Ethical Business Practices
Ethical business practices, in essence, involve doing the right thing in the normal course of business. Companies with a good track record of aboveboard dealings and great customer responsiveness develop a good reputation, leading to long-term stability and a loyal customer base. In today's Internet era, ethical business practices are critical as Web-savvy consumers learn to seek out positive and negative information on businesses, shopping at the ethical ones and shunning the bad.
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Corporate Responsibility
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In the U.S., a wide array of regulations and laws are in place to protect employees, consumers and communities. Ethical business practices require diligent safety measures and environmentally sound procedures, whether local regulations require them or not.
Honesty
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Ethical businesses do not lie. Advertising should always reflect reality. While it's okay to promote loss-leaders, customer-driving special bargains that generate a net loss for a business, it's not okay to run bait-and-switch campaigns where an advertised quality product is swapped out for a lower-quality one when the store "runs out." Warranties and guarantees should always be up-front, in writing and honored in a timely fashion.
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Customer Service
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Customer service is the public face of your business. Personnel must be well-trained and able to respond appropriately to customer issues. Ideally, they should be empowered to address low-level problems by themselves, without supervisor escalation. When your customer service properly reflects and displays ethical business practices, your business reputation always improves.
Ethics From The Top
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Ethical business practices are shaped at the top. If top management is ethical and honest in dealing with the public and employees, the company will function in the same manner. Secretive and unethical top management either tacitly or explicitly encourage unethical behavior in employees. Corporate leaders wanting to take a proactive approach to ethical business practices can work with employees to create a code of ethics that reflects corporate goals and ideals.
Creating a Code of Ethics
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Corporations are increasingly adopting codes of ethics, generated by management and employees to address sensitive ethical issues. A good code of ethics addresses at a minimum confidentiality of all information, ethical accounting practices, employee and corporate responsibilities, and full disclosure to employees by management and from employees to management. These ethical practices encourage honesty and openness within a corporation and help safeguard information entrusted to the company.
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