and working hours that are commonly discussed in both codes of conduct, the code of conduct of Debenhams is more detailed and expresses its stance on more areas as compared to the GirlGuiding UK’s code of conduct; disabled access, legal requirements, monitoring, and inspection and assessment to name a few. Corporate social responsibility at Debenhams The issues of corporate social responsibility (CSR) are central to all aspects of operations of a company. Although Debenhams does not publicize its activities related to the corporate social responsibility as much as most retailers usually do, yet the company places great emphasis upon the ethical, social, and environmental matters related to its business. Debenhams tends to take action to outline and improve its supply chain practices. The importance Debenhams gives to the CSR also reflects in several diverse areas that include but are not limited to human resources, customer accessibility to its stores, and the health and safety of both its employees and the society at large (media.corporate-ir.net, 2006, p. 17). Recommendations Maher (2010) noted that Debenhams needs to immediately start taking responsibility for their supply chain’s workers and should make concrete plans to pit their paper code into practice. Some of the steps that Debenhams may take to achieve that are listed below: Establish the benchmarks of living wage Take objective measures to promote collective bargaining and the freedom of association Terminate use of the short term labor on contractual basis and instead use direct employment Address the practices of purchasing that affect the wages. Debenhams particularly needs to ensure that the need of providing the workers with a living wage is considered during the price calculations Work with the unions as well as the workers for the transformation of the aspirational codes into reality Either Debenhams should make separate codes of conduct for its organizational personnel in addition to the suppliers’ code of conduct, or it should discuss everything under one code of conduct and that must not be reserved for suppliers only. Debenhams should assign duties and responsibilities to the organizational personnel suitably in the code of conduct. Three key components that demonstrate the values and business ethics of Debenhams 1st component: No discrimination policy Debenhams does not allow any inhumane or harsh treatment at any level in the company. Such acts of discrimination include but are not limited to sexual harassment, physical abuse, verbal abuse, and any form of intimidation. The company does not allow any discrimination be it in compensation, recruitment, opportunities of training and skill development for the employees, opportunities of promotion for the employees, termination of service at Debenhams, or retirement on the basis of caste, race, religion, disability, national origin, age, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, political affiliation, or membership of a union. Debenhams has the same rules and regulations for all workers that are associated with the company irrespective of their differences on any basis. Debenhams’s strong stance against discrimination also reflects in the fact that it does not require the workers to submit their identity papers to the company. Debenhams also provides all employees with the right of freedom of association and collective bargaining. Workers at Debenhams have the right to form trade unions without any kind of distinction. Debenhams also condemns any discrimination against the representatives of workers. All workers have the right to conduct their representative functions inside the organization. 2nd component: Environmental health and safety Debenhams has a very detailed policy about environmental protection and ethics on its website. This includes such aspects as animal testing policy; policy for the genetically modified organisms; policy for furs, hides, and leather; policy for the sources of renewable timber, which includes such aspects as verification of the well-management forests, and verification of the recycled products; safer chemicals, including such aspects as details of the chemicals are Debenhams does not permit including Azo dyes, artificial musks, phthalates, heavy metals like nickel and levels; and conflict diamonds. Understanding the potential risks and health hazards of various chemicals, Debenhams mentions complete lists of the chemicals and materials whose use is not permitted by the company. While many companies do mention in their codes of conduct that they do not allow the use of such chemicals that are harmful for health of human beings as well as the safety of the environment, yet not many companies go as much detail and depth as Debenhams has. Debenhams condemns the use of animals for testing which is why the company has declared that it would not accept any products that have been tested on animals and requires the suppliers to provide evidence of not having used animals for the tests. 3rd component: Care of the disabled Debenhams has taken objective measures unlike other retailers to show its concerns and consideration for the disabled community. This reflects in the company’s commitment to providing the disabled people with access to the older stores. Debenhams has already signed a legal contract with the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) that requires Debenhams to provide the disabled community with access to all of the company’s UK-based retail stores. According to this legal contract, Debenhams has committed to and has already provided the disabled consumers with access to the mezzanine floor areas that were previously inaccessible for them. Debenhams took this step in response to the legal action taken by a 43-year old disabled customer Greg Jackson regarding the inaccessibility of its mezzanine floors. This shows that Debenhams not only cares for the concerns and addressed the needs of its customers, but also treats both the disabled and other customers equally. This has had very positive effect on the customers as one of them said, “I'm very happy today because now I can visit my local store to buy clothes and receive the same service as other shoppers. That is all that I wanted and by using the DDA and with this agreement it is what all disabled people can expect in future” (Debenhams, 2012b). Conclusion Debenhams’s code of conduct is a comprehensive code of conduct and discusses the integral parts in much detail than most of the retailers do in their codes of conduct. Three key components that demonstrate the values and business ethics of Debenhams are the no discrimination policy, environmental health and safety, and care of the disabled community. For the major part, Debenhams’s code of conduct fulfills most of the requirements of a good code of conduct that have been identified by theorists in the literature. Some ways in which Debenhams can improve its code of conduct include addressing the rights and responsibilities of the organizational personnel in addition to the suppliers as the current code of conduct is primarily for suppliers only. References: Bowden, P, and Smythe, V 2008, Making codes of ethics meaningful and effective, Keeping Good Companies, pp. 584-588. Bowie, NE, and Schnieder, M 2011, Business Ethics For Dummies, John Wiley and Sons. Debenhams 2012a, Supplier code of conduct, [Online] Available at http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&userType=G&categoryId=63450 [accessed: 9 January 2013]. Debenhams 2012b, Disabled access, [Online] Available at http://www.debenhams.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?storeId=10001&catalogId=10001&langId=-1&userType=G&categoryId=63451 [accessed: 9 January 2013]. GirlGuiding UK 2012, Code of Conduct, [Online] Available at http://www.girlguidingukshop.co.uk/en/Information/Site-Information/Code-of-Conduct/ [accessed: 9 January 2013]. Maher, S 2010, Taking Liberties: - Labour Behind the Label, [Online] Available at www.labourbehindthelabel.org/join/item/download/109 [accessed: 9 January 2013]. media.corporate-ir.net 2006, ANNUAL REPORT AND ACCOUNTS 2006, [Online] Available at http://media.corporate-ir.net/media_files/IROL/19/196805/reports/Annual_Report_2006.pdf [accessed: 9 January 2013]. Miller, S 2002, Model code of ethical principles, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, [Online] Available at http://www.cappe.edu.au/docs/reports/consultancy/PSCModelCode.pdf [accessed: 9 January 2013]. Stonehouse, A 1991, Our Code of ethics at work, Australian Early Childhood Resource Booklets. No.2, May. Read More