Introduction
Considering the ever-changing business scenarios in the corporate world and the current modifications in working patterns, it is necessary for organizations to have working ethics programs, which primarily act as guiding principles in any business dealing. In addition, noting the diverse nature of most business dealings, likelihoods of misconducts are high hence, making it necessary for an ethical program to be in place, mostly as a judgmental conduct tool on individuals’ morality in business undertakings.
Failure to have working ethical programs can lead to business failure; a case that was evident in the 2008-2009 economic crisis, which saw many world economies go down the slopes of inflation (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2009, p. 2-5). It is important for organizations to take the concept of this ethical program very serious primarily because, any failure to honor the set ethical standards of an organization, not only leads to visible organizational, economic problems, but also it can lead to many social problems on global societies.
Developing an Effective Ethics Program
As suggested by Weston ((n.d.), p.1), regardless of an organization’s nature, it is important for any ethics program to take into consideration six major principles namely accountability, considerateness, respect, citizenship, trustworthiness, and above all equality. Also, it is important for top management organs to remember that created values should have a clear correlation to employee, suppliers, customers, and stakeholders’ orientations.
To develop an effective program, it is important for top management to specify the nature of behaviors, which an organization expects and those that it does not expect from its employees. Because many organizational ethical concepts have many associated complexities, it is necessary for management teams to have desired agreements on what such programs should encompass.
To make sure such programs work effectively, management teams themselves should respect laws directing such programs, because the majority of misconduct cases results as individuals endeavor to maximize an organization’s incomes due to organizational pressure (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2009, pp. 206-207).
To alleviate the occurrence of such instances, it is important also for organizations to establish and put into strategic action methodologies of enhancing the process of ethical decision-making; a case that is common with big companies, for example, Ford Motors and Texas instruments (p.10).
For any ethics program to succeed, as concerns achieving desired outcomes in organizations, management must put in place effective communication and monitoring measures. Such measures must take into consideration the chronological development, operating environment, culture, and section of the commerce where that organization belongs. Also, to implementation of effective communication and monitoring channels, it is necessary for organizations to have officers who should help in making sure employees adhere to specifications in the program.
On the other hand, organizations must document such programs (desired codes of conduct specifications), and at all times overseeing officers must use desirable protocols in allocating duties whereby, at all times they must make sure correct they make acceptable reviews to the ethics (Anderson, 2010, p.1 and Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferell, 2009, p. 210). This should be the case, for it is the only way of minimizing likelihoods of management problems.
It is important to note that, the effectiveness of any program, as pertains to strict adherence to desired morality, depends on mechanisms that managers have used in integrating the system into the corporate culture of an organization. Such failures to integrate the program effectively in the corporate culture of organizations are major contributors to the failure of organizational systems; a case that was evident in Tyco Company.
That is, even though this corporation had a well-structured ethics plan, which all employees have to respect and follow strictly, its integration to the systems of the company was poor, leading to numerous managerial delinquencies (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2009, p. 211).
In addition, to avoid the occurrence of misconducts, it is important for organizations to have ethics familiarizing programs, owing to the diverse nature of employees; in terms of culture, and social backgrounds. In an organizational setting, it is very hard to tame individual bad behaviors, emotionality, and temperament, however, with working set of ethics program in place, organizations can minimize the occurrence of many wars and unrests (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2009, p. 211).
On the other hand, like Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Ferrell (pp. 214-215) further state, regardless of the organizational targets, the effectiveness of such programs, as concerns encompassing both the organization and stakeholder orientations, depends on such programs’ ability to predict employees’ behavioral patterns. That that is to say, organizations should use such programs as their main control mechanisms.
Considering this, two types of control mechanisms are prevalent in any organizational scenario namely, values and compliance orientation. The latter deals with concepts of orderliness; whereby organizations are applying it use legal conditions, contracts, and legislative laws, as main guiding measures.
That is, employees must honor and follow specific set codes of ethics whereby, noncompliance to such set principles can lead to specific penalties. The case is a little bit different in the former primarily because, its emphasis is on the adoption of shared values, primarily deference and accountability (Weston, (n.d.), p.1).
Conclusion
In conclusion, in all organizational setting; in the corporate world, three primary types of statements that make up the ethics programs exist namely, statement of values, a code of morals, and a code of behavior. The success of these programs depends on their correct inclusion in an organization’s business culture. Also, to organizations including then in their business programs, training and continuous updating of such programs is crucial, for such programs to be effective in achieving desired results.
On the other hand, like Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Ferrell (2009, pp. 224-226) argue, the success of these programs, sometimes depends on the policies adopted by implementing officers. That is to say; their success depends on the ability of the implementing officers’ ability to avoid some common execution mistakes.
These mistakes include failure by management teams to integrate organizational goals in this programs, lack of appropriate supporting literature, formulation of impractical programs goals; whose achievement is hard, and lack application of proper methodologies, in case an organization wants to transfer its programs to other markets.
Reference List
Anderson, C. (2010). How to build a business ethics plan. Business Seek. Web.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2009). Business Ethics, Ethical Decision Making & Cases (7th E.d). Boston, MA: Prentice Hall.
Weston, H. Developing an effective ethics program. Web.