Social Performance: Ethics Program - Assignment Example

Social Performance: Ethics Program 1. Briefly describe your company and then benchmark the codes of conduct used by similar companies in the industry. Critique the codes of conduct of at least three (3) similar companies in order to write codes for your company. ICT solutions require a company to provide for information and communications technology integration. Meiz provides healthcare oriented solutions for information communication technologies (ICT) issues in integrating systems. Services that the company provides include telemonitorying, telehealth capacities, telemedicine and social alarms to protect people when the potential for health issues that are debilitating might occur. IT infrastructure in health care institutions is also available. Health care facilities, institutions for aging and social challenges, as well as in home solutions for health care technology applications all are available through this multi-capacity ICT based company. ICT can be viewed as a type if IT, thus IT companies has been used for comparison. Apple is a large company that has IT solutions that come in the form of the development of devices and equipment. Apple has a comprehensive code of ethics which includes fair trade issues, supplier responsibility, fair labor, audits around the world, and methods for corrective measures (Apple, 2013). An independent IT consultant, in contrast, has an ethic code that includes information on the rights of his clients and how he will conduct himself in relationship to the work he has been contracted to perform (Camden, 2008). While Apple must address international manufacturing and trade, an independent consultant must be far more concerned with the immediate needs of the individual client relationship. Semprus Bio (2013) is a company concerned with medical IT solutions. The company has similar ethics as most companies but have recently created additions to their ethics codes which include prohibiting entertaining clients in order to gain their business as this can be seen as a form of bribery. Semprus Bio (2013) also has a program to provide items at no cost to the clients that are intended for educational purposes. 2. Analyze ways ethical challenges affect your business and create a code of conduct for your company. Provide a rationale on how these specific codes enhance your company’s ethics program. Some of the issues that this company will need to address in an ethics program is off-sight behaviors, customer relations, and safety concerns during installation. Other ethical considerations that are specific to ICT include cyber theft issues, confidentiality, and customer interrelations. A code of ethics should address how workers will be treated and how they will treat one another. Any legal issues that can be avoided by ethical standards of practice should also be addressed. Roa (2007) writes that an “(Ethics) code seeks to express systematically and coherently the principles of business practices accepted and professed…and seeks to apply these to current and changing needs” (p. 217). Meiz Code of Ethics 1. First and foremost, accountability will be expected from all stakeholders involved with the business that is conducted with and for Meiz. 2. Both suppliers and Meiz will adhere to conditions for workers that are safe and healthy, applying standards of labor expectations that are reasonable and within state, federal, and international guidelines. 3. Third party audits will be conducted annually in order to ensure that financial accounting has been done accurately and with honesty. These audits will ensure stakeholders and shareholders that the company is conducting business above the standard on their behalf. 4. Meiz will not tolerate any form of discrimination and will take immediate and final action when such discrimination has been observed. This will include, but not be limited to, bullying, sexual harassment, harassment, or preferential treatment based on social classifications. 5. Breaches in compliance with state, federal, and international guidelines are expected to be reported to the company for correction and to authorities if correction is not made. Anyone who reports a violation will not suffer any form of retribution on behalf of the company by or from representatives of the company. 6. Theft of any information from the company for the purpose of financial gain will be considered in violation of this code of ethics, harming stakeholders and shareholders alike. 7. The confidentiality of information discovered through the performance of duty will be kept and will be considered as part of the confidentiality of working with our clients and is inviolate. 8. Sales in the company will be conducted through scrupulous and honest dealings with clients to the point that nothing that might be considered a bribe will be used to close a deal. Ethical conduct will include honest representation of both the product and the time needed to fulfill obligations. 9. All interactions with clients will be conducted with the same respect that has been defined for inter-business relations as it concerns honesty and integrity. No employee will conduct abusive or harassing relationships based on inequality, nor will they make any comment, action or affect that will falsely reflect on the company in any manner. All conduct of employees and management will be expected to include honesty and integrity in action and in word. 10. This code will be reviewed on an annual basis to make sure that it remains current and relevant. In addition, the code will be examined by HR for ways in which it is not meeting the standards that are expected and will be changed as needed in order to stay within ethically structured codes of conduct that are defined by social and legal expectations of company behavior. 3. After reviewing the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, explain how these guidelines influence the ethics program you created. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations provides for ideas about the ethics codes of businesses as it concerns compliance, best practices, and how to avoid criminal conduct within an organization. Recommendations about compliance include oversight, effective communications, and reasonable steps for reporting. In the eight basic codes of conduct that have been created for Meiz, all three of these primary aspects of business conduct have been addressed. As well, the code addresses ideas that are concerned with best practices and ways in which both labor and relationships with clients can best be accomplished. The ethics code represents a need for the company to define themselves by their integrity and their trustworthiness. 4. Anticipate where the challenges or setbacks may be in the adoption and enforcement of the codes of conduct for your company. Explain how you will address these challenges and anticipated setbacks. Challenges for adopting a company code of ethics usually comes when common practices may have been conducted in ways that does not currently comply. An example of this may be found through this code if one of the sales tactics used by the sales team has been to take gifts to clients in order to gain favor with them. While it is a common method for sales, it can be viewed as a form of bribery. The sales team will have to adopt new strategies for sales that fulfill the mandate for honesty and integrity. Addressing these challenges will include compliance by all management for these changes as an example to employees with education on new strategies that can take the place of previously less than scrupulous practices. Ethics codes are only as good as the uses that they are applied. If management does not comply with both the literal and the spirit of the meaning of the ethics code, the culture in a company will suffer under bad practices. It will be the responsibility of the management team to create a culture based on the ethics code. Setbacks in the ethics program would be observed when non-compliance becomes routinely evident and the company faces a cultural set of practices that have undermined the ethics program. A setback like this would include reviewing the employment of those involved and taking corrective measures that are appropriate. In addition, if the violation was seen to have an effect on a victim or set of victims, correction of the violation would include reasonable but fair compensation of some type. As an example, if medical information gained during the development of IT was used for any reason by the company then that practice would be ended an any damages paid in order to maintain the integrity of the company under the scrutiny of the scandal. 5. Given the influences of changing economic, political, social, cultural, and technological forces on business and society, explain how you can ensure that your codes of conduct will remain relevant in the years ahead. The best way to keep a relevant ethics code is to put in place a mandate of reviewing the ethics code and program on an annual basis. This will help to make sure that the code remains relevant and in step with the needs of society as it grows and changes. In addition, the code has stated within in it the charge to HR for maintaining the code through frequent examination of its framework so that changes can be made as needed. These changes would be placed under review by top management during that annual formal review to make sure that compliance is assured. The company has stated its strive to be honest and trustworthy with high levels of integrity. This would ensure that the level of integrity within the company meets expectations. References Apple (2013). Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/accountability.html (Accessed 21 February 2013). Camden, C. (13 October 2008). An independent IT consultant’s code of ethics. Tech Republic. Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/project-management/an-independent- it-consultants-code-of-ethics/254 (Accessed 21 February 2013). Semprus Bio (2013). Retrieved from http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/project-management/an- independent-it-consultants-code-of-ethics/254 (Accessed 21 February 2013). Roa , F. F. C. (2007). Business ethics and social responsibility. New York: Rex Bookstore, Inc. Read More