Code of Conduct Comparison - Essay Example

Code of conduct Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive Summary Code of conduct is the aspect of upholding the moral laws when performing operations of an organization. This paper discussed the various concepts of code of conduct in relation to CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline. The report found out that the main stakeholders affected by the code of conduct include the top management, the employees, suppliers and customers. Further, the report found out that the main principles of code conduct include transparency, corporate social responsibility, integrity and acting on the best interest of the organization as well as the public. Through code of ethics, corporate governance and transparency can be improved by improving integrity of operations, effective utilization of resources, improve the corporate image and effective communication and this enables management to have an easy time when conducting other operations hence improved corporate governance. Table of contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………4 Stakeholder groups affected by these two codes of conduct……………………………………4 Emerging business issues addressed by the two codes of conduct……………………………...5 Aspects of the two documents in response to mandatory requirements………………………….6 Reflection of code of conduct on corporate governance and transparency………………………8 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………...9 References………………………………………………………………………………………..10 Introduction Code of ethics is the discipline which guides people in their operations. For any profession to improve its effectiveness, the parties involved in the operations should observe code of conduct so that they will do what is expected of them. Many organizations have managed to improve their competitiveness by applying code of conduct when performing various tasks. For instance, the accountants should be regulated by the laws and ethical conduct of accounting. By observing the code of conduct when doing their tasks, they will be able to improve the efficiency of their work. Code of conduct comprises all the ethical principles which guide various stakeholders when performing their duties. In this regard therefore, code of conduct is very essential in the performance of an organization. This paper will compare the code of conduct in relation to CQUniversity code of conduct and GlaxoSmithKline code of conduct (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). The items to be discussed include the analysis of the stakeholders affected by this code of conduct, matters which represent mandatory voluntary practices and how these two codes of conduct will reflect on corporate governance and transparency. Stakeholder groups affected by these two codes of conduct There are various groups of stakeholders who are affected by CQUniversity code of conduct. Stakeholders are the people who are directly affected by the operations of the organization. They can also be groups whose operations affect the operations of the organization. To start with, stakeholders who are affected by CQUniversity code of conduct include the top management. This includes the Vice chancellor and the executive. They are affected in a way that they should behave according to the code of conduct of the University. They are also responsible for contributing to the making of code of conduct for the University. On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline code of conduct affects also the top management of the University who include the chief executive and the board of directors (CQUniversity 2012). Another group of stakeholders affected by the code of conduct include the employees. The employees of both organizations are expected to abide by the laws and rules of their respective organization. The employees include the supervisors, managers and foremen. They should improve their operations by observing code of conduct. There are also the suppliers of both groups (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). The suppliers of both CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline are also directly affected by the code of conduct of their customers. This is in the sense that they should be willing to abide by the laws of the organizations. For instance, they should conduct their operations in a private manner so that they cannot reveal any confidential information of the organizations. Finally, customers of both organizations are also affected by the code of conduct of their respective organizations. For instance, CQUniversity the customers are the students while the customers for GlaxoSmithKline are the clients (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). They should observe code of conduct for their behavior during any transaction with the organizations. Emerging business issues addressed by the two codes of conduct Code of conduct aims to address various issues of CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline. The first issue which is addressed by the CQUniversity code of conduct is respect (CQUniversity 2012). The code of conduct aims at improving the way stakeholders of the institution relate. All stakeholders should perform their operations with respect so that they will relate well. The same case applies to GlaxoSmithKline code of conduct. The company aims to promote respect among their stakeholders such as respect between employees and top management. This helps to improve the operations of the company. In addition, the two codes of conduct aim to address any form of harassment within and outside the organizations. Harassment can be experienced in different ways such as sexual harassment and bullying (CQUniversity 2012). For instance, through strict adherence to code of conduct, the stakeholders will behave in a way that will not harass other stakeholders. At work place for example, the employees should avoid all kind of harassment by following the code of ethics of the organization. Moreover, the above two documents of code of conduct help to eliminate corruption at workplaces. At the CQUniversity, the management expects that the employees and other stakeholders should conduct themselves in a way that will uphold the laws of the institution (CQUniversity 2012). At GlaxoSmithKline, code of conduct expects that the stakeholders should act in the best interest for the organization. This will help to minimize vices such as corruption which leads to effective utilization of the resources of the company. Aspects of the two documents in response to mandatory requirements There are many ethical aspects which are covered by the code of ethics by both CQUniversuty and GlaxoSmithKline Company. These ethical principles are guided by the principles of code of conduct and they include the following. The first principle as stated in the code of ethics of CQUniversity is respect for other people’s dignity (CQUniversity 2012). This is the principle which equates all people at work place. The same case applies to GlaxoSmithKline. The employees are expected to behave in a way that will respect other people’s ideas and beliefs. Human dignity of employees of the two organizations should be upheld by respecting other stakeholders. These two documents also require that the employees should show dignity to all other employees. For instance, at a workplace there should be no bullying and avoid harassing other people (CQUniversity 2012). This will only be achieved by respecting and observing the code of conduct of the two organizations. Another aspect is to act on the basis of well informed conscience. This is the aspect which enables the stakeholders to act on the best interest of the organization. They should assess the good and wrong thing hence act for the benefit of the organization. For instance, when a supervisor is asked to make an informed decision on an issue raised by the a group of stakeholders, the