The Code of Ethics and Ethical Values - Coursework Example

of Ethics ment of Values This of ethics contains several ethical values that guide me in my conductand association with others. It contains broad principles that will reflect the type of behaviour which affect the conduct of business, and how they will guide general human behaviour. It reflects on various ethical standards and the point where the values and principles emerged from (Ferrell et al, 2013). In this code of ethics, the ethical values are based on the theory of Kant Immanuel who argues that human reason is the autonomous source of principles of conduct. Human autonomy is indeed the primary and highest value which limits all other values so that if human autonomy is not granted all other ethical standards become irrelevant. One of the ethical values that guide behaviour or conduct is respect and responsibility. The corporation or individual should be responsible for their actions in order to create a good relationship with other people in the society. One also needs to respect and understand others in order to create a good relationship with them. Learning to put oneself in other people’s shoes and respect their decisions is good in creating harmony of purpose; which leads to peaceful coexistence among various people in the community. In this case, understanding and respect for others will encourage diversity in terms of culture, gender, age, or any other demographic (Ferrell et al, 2013). People should also build trust among each other in so that everyone is given an opportunity to express himself or perform their duties independently for the benefit of the entire society. Another ethical value that needs to be considered in this code of ethics is fairness and justice. In this case, people need to treat each other fairly without any form of discrimination or injustice. Justice and equity is necessary in the society so that everyone can share the resources of society and participate in its progress and activities. Justice and fairness ensures that there is an equitable distribution of resources which benefits everyone in the society (Ferrell et al, 2013). Benefits of the society granted through fairness and justice also benefit the individual. Therefore, treating others justly and fairly replicates positive results on the person who acts with justice and fairness. Justice also grants a society peaceful coexistence and happy relationships among various members of the community. Another ethical value that guides human behaviour is openness and honesty in all forms of communications (Ferrel et al, 2013). In this case, each member of the corporation should disclose all necessary information that is needed by other people in order to make rational decisions that can benefit the corporation and the community. Each communication should be open and honest so that information becomes uniform, and decision making becomes congruent and effective within the organisation and the community at large. Every community should communicate or speak with sincerity. This is another way of building trust and healthy relationships in the community. Leaders should set good examples. This requires leaders to do what they preach. In order for others to follow faithfully and sincerely, leaders need to do as they speak. Exemplary leadership sets the pace for successful organisational and individual performance because followers will always follow the example of their leaders. If the leader comes late to work, followers will also come late to work; and this may cause irresponsible behaviour in the organisation. Another code of ethics is to act with integrity and dignity. People should build a positive image by living with integrity and dignity. Their ways should be right in terms of their professions as well as in the eyes of the public. This is specifically important for leaders, but applies to everyone in the community. Every person needs to act with dignity and integrity in order to earn respect and support from other members of the community. People should also overcome intimidation by acting with integrity despite a lot of pressure from malicious people. It is important to stand one’s ground and not to be pushed into doing things that may lower one’s dignity and interfere with their integrity. Training and Communication Once the ethical values have been established, it is now important to offer training and communication to employees and other members of the corporation about the code of ethics in general. This will enable people in the corporation to understand and acknowledge the ethical values required to guide behaviour in the corporation. Training and communication is offered to make the ethical values part of the corporation’s culture. Effective communication should be used to inform people about the code. The communication should ensure that each member gets access to a copy of the code of ethics. It should also ensure that all members of the corporation understand their duties and responsibilities to uphold the provisions and standards of the code of ethics. Communication should also focus on the commitment of the corporation to the code, so that it becomes clear to everyone who is affected by the code. The communication should also inform people about how to use the code and how to resolve questions about its purpose. Communication should go hand in hand with training. The training should be focused on the understanding of the standards and ethical values contained in the code of ethics. The training should be held in sessions to cover all employees. It should enable employees to learn how they may apply the provisions of the code to their specific job responsibilities. It should also include how to face confronting challenges using the code of ethics, and making appropriate decisions and behaving appropriately under certain circumstances. Training should also ensure that the employees can identify specific examples and language that applies to the code in order to avoid ambiguities. Training should also focus on how the code can be applied to ethical challenges facing employees. Through training employees should also be taught how to behave when faced with ethical uncertainties or dilemma, when they experience unethical behaviour, and when they are pressured to behave unethically. Implementation Plan Once training and communication has been established, the code of conduct is implemented. In this case, the policies and guidelines are communicated and practiced. The code can be implemented using specific steps. The first step of implementation is to form a task group which will be needed to communicate the code and hold discussions with staff, management and other stakeholders. The task group will also organize training programmes and workshops regarding the code of ethics for the staff. An induction programme is then offered to allow the management and staff to understand the requirements and standards of the code. The induction should include a training manual and mission statement