Standards and procedures/ code of ethics
The business has realized the need to have an ethics and compliance program in order to reduce the risk of misconducts, detect wrong doing, demonstrate the company’s ethical stand, and enhance the reputation of the company (Ferrel, 2010).
General business conduct in management consultancy
This section assures clients and users of our consulting services that the company is focused and committed to offering high quality services. The employees and all parties associated with the company subscribe to the general code of ethics for management consultancy firms.
With regards to our clients, the company is committed to servicing with objectivity, competence, and integrity. Personal and sensitive records pertaining to our clients’ engagement will be treated with utmost confidentiality (Ferrel, 2010). Before use of such information, the company will first consult the client and seek for their permission to use the information.
There shall be no particular moment when the company shall engage confidential information in order to gain benefits as a company without the permission of the client. The company shall first disclose to clients, the prospective conflicts of interest with regards to any action before undertaking any engagement. The company shall also respect the intellectual rights of the clients, and other management consulting firms. The company shall not be part of any deceptive advertising and will encourage reporting of standard violation.
With regards to engagement, the company shall only accept engagements which it is qualified and certified to undertake. Our competence and experience are the two bases upon which the company shall know whether or not to undertake an engagement. Our staff members shall only be assigned an engagement based on their experience, knowledge and competency.
Once the company gets an engagement, we shall clearly state the nature of influences that are likely to impair our competency, objectivity, and integrity. Incase our integrity is impaired the company is not obliged to proceed with the engagement.
With regards to fees, the company will be reasonable and only charge based on the nature of service provided. The fees and charges expected from the company shall be disclosed to the clients in advance prior to signing of any deal of engagement.
Employment practice conduct
The company generally expects that everyone associated with it as staff members, employees, trustees will conduct themselves in a manner that is in accordance with the standards of business practice. The company expects all associates to behave ethically and comply with the standards and legal procedures of business ethics. The company
Conflict of interest
Conflict of interest refers to the clash between personal interest and company interest during official engagement of company by its employees (Ferrel, 2010). It is inevitable in every situation in which company employees are required to make decisions on behalf of the company. A conflict of interest may also arise when such an employee may seek to benefit personally from an official engagement with a client.
The company’s policy with regards to conflict of interest is to have employees acting on behalf of the company to avoid any conflict or appearance of conflict of interest. Employees of the company acting on behalf of the company are expected to avoid conflict of interest by putting the interest of the company first when engaging in any official dealing with clients seeking to develop a relationship with the company.
A Plan for an ethics training program
In order to develop an ethic program, the company will rely on a criterion that consists of six major components (Marx & Els, 2009). The anticipated training program is expected to help the company employees to deal with ethical situations that they will encounter in the process of duty. The training should be designed in a way that helps employees understand the ethical issues they face at work.
The first major component in the plan is providing employees with training of ethical judgment philosophies. When it comes to ethical issues, it is hard to describe a shade of grey and therefore through the use of philosophical understanding and judgment, one can be able to find answers to ethical problems (Marx & Els, 2009).
Training employees in this first component involves identification of ethical values in the organization, between the workers, and among the workers. It also involves identification of the possible ways in which employees might interpret the identified ethical values. The company can use workshops and seminars to help discover and explore the values.
For instance, freedom in the work place has various core values which may be seen differently by different employees. Some employees may look at value of freedom to imply the having the ability to choose the career he or she wants while others may see the value of freedom as empowerment or ability to access information regarding career and work. Managers on the other hand may have a different perception of the value of freedom.
The second important component of a training program is providing the employees with information regarding the concerns of the industry and profession. Every industry has its major and unique areas of ethical concerns. This involves disciplines of workers, discharge of duties and customer concerns.
For instance the human resources profession has unique ethical concerns which are different from those of business management or consultancies in general. Similarly, the ethical dilemmas of human resource profession are different from those of management consultancies. This second component of a training program therefore provides employees with the necessary information about the peculiar ethical concerns involved in various professions within the company and the industry of management consultancy.
The third component is organizational ethical rules and standards. During the training program, employees will be provided with the behavioral standards expected from the company. Basically, this involves the code of ethics which stipulates the standards of behaviors expected from every employee (Marx & Els, 2009).
It is important to include this third component in an ethical training program because most employees are provided with the code of ethics and employee handbook but end up not reading them. However, through the program, they will get regular opportunities to be exposed to the code of ethics.
The fourth component is helping employees understand their ethical tendencies. Employees have different personalities which influences their perspective with regards to ethical issues. During training, it is important to note the personality and individual differences that may likely have an influence on ethical actions or decisions of employees. The training program therefore will seek to measure the individual morality of every employee in order to help understand how to make judgments in different situations (Ferrel, 2010).
The fifth component of an ethical training program is developing a realistic view and approach into dealing with ethical issues. Sometimes, employees may act out of good intentions but since there are various ethical concerns involved in a situation, their actions may be considered unethical. The training programs may focus on helping employees respond to such situations that involve biasing factors.
Finally, the sixth component of an ethical training program is getting employees to absorb and practice the concepts. This will require the program to allow employees time to practice the issues in reality. As they spend time working in their daily routine, the trainers will be monitoring and watching the employees exercise ethical standards. After practicing the concepts, the employees can be engaged in a session of questions and answers where they provide feedback of their encounters.
System for monitoring, auditing, and reporting misconduct
The company is focusing on ensuring business integrity at all times in order to avoid scandals relating to ethics and misconduct. In order to ensure business integrity, a system of monitoring, auditing, and reporting misconduct shall be put into place. The system will involve five processes.
They include establishing goals and criteria, working towards the established goals, training workers regarding the established goals, assessing and monitoring behaviors, and maintaining integrity effort. In the first process, the organization will come up with compliance guidelines and expectation which are basically the code of ethics. The training process is part of the monitoring and auditing system as it helps employees to be aware of what is expected of them.
The management team in the company will play a critical role in establishing commitment to the ethical goals and criteria. The management will strongly emphasize on integrity and enforcing disciplinary policies in case of any violation.
Reviewing and improving the ethics program
In order to improve business ethics program, ethics has to be incorporated and made part of the company’s organizational culture. The company will need to review its code of business ethics to comply with corporate governance. The code of ethics will be enhanced in a way that clearly stipulates actions statements. The actions statements will describe how the company’s employees will behave while conducting business in the name of the company.
The first area of focus is engaging the workforce since employees who are engaged tend to avoid any form of misconduct that does not comply with ethical standards. The company will make its employees an integral part of the process of compliance though training and awareness programs (Marx & Els, 2009). The function of compliance has to be viewed as a necessary evil because it will not only improve company performance but also ensure that the business is protected from such scandals.
The company also needs to take a proactive approach in compliance. This will enable the company to see potential issues that and prevent them before they actually occur. Instead of reacting to situations after such scandals have occurred, the company can avoid the situations by baking in compliance into the entirety of its business. Failure to take a proactive approach can lead to incidences of scandals and disregard of ethical standards.
Businesses that have their prime focus on making money are highly likely to perform unethical practices. Shifting the focus and the ultimate goal to something based on providing solutions to customer needs will reduce the possibility of engaging in unethical practices and decisions in the work place.
References
Ferrel, F. F. (2010). Business ethics: ethical decisions making and cases. South Western: Cengage Learning.
Marx, B., & Els, G. (2009). The role of the audit committee in strengthening business ethics and protecting stakeholders’ interests. African Journal of Business Ethics, 4(1), 5-15.