How to Develop Business Policies to Resolve Ethical Conflicts

The difference between a responsible industry leader and the average company is the speed used in resolving ethical conflicts. Your role as a corporate leader is to deal with ethical conflicts before they influence the quality of your products and services. You need to develop methods to resolve ethical conflicts as soon as they are noted by employees and investors.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

• Disclaimer
• Whistle-blowing program

Install Procedures to Resolve Corporate Ethical Issues

1. Print a disclaimer regarding ethical standards on each publication and form that comes from your central office. This disclaimer offers the recipient an opportunity to report questionable ethics through the proper channels. Ethics disclaimers also allow you to put the full weight of your business behind your ethics policies.
2. Demonstrate the right and wrong ways to deal with ethical conflicts in your business during training. Role-playing and taped scenarios allow you to put some depth behind your policies for new employees.
3. Train every manager and supervisor in your business to mediate ethical issues in a deliberate manner. Your policies on business ethics must guide mediators to a neutral and objective approach to resolving staff and corporate ethical issues.
4. Reward employees and departments with an exemplary ethics records as part of your business ethics policy. You can recognize success in maintaining high standards in your business through personnel citations, newsletter notes and employee promotions and bonuses.
5. Facilitate a whistle-blowing program within every department in your business to gain insight into lesser-known ethical issues. This program should be confidential and allow legal protection for employees involved to avoid future litigation.
6. Outline successful ethics mediations and other consequences of the ethical standards you develop in industrial publications. This aspect of your ethics policy allows you to show your company's strength to competitors and turns your company into a standard-bearer for ethics.
7. Amend your company's ethics statement to reflect changing industry issues and dynamics. You should place your statement of principles up for review by employees and stockholders at least once every 5 years to develop a current policy. A brief review of your policies after a string of ethical issues can show your company's responsiveness.

Tips & Warnings

• Assign an experienced human resources professional to handle documentation for all of your company's ethical conflicts. Your management and legal teams will have the final say on how to resolve ethical conflicts, but proper documentation avoids future litigation. A human resources veteran with archiving experience can keep papers and testimonials straight for future investigations.