How to Manage Corporate Business Ethics

Business ethics involves dealing equitably with all stakeholders.

Corporate business ethics has been a hot topic in business and finance in the twenty first century, and this crucial field of management is likely to gain increasing importance in the years ahead. While much has been said about the importance and benefits of implementing a company-wide ethics program, business owners must understand how to manage corporate business ethics on a daily basis in order to take full advantage of an ethics program.

Instructions

Involving employees

1. Involve employees in establishing a code of ethics. Allowing employees at all levels of your company to voice their opinions in forming a corporate ethics program can help them to identify with and champion the program. Creating an ethics program in an open environment can also reduce the chance that specific groups will feel marginalized or overlooked by the program.

2. Implement ongoing ethics training for all employees. The training need not be extensive, but should be administered regularly; at least once every two years. Keep your ethics training curriculums up to date by addressing current issues in the field of workplace ethics and current concerns in your organization.

3. Establish a way to measure the outcome of ethics training. According to managementhelp.org, managers may find it challenging to quantifiably measure the results of ethics training initiatives, since the desired outcome does not necessarily yield any tangible results. Define what you wish to accomplish by your ethics program in exact terms. Examples of measurable yet subjective goals include dealing honestly with suppliers and customers, exceeding regulatory mandates for environmental responsibility, increasing positive employee satisfaction surveys, and ensuring that ethical hiring practices are consistently used.

4. Tie incentives and compensation to ethical performance. Some companies give out bonuses based on performance levels that cannot reasonably be achieved by ethical means. This kind of incentive program can encourage an unethical culture. Make incentive and promotion decisions based on employees' ethical dealings with clients, customers, and co-workers in addition to profit- and productivity-based considerations.

5. Allow your company's ethical values to influence all of your business decisions. Draft all of your company policies and procedures in accordance with your ethical guidelines. Before making any business-related decision, ask yourself if the outcome will be fair to all parties, fiscally and environmentally responsible, and legal. Remember the old adage: "If you wouldn't want it to be on the front page of tomorrow's newspaper, don't do it."

6. Train executives to lead by example. Executive behavior can greatly influence corporate culture and the behavior of employees. Executives set the bar when it comes to the type of behavior that is considered acceptable in an organization, and can find themselves in a conundrum if they are required to discipline employees for breaking the rules that they themselves break. Your executives should go beyond the company's code of conduct in their ethical decision making, and their ethical acts should be visible to employees in some way.

References

• Free Management Library: Complete Guide to Ethics Management
• ASAE Center: Ethics in the Workplace

Resources

• Chaco Canyon Consulting: Ethics at Work
• Buzzle: Workpace Ethics