supervisor is expected to informed decision based on the situational analysis (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). By observing the code of conduct, the supervisor will be able to make a decision which is appropriate and do not favor any party involved in the grievance. In addition, there is also the aspect of being part of the scholar community. This is the aspect of being part of the organization. It helps the stakeholders to perform tasks on the best interest of their respective organizations. They should do things which help to promote the operations of the CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline. This can be achieved by observing the intellectual honesty and also following the ethical principles of the respective organization. For instance at the CQUniversity, the management expects all stakeholders to behave responsibly for the interest of the institution (CQUniversity 2012). On the other hand, the GlaxoSmithKline Company expects its employees to avoid conflicts of interest so that they can offer quality health services to the clients hence improving the operations of the company. Moreover, the two documents of codes of ethics uphold the aspect of upholding the public interest. This is the aspect which expects the stakeholders of the two organizations to conduct operations in a way which will help to fulfill the interests of the public. This can only succeed if both organizations implement the ethics of the public. For instance, the CQUniversity has a section of the public sector ethics which guide the stakeholders especially the employees when executing their duties. The company expects the employees to uphold integrity and avoid impartiality. On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline also has a code of ethics for public interest. The code of conduct of the company states that the employees and other stakeholders should observe accountability and transparency so that they can offer products and services which will serve the interest of the public (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). There is also the aspect of the corporate social responsibility. This is when an organization conducts operations such as involvement in the community activities. Corporate social responsibility helps to create good relationship between the organization and its stakeholders. This aspect promotes a social wellbeing of the stakeholders. For instance, CQUniversity sponsors some game competitions which bring together the stakeholders of the organization (CQUniversity 2012). This helps to nurture talents hence promoting the relationship between the University and the stakeholders. On the other hand, GlaxoSmithKline also takes part in the corporate social responsibility by involving various stakeholders in conducting research about the health issues which affect various communities. This promotes interaction between the company and the stakeholders such as the community hence promoting good relationship because the company acts on the best interest of the public. Among the above aspects, there are those which represent voluntary practices and they include corporate social responsibility (CQUniversity 2012). It is the choice of any organization to engage in the corporate social affairs. The management of an organization can decide to engage in the corporate social responsibility but the shareholders may be against the aspect. In this regard, it is the responsibility of the top management of the organizations to decide whether they will engage in corporate social responsibility or not. Reflection of code of conduct on corporate governance and transparency These two documents for code of ethics for CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline reflect much on the corporate governance of the two organizations. To start with, code of conduct has helped to improve integrity among the stakeholders of the two organizations. This is the ability to be open and doing what is right while voiding what is wrong. For instance, GlaxoSmithKline has approved strategies for improving integrity such as auditing and this improves the openness of the operations of the organization (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). On the other hand, CQUniversity has system of checking the operations of various departments and this improves the operations of the institution. In this regard, code of ethics has been helpful in improving the transparency of the two institutions. On the other hand, code of conduct of the two institutions leads to good communication between different stakeholders of both organizations. Through code of conduct, the employees act on the best interest of the organization (GlaxoSmithKline 2012). This leads to effective sharing of information between different stakeholders hence the management finds easy time when performing their tasks. This is because there will be effective channels of communicating thus improving the corporate management of the organizations. Code of ethics on the other hand improves corporate governance of CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline in that it leads to effective utilization of resources. All the stakeholders act on the best interest of the organization which include the ways resources of the company are utilized (CQUniversity 2012). This frees the management time consumed to monitor how the resources are consumed by various departments. For instance GlaxoSmithKline organization, the employees are motivated and they ensure maximization of resources of the company thus the management spend little time monitoring the daily operations of various departments and thus can spend their time on constructive activities which can improve the performance of the organization. Through effective application of code of conduct, the organizations are able to improve the reputation. A good reputation enables the management of the organization to have an easy time when marketing the organization. For instance, CQUniversity has many customers because of its reputation and the management does little efforts to attract the customers (CQUniversity 2012). The same case applies to GlaxoSmithKline Company. Due to its good reputation, the company has been able to remain competitive for a long time. This improves the corporate governance of the organization as the management spends much of the time on how they will improve the competitiveness instead of how to create competitive advantage. Conclusion Code of conduct comprises of all the set principles which guide stakeholders when executing their duties. The main stakeholders who are affected by the codes of conduct of CQUniversity and GlaxoSmithKline Company include the employees, the top management of the organizations, the suppliers and their customers. These groups of stakeholders influence the operations of the organizations or are either influenced by the operations of the organizations. The emerging business ethics which are addressed by the code of conduct include fraud, corruption, harassments of any kind and ineffective utilization of resources of the organizations. The main aspects discussed in the two documents of the codes of conduct are enclosed by principles such as integrity, respect, being focused and upholding the interests of the public. Through code of conduct, the corporate governance and transparency can be upheld. Code of ethics helps to improve integrity of among stakeholders, improves effective utilization of resources and creates good reputation of the organizations. In this regard therefore, code of conduct is an essential aspect in any organization as it helps to improve the performance of the organization as well as upholding the laws and policies of the organizations. References CQUniversity 2012, Be what you want to be C o d e o f C o n d u c t, CQUniversity. GlaxoSmithKline 2012, The GSK Code of Conduct: One company, one approach, GlaxoSmithKline. Read More