Social Performance
Business organizations are legal entities. Therefore, they may enter into contracts, own property, sue or be sued (Bouchoux, 2009). Organizations may engage in illegal activities. Therefore, since organizations are legal entities, the government or various parties may sue the organizations.
Technically, it is impossible to imprison an organization. The sentencing guidelines provide a mechanism for convicting organizations that contravene various laws. This necessitates organizations to monitor their social performance.
Failure to monitor the social performance would not only make the organization liable to expensive lawsuits, but would also tarnish the image and reputation of the company. Therefore, most organizations have a code of conduct that ensures that their activities are above board.
The code of conduct governs the activities of employees of the organization. The code of conduct ensures the smooth running of the operations of an organization.
Cellcom is a wireless telecommunications provider that has its headquarters in the Green Bay, Wisconsin. The company provides mobile phone telephone services to members of the public using CDMA technology. However, Cellcom does not currently have an ethics program.
This puts the company at risk of facing expensive lawsuits or tarnishing of the image and reputation of the company. Therefore, it is vital for the company to develop a code of conduct.
AT&T, one of the leading telecommunications company in the US, has one of the best ethics program in the industry. The code of conduct dictates that employees of the company should act with integrity. The code of conduct also states that there should be no conflict of interest between an employee’s professional duty and personal interests.
In addition, the code of ethics requires employees to comply with all existing federal or state legislation that governs the activities of the company. This ensures that the code of ethics is always up to date regardless of changes in legislation (AT&T, n.d).
Verizon wireless has a more detailed code of conduct. The code of conduct details how employees should interact with other employees and their seniors. The code of conduct provides intricate detail of the employees conduct.
For example, the company prohibits employees from giving loans of more than $25 to other employees who they have a direct or indