Code of Ethics Paper - Essay Example

business, if only to function as risk-management mechanisms; included here is the designing of conformity codes and course of action, or more popularly known as code of conduct or ethics (Baker 2006: p. 46). Regardless whether they are referred to as codes of conduct, codes of ethics or any other terms, the community nowadays expects professional and business organizations to possess codes that determine the guiding standards and norms of proper behavior demanded of their constituents. It is all the time more usual for individual business enterprises to also acknowledge the advantages of having these particular codes, advantages that are functional not merely to the businesses themselves but as well as to the personnel of those organizations, and to their shareholders.

The progress of a code of ethics within a business organization is fragment of an essential communication mechanism. It facilitates management to put emphasis to the employees of the company the norms of behavior which they should abide by. It provides regulation and direction to employees who are faced with difficult decisions-making problems while carrying out their tasks; thereby it contributes to the creation of a suitable moral environment within the organization. As such, it can function as a tool for the assimilation of new employees into the principles of the company.

General Electric, one of the most successful corporations in the world, has issued one set of policies to put into effect its Code of Conduct and to lend a hand of integrity to GE personnel all over the world. The fundamental duties of all employees and managers, consequences and penalties for infringements and how to deal with an integrity problem are discussed in their booklet. Nevertheless, the following are the principles embedded in GE’s code of conduct (General Electric 2004: p. 3): These policies should be obeyed by GE directors, officer, employees, subsidiaries and other controlled affiliates, non-controlled