for the code. The code should then be made available through accessible means, e.g. using company intranet, employee handbook, and/or notice boards. When the code is provided though the company intranet, employees can access it whenever they want by logging onto the code of intranet. Easy access of the code can also be provided through a printed version in terms of employees’ handbook. The handbook should be placed in communal areas where all employees can access, e.g. staff room. A summary of the code can also be provided on the notice board to remind employees about the existence of the code. In this case, different parts of the code can be placed in different sections of the organisation. After training, communicating and making the code available for everyone the organisation’s management should collect feedback from the public to determine their level of understanding on the code. Appropriate changes should be suggested to the areas where the staff identified some mistakes which are genuinely erroneous or unacceptable. The last step of implementing the code is for the staff to sign to demonstrate their willingness to abide by the code of ethics. This gives the organisation power to take disciplinary action on the members who violate the provisions of the code of ethics. This also minimizes conflict of interest in implementing the code. A summary of the implementation plan is provided below: Aims/objectives Tasks Persons Responsible Timeframe To ensure the understanding of the code Training Selected task group made of managers 1 month To create awareness Communication The task group Ongoing To make code of ethics part of the organisation’s culture Providing the code in handbooks, notice boards and the intranet Task group 3 Weeks To initiate appropriate changes Collecting feedback Managers 1 month To ensure compliance with the code Collecting signatures from staff Staff & managers 1 week To protect the code Carrying disciplinary action on those who violate the code Management Ongoing Plan for the Role of Leadership Leaders play a crucial role in the implementation of the code of ethics. Leaders are responsible for setting formulating the code and overseeing its implementation from the start to finish. They also set good examples by following the requirements of the code of ethics. The leaders should practice and promote the code first as a way of leading the way for other employees. Leaders also provide directions and training to the staff to ensure that they understand the provisions of the code and they each know their duties and responsibilities of protecting and upholding the code of ethics. During training, leaders participate as trainers while at the same time coordinating activities in the training process in general so that it is completed successfully. Leaders allocate resources to the training and assign roles to various participants in the training in order to ensure that the training goes on successfully within the required time and resources. They ensure that the venue for training is ready on time, the resources for the training are available on time, and the trainers are ready on time. Leaders also play a crucial role in communication of the code of ethics. Communicating the code of ethics is an important step in enhancing its awareness and understanding so that employees are aware of their duties and responsibilities in upholding the code. Leaders participate in the communication process. They provide employees the information needed about the code of ethics, and collect feedback from them so that it can be used to determine whether the employees understand the provisions of the code. Leaders also need to communicate effectively in order to make the ethical values contained in the code part of the organisation’s corporate culture. Leaders also oversee the conduct of employees to ensure that they abide by the provisions of the code of ethics. They first collect signatures from all employees promising to abide by the ethical values contained in the code. Leaders will also be responsible for identifying individuals who fail to follow the requirements of the code, and suggest appropriate actions to be taken against them by the management team (Diamond et al, 2013). When the code is found to be erroneous, the leaders suggest appropriate changes to be initiated in order to create better ethical values. Corporate Social Issues While upholding the code of ethics, the corporation will also be concerned with certain corporate issues. First, the corporation should be at the forefront in protecting the environment. This is a corporate social responsibility which ensures that a sustainable environment is enhanced (Diamond et al, 2000). This is achieved through minimization of negative environmental impacts. The corporation should work with communities, people, and the government to reduce global warming through environmental conservation and reduction of gas emissions. To achieve a sustainable environment, the company should implement its code of ethics effectively and act in a sustainable manner towards the environment. The use of technology and innovation can enable the company to reduce environmental impact on its value chain. Another corporate social issue is accountability and responsibility to stakeholders and the community. The code of ethics ensures that the corporation acts according to corporate social responsibility policies. These policies require the organisation to communicate effectively and accurately with stakeholders such as employees, suppliers, shareholders, and members of the community. To avoid misleading the community, the corporation should communicate its ethical values and responsibilities transparently (Diamond et al, 2000). Accurate and reliable resources should also be kept and disclosed appropriately in order to earn trust from the community. The corporation is also obligated to give back to the community because the community has allowed it to operate. In this case, the corporation should provide equal employment opportunity to members of the community, contribute to charities, offer sponsorship to students, and participate in community work (Diamond et al, 2000). Helping members of the community to improve their livelihoods is an important corporate social responsibility action that will improve the image of the company. Recent laws and regulations impacting the corporation While implementing the code of ethics, the corporation needs to consider some of the laws and regulations that impact on its operations and management. One of the recent laws that affect the corporation is advertising and marketing law. This law is enforced through the Federal Trade Commission (SBA, 2014). It affects how the corporation labels its products, conducts its e-marketing campaigns, and health and environmental concerns. For example, the law requires advertising in corporations to be truthful and not deceptive. This affects the marketing campaign of the corporation and ensures that its code of ethics, which includes avoiding deception, is upheld. The copyright law was also amended in 2012 to review the copyright fees judged on companies. This leads to increase in costs of operations for a business, but it is necessary as required by the copyright law which requires the fees charges to be reviewed annually. The corporation is affected because it may change its copyright or cut on other costs to pay for the increased copyright fees. In order to maintain its innovativeness and increase its technological productivity, the company needs to pay for its copyrights. Minimum wage laws also affect the way the corporation operates and manages its employees (SBA, 2014). The updates in September 2014 on the Minimum Wage Law in various states of the USA affects how corporations manage its employees to achieve its organisational objectives (SBA, 2014). The rise of minimum wages increases the expenses of the corporation in terms of wages and salaries. This may lead to reduction of the workforce through laying-off of existing staff or restructuring the organisation to avoid hiring new staff. This may cause a negative relationship between the organisation and its employees. Monitoring and Enforcement of Ethics Auditing Plan Once the code of ethics has been implemented, everyone now understands its contents and their responsibilities in upholding and protecting it. The management is responsible for monitoring its application in the conduct of business within the organisation. The ethics audit plan ensures that everyone in the organisation is playing his/her part to abide by the ethical values contained in the code of ethics. The ethical values are enforced by the management and employees are regularly monitored to see whether they are following the requirements provided by the law. When someone in the organisation is found to be going contrary to the provisions of the code, he/she is punished accordingly to serve as an example to the others and to boost the image of the company because it will be viewed as a company that respects its code of ethics (Secrest, 2013). In case of conflict on the enforcement, either between the management and the employees or between two managers, appropriate conflict resolution mechanisms will be used within the organisation to come into an agreement. There should be a monitoring, auditing and evaluation program which ensures that the employees comply with the ethical standards of the company. The auditing should involve promotion of ethics. In this case, the internal audit department should create a tone at the top which informs all employees about the need of ethical values (Diamond et al, 2000). The internal audit department should then assess, monitor and report the status or ethical culture within the organisation on a regular basis to the executive management and the governing board. The auditing team should play an exemplary role of complying with the ethical standards of the company and their own professional code of conduct. The next step is to monitor the ethics. The internal auditing team monitors the ethics through testing. The ethics and compliance program should be assessed throughout the organisation; including assessment of the effectiveness of misconduct and whistle blowing (Secrest, 2013). Entity-wide review should also be carried out through an evaluation of ethical functions and activities of the organisation such as ethics compliance, training and whistle blower reporting. Auditing and monitoring should also involve assessment and incorporation of ethical risk. This is intended to determine the areas of ethics which exhibit high compliance and ethical risk (Secrest, 2013). Assessment of ethics and compliance risk can be carried out through employee surveys which can also be used to measure ethical climate within the organisation. Employee survey provides an insight into the level of ethical risk in the organisation. The survey should ensure that the confidentiality of employees is upheld while ethical issues and attitudes are captured completely to avoid ineffective ethics risk management. The last step of the monitoring and auditing process is to report gaps and make a follow-up. The internal auditing team should keep a constant communication with the management about effectiveness of ethics and compliance programs within the organisation. Internal auditing should identify gaps, issues, and opportunities for improvement; communicate them to the board; and follow up on them with the appropriate personnel. Ethical Considerations for Working Internationally When working in international markets, the corporation needs to consider various ethical issues in international context. Ethical considerations in terms of employment include: equal employment opportunity, living wage, protection and safety of workers, and good working conditions. Because working internationally means working with people from different cultural backgrounds, it is important to provide equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, gender or age (Vitell & Paolillo, 2004). Employment should be provided in a fair and just manner depending on the qualification of the applicants rather than cultural or demographic background. Corruption is also common in some countries. If the corporation agrees to make payments through corrupt ways, then it is encouraging corruption which is unethical. Protection of human rights in the international market is also an important ethical consideration (Vitell & Paolillo, 2004). How countries view human rights differ. The corporation should behave ethically by upholding international human rights and principles. It should also operate with equality and fairness as a way of protecting human rights. The corporation may also be affected by ethical labor concerns such as child labor and illegal labor issues. The corporation should employ people within the employable age range depending on the laws and regulations of foreign countries where the company operates. References list Diamond, J., Diamond, E., Clements, S., & Diamond Educational Productions (Firm). (2000). Business ethics and social responsibility. S.I.: Diamond Educational Productions Ferrell, O. L., Fraedrich, J. and Ferrell, L., (2013). Business Ethics and Social Responsibility. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Nelson, V., Martin, A., & Ewert, J. (2005). What difference can they make? Assessing the social impact of corporate codes of practice. Development in Practice, 1534, 539-545. SBA (2014). Business Law and Regulation. Accessed on November 7, 2014 from http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business/managing- business/business-law-regulations. Secrest, D.G. (2013). Ethics and Compliance Programs: Key Elements of an Effective Ethics and Compliance Internal Audit Program. The Institute of Internal Auditors Research Foundation Vitell, S.J., & Paolillo, J.G.P. (2004). A cross-cultural study of the antecedents of the perceived role of ethics and social responsibility. Business Ethics: a European Review, 13, 185-199. Read More