Managing and Controlling Ethics Programs - Essay Example

Managing and Controlling Ethics Programs The business world has been getting complex over time and the need to gain competitive advantage, comply with the set standards, and avoid legal liabilities, forces organizations to adopt ethical programs to enhance attainment of their goals. An ethics program is a management strategic approach that seeks to raise the ethical awareness of employees, provide resources to train employees on ethical standards. It also seeks to identify and resolve all ethical problems in an organization. The management can follow an "individualistic approach" or a "communal approach” in designing and implementing an ethics program. However, any approach aims at enhancing moral responsibility of the employees (Brown, M, 2010, p.1). Notably, an ethics program entails a code of ethics, an audit system, organizational culture, and a mode of communication, ethical training, and a reporting mechanism (Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J & Ferrell, L., 2012, p.241-246). An effective ethics program creates a competitive advantage, enhances performance, increases profits, and ensures the attainment of the business goals. Ethically, the ethics program reduces misconduct, improves decision-making, and improves ethical awareness. Most specifically, an effective business ethics program should be formal to engage the operations, marketing, human resource, and all the other units of a business. However, it is clear that to design and implement an effective ethics program, a lot of management and control is necessary. Indeed, since businesses have different scope and have different goals, any business adopts ethic programs that are reasonable and effective to specific businesses. As such, it is the manadate of the management to ensure the design and implementation of an effective ethics program. In managing and controlling an effective business ethics program, the organization must have the relevant resources. Most specifically, the organization must have qualified and ethical leaders and managers. This will guarantee quality, professionalism, and effective design, management, implementation, and control of all ethical practices in the organization. The organization must also have a business environment that fosters ethical behaviour in the organization. The management has the mandate to ensure that the business environment is ethical friendly and they should not compromise ethical culture in an organization. Additionally, the mangers should establish an organizational culture that fosters commitment to ethical conduct and compliance to the law. Indeed, if the managers and employees adopt a high ethical behaviour in an ethical friendly environment, then the organization has a guarantee of an effective ethics program. This leads to a competitive advantage and the maintenance of a quality ethical culture. It is quite clear that ethical issues can arise from any department within the organization. Moreover, the level of ethical behaviour of an employee is dependent on external factors and personal factors like ethical philosophy and ethical decision-making. Indeed, since any organization has a different ethics program, it is necessary to offer ethical training in an organization to ensure the passage and maintenance of the ethical culture within the organization. Actually, ethics training forms the most fundamental part in managing and controlling ethics programs. Ethical training promotes ethical conduct and decision-making power of employees (Snell, S.A & Bohlander, G.W., 2009, p. 343-344). Moreover, ethical training informs all employees on the ethical implications on their ethical or unethical behaviours within the company. As such, ethical training helps the management in controlling and managing the ethics program. Indeed, the employees have information on possible punishments that result from non-compliance to the ethics program set by the management. Additionally, since all organizations are unique the management should ensure the establishment of a Code of Ethics that is relevant to the organization. The code of ethics serves a significant purpose of ensuring that the management and the employees are aware of the expected ethical behaviours from each level of management (IBS Centre for Management Research., 2012, p.1). Moreover, the code of ethics explains all the policies that in place for purposes of managing and implementing the ethics program of a specific organization. As such, the code of ethics is relevant in the control and management of the ethics program. Furthermore, the management devise a strategy that will incorporate an effective reward system to all employees who remain compliant to the code of ethics. This promotes ethical behaviour and ensures the improvement of the ethical culture in an organization. Indeed, the integration of the reward system into the code of ethics promotes the commitment of employees to the established ethics program in an organization (IBS Centre for Management Research., 2012, p.1). In the end, the organization is able to attain its ethical and business objectives. Hence, a reward system is significant in the management and control of the ethics program. Similarly, most companies establish an Ethics Committee to ensure the design and implementation of an effective ethics program. This enables the management to focus on other issues that relate to the business. On the other hand, the Ethics Committee acts as a bridge between the ethical issues emerging from the ethical program and the ethical challenges that employee face in complying with the code of ethics (IBS Centre for Management Research 2012, p.1). This guarantees the address of all ethical issues and improvement of the ethics program. As such, the establishment of an Ethics Committee is fundamental in the management and control of the ethics program. Notably, the organizational planning equally affects the ethics program. As such, an organization should adopt a formal organizational ethics plan to ensure that the management, employees, and other stakeholders acquit commit themselves to the same ethical program. This enables the management to know and give due consideration to ethical issues, organizational culture, and company objectives. Hence, formal planning is beneficial in the management and control of the ethics program. More so, all organizations should integrate corporate governance with the code of ethics to foster ethical behaviour in a company. Indeed, corporate governance ensures that the employees and the top management remain in check. This guarantees that all stakeholders in a company comply with the code of ethics, the mission statement, and remain focused to the company goals. Hence, corporate governance will help in the management and control of the ethics program by ensuring that all stakeholders adhere to the program. Most importantly, since the mandate of implementing the ethics program lies with the management, they should ensure due diligence and professionalism in their work to avoid and detect ethical problems in the organization. Indeed, a compromise to this will lead to the failure of the entire ethics program. As such, diligence and professionalism are mandatory in the management and control of the ethics program. , Works Cited Brown, M. 2010, Ethics in Organizations. Available from: < http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/>. [22 March 2013]. Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J. & Ferrell, L (2012) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases, 9th ed., London: Cengage Learning. IBS Centre for Management Research 2012, Business Ethics and Management Control, Available from: . [22 March 2013] Snell, S.A. & Bohlander, G.W (2009) Managing Human Resources, 15th ed., London: Cengage Learning. Read More