Code of Business Ethics for Business Management

The code of ethics of a company reflects the character of that company.

Enron, Worldcom, AIG and Bernie Madoff are examples of companies and business people who operated with a lax code of ethics. The end of results were fraud, financial losses and disappointment.

Code of Business Ethics

According to the Business Dictionary, the term "code of ethics" is defined as the "written guidelines issued by an organization to its workers and management to help them conduct their actions in accordance with its primary values and ethical standards." Think of it as the character of an organization. Just as individuals are judged on the content of their character, corporations can rise or fall based on their code of ethics and whether or not they follow it.

Application

For many large global organizations, like Accenture, the code of ethics is designed to reinforce the core values of a company, energizing a culture of ethical decision making and responsibility among management and employees.

Implementation

Business management is key to implementation. Managers must first lead by example and then instill the ethics and the resulting culture into employees. This is done by providing real-world, day-to-day examples to employees as to how they must think about and exercise the code of ethics.

References

• Business Dictionary: Code of Ethics
• Accenture: Code of Business Ethics, Ethics & Compliance Program and Corporate Investigations
• Accenture: Code of Business Ethics: Our Core Values in Action