Government Contract Law - Assignment Example

 GOVERNMENT CONTRACT LAW Propriety and fairness are two important aspects of organizational management. Once these are enforced within an organization, it is possible to expect that the organization will have a kind of public image and appeal that is acceptable by all (Copeland, 2004). What is more, propriety and fairness are important in the company to ensure that people treat each other well and go about their roles as defined for them. This means that propriety and fairness within the organization comes with both internal and external advantages. DeGeorge (2010) however observed that before such forms of propriety and fairness can take place, it is important to have a system that both implements them and enforces them. One of the commonest systems used to enforce the existence of propriety and fairness is code of ethics. There are code of ethics are enshrined in rules and regulations of companies at the local level. There are others that are put in place laws and policies such as Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR). PrintMark Publications is the new firm specializing in publishing and printing that is seeking to investigate how code of ethics would impact its activities and programs. Evaluating the Raytheon Code of Ethics and relating it to the publishing organization, it can be said that the codes are very effective in avoiding any conduct that may even appear to be unethical. There are two major reasons why this position is taken. In the first place, the Raytheon Code of Ethics is very universal in nature. What this means is that the code identifies all person within the organization and what they are expected to do to avoid conduct that may appear to be unethical or inappropriate. Bowie (2002) lamented that there are organizations that refuse to accept the fact that codes should cover those at the top as well as those at the bottom. Consequently, such organizations only make codes to cover those at the bottom. In such situations, chances that acts of conflict of interest will be engaged in by senior management members are higher. The Raytheon Code of Ethics however covers both leaders and employees. The other rationale for saying the code is effective is that the code has been structured in such a way that it incorporates Government Accountability Office reports and decisions. This means that adopting such code would ensure that the organisation’s ethics fit into the larger public ethical expectation in publishing. As PrintMark Publication is into the publishing industry, it is expected that such issues that has to do with plagiarism, hacking of people’s personal information, and inappropriate disclosure of confidential data will be avoided. There are three critical clauses in the Raytheon Code of Ethics that can be used to aid the company avoid such instances of impropriety. The first of this has to do with the clause that requires employees and leaders to “treat people with respect and dignity”. Indeed when other people, especially those in the public are respected and dignified, thoughts of unethically making information about the public for the reason of tarnishing their reputation will not be pursued by people within the company. The second is the clause to accurately charge labor and other costs. Within the publishing industry, the need to take undue advantage of other people’s labor frequently leads to plagiarism and other forms of inappropriate use of materials. Such a clause can therefore ensure that such acts of impropriety are not in place. The last clause forces on avoiding conflicts of interest. Very often, when there are contracts for publishing firms to undertake printing works, some leaders violate forego the planned actions in soliciting and awarding contracts as recommended in the FAR requirements but rather engage in such practices as kickbacks, which bring them personal benefits. This clause can help in solving this situation. Even though a number of the provisions in the Code of Ethics of Raytheon can be linked to the larger governmental conditions of ethical behavior within organizations, it is still important that some additional provisions that are more direct with FAR be included. In line with this, the Code of Federal Regulations would also be included as additional ethics provision that will regulate and guide the way and manner in which the company engages in procurement procedures. As a large publishing firm, chances that outsourcing of materials and contracts to execute projects are higher. It is for this reason that the Code of Federal Regulations would be adopted to ensure that aspects of Administrative Procedure Act (APA) are incorporated into the company’s activities. The second provision that will be adopted is the corporate governance code. The rationale for the selection of this particular code would be to ensure that there is a well defined approach in which the company deals with its shareholders and other non-shareholder stakeholders as enshrined in the corporate governance principles (Carasco and Singh, 2003). As explained earlier, the clauses selected from the Raytheon Code of Ethics will solve the specific ethical issue of unlawful usage of information as has persistently existed in the publishing industry. Within the publishing industry, there seem to be a very huge ethical dilemma when it comes to the interpretation of freedom to information law. There are many who tend to think that because of the existence of the freedom to information law, they can go every extent to access information from other people. Most of the time broadcasters feel that by becoming the first to break news they would become the most preferred destinations for news by the public. This makes several practitioners abandon very simple ethical provisions that cover such things as human rights and freedom to privacy. It is for the need to avoid the unlikely temptation of using the wrong modalities and means of practice to access information that the selected clauses are very important for the company and the larger industry. This is because when the clauses come into force, it would help in clearly differentiating between what is ethically and professionally right and what is sensationally right. By so doing, the company will be guided against the temptation of getting itself into troubles that has to do with its internal practices and the image it gets in the eyes of the larger public. It would also ensure that such things as lawsuits against the company that can potentially expand the company’s expenditure are avoided. References Bowie, N.E. (2002). A Kantian Approach to Business Ethics. Ethical Issues in Business. A Philosophical Approach. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Carasco, E.F. and Singh, J.B. (2003). The Content and Focus of Codes of Ethics of the World’s Largest Transnational Corporations. Business and Society Review, 108 (1), pp.71-94. Copeland, J.E. Jr. (2004). Whence Ethics? Consulting to Management, Vol.15, No.3, pp.24-26. DeGeorge, R.T. (2010). Business Ethics. New York: Macmillan Publishing Read More