How to Establish a Business Ethics Management Program

Your management team is an important tool in your company's effort to maintain a high ethical standard. Managers have close relationships with front-line workers who face ethics issues ranging from product testing to honesty in advertising. You can establish a business ethics management program to encourage high standards within your ranks.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Partnership with local university
• Professional mediators and independent auditors
• Shadowing program

Instill Ethical Values in Your Management Team

1. Offer entrance into a business ethics management program at specific intervals throughout a professional's career. A yearly review, promotion and transfer process within your business can provide the opportunity to offer advanced ethics training.

2. Hire a group of professional mediators and independent auditors to educate your management trainees about business ethics. Former labor mediators and family counselors can help shed light on the assessment process following potential ethics violations. Independent auditors and investigators can offer anecdotes for successful ethics management from their own experiences.

3. Schedule ethics management courses for your staff as part of an average work day. It is important to fuse practical applications and theories of management without disturbing an employee's workload during high-stress times of the year.

4. Incorporate a study of state and federal business ethics laws within your management training program. These laws help lay down the boundaries for management trainees so they can better understand your company's ethical duties.

5. Require your management trainees to use past examples of ethical violations and mediation to determine their understanding of business ethics. It is important to black out or replace names and other sensitive material in company documents used for training purposes.

6. Partner with a local university to ease your training burden as you establish a business ethics program. Universities with a Masters of Business Administration (MBA) program may offer guest lecturers and resources to promote ethical behavior in the community.

7. Create a flexible training program for business ethics management using virtual learning tools. You can record guest lectures, sample mediation and other pertinent events that can be reviewed through the company's website.

8. Teach management trainees the supervisory skills needed to develop into dynamic professionals with knowledge of business ethics. Your managers can establish the importance of assessment and daily management skills needed to deal with diverse employees with different perspectives on ethics.

Tips & Warnings

• Encourage experienced staff members within your company to volunteer for a shadowing program. Your management trainees would be able to speak one-on-one with a veteran team member who has encountered a number of ethical issues throughout his career. Your use of shadowing should come at the end of the classroom portion of training.