A Brief Profile of the Company
My company is a European car manufacturer with 50 years of history. Apart from that, it has more than 20 years of experience in the international market. Consequently, the cultural, ethical, religious diversity of our company is a fact that we have to take into account. Apart from that, we realize that the nature of our product demands an ethically responsible attitude.
The fact that poor car safety may lead to their owners’ death encourages us to pay particular attention to the quality of our product. We are especially mindful of our choice of suppliers and other partners as we recognize the importance of proper materials. Apart from that, we encourage innovation, as we believe that the safety, quality, environmental sustainability, and beauty of cars can be continuously improved.
Throughout its history, the company has witnessed the changes in the world’s ethical guidelines. After getting acquainted with other countries and cultures, we have realized that ethics has always been a controversial issue. Still, we believe that it is our responsibility to provide our workers with stable and sound guidelines concerning their ethical behavior. Through the analysis of our own experience along with that of our competitors, we have decided to adopt our Code of Ethics. The core values of the company embrace and regulate its relationships with all the stakeholder groups.
The Code of Ethics of the Company
Ethical Culture at Work
The company Code of Ethics is based on moral values, common sense, and corporate social responsibility principles and is compliant with the legislative regulations of the diverse countries in which we operate. The Code includes the necessary guidelines for the employees and must be adhered to on every level. In order to ensure this, training programs for managerial staff have been developed and implemented.
The level of commitment to the Code differs from one country to another. In order to assess it, statistics on the relevant incidents are analyzed, and opinion polls are carried out. Every five years, the Code is revised and improved in response to the changing environment in which the company operates. Its core values are presented in the next section.
Main Ethical Principles/Values
The Code of Ethics includes a number of principles that can be expressed in the following maxims.
- We are responsible.
- We respect the diversity of our company.
- We care about the quality of our product.
- We respect our partners.
- We seek to protect the environment.
- We are honest.
- We seek to learn.
- We seek to develop.
The value of responsibility is multidimensional. We seek to recognize our responsibility in relation to every stakeholder group. The employees are of primary importance to our company. We value and respect their individualities, and we recognize their diversity. Given the international character of our company, we consider any kind of discrimination completely unacceptable. We seek to promote open-mindedness and cultural diversity understanding among our employees.
The recognition of other diversity types is also of the company’s concern, but the cultural and ethnical diversity is of primary importance. Being just to our employees is one of the primary conditions of our operation. Consequently, we expect the employees to respect each other and be maintain relationships based on openness and honesty.
Apart from that, the quality of our production is of primary importance. By providing our customers with a safe and satisfying product, we recognize our responsibility in relation to this group of stakeholders. Our partners are equally important to us. We endeavor to treat them with respect and to keep our deals just and fair.
Apart from that, we seek to minimize the negative impact that the company’s activities have on the environment. This kind of responsibility was acknowledged by the company recently, and there is still much room for improvement in this respect. The final two values promote the continuous investigation and reflection that should result in the development of all the aspects of the company’s operation. We expect our employees to contribute to the improvement of the company and are willing to provide them with the necessary incentives and opportunities.
Managers and the Code of Ethics
The direct work with the non-managerial staff concerning the Code was stopped when the company’s size made such activities prohibitively difficult. Managers are the staff that is responsible for implementing the Code of Ethics Guidelines at the workplace.
Their importance for the success of our ethics policy is difficult to overestimate. This is why we are particularly concerned with increasing the commitment of the managerial staff to the core values of the company. The results of our efforts are especially visible in the European area of the company’s operation, which appears to be conditioned by the fact that the Code has been initially implemented there.
Main Unethical Behavior at Work
The Code of Ethics was first introduced in 2002, and the implementation of its principles was primarily carried out in the European countries. With time, we started to seek to expand the influence of the Code in other countries. The problems that we faced were concerned with cultural barriers.
For example, in a number of countries, the level of diversity recognition does not correspond to the desired one. We recognize the necessity of respecting the cultural differences of our employees; still, this particular issue keeps creating obstacles we try to overcome. Apart from that, the culture of environmentally friendly behavior also appears to be in need of improvement in certain areas.
Main Ethical Safeguards
The ethical safeguards adopted by our company are diverse and all-encompassing. They include a comprehensive and clear system of rewards and reprimands along with the learning and training programs for managerial staff that has been developed and implemented with regard to the Code principles. Particular attention is paid to promoting the comprehension of the ethical principles of the company. The safeguards appear to be most effective in the European countries where the company operates.
Progress Regarding Ethical/Unethical Behavior
The safeguard that we are especially hopeful about is the training programs. They possess the potential of overcoming the cultural barrier problems. However, this process requires time. Currently, according to the recent poll, there is a significant improvement in a number of areas with respect to diversity recognition and environmentally friendly behavior. At the same time, the effect is not universal, which means that additional measures could be suggested.
Recommendations to Minimize Unethical Behavior
We recognize that the particular needs of our multinational company need to be taken into account in order to overcome the mentioned problems. Still, it should be pointed out that the training programs suggested by our specialists are surprisingly nonadaptive. This may be the reason for the relative ineffectiveness of these programs that they seem to exhibit in particular areas. Therefore, in order to rectify the situation, the creation of adaptive programs or, possibly, individual ones for certain areas would be suggested.
Ethical Safeguards Suggestions
In order to improve the training programs to suit the particular needs of every area, it appears to be logical to encourage local managers to participate in their creation. Their suggestions would be most valuable since these people have the most experience concerning every particular area. At the same time, the general Code guidances are to be taken into account. Apart from that, polls among the non-managerial staff could be used for similar purposes as well as for the assessment of the ethical standards implementation successfulness.
Conclusion
The Code of Ethics developed by our company has shown its effectiveness in the European region where it has been properly implemented and adhered to for more than ten years. This fact can be proved by the continuous decrease in employee turnover and turnover intention in the area that has been especially significant in the period between the years 2007 and 2012. The major difficulty that our company faces now is the implementation of Ethical Code in other areas.
In order to successfully carry out this mission, we need to pay particular attention to the specific needs and cultural peculiarities of these countries. As a result, we are bound to receive the experience that would provide us with a better understanding of the areas and enable us to manage the local employees more efficiently. Therefore, the existing problem should be regarded as an opportunity for investigation, change, and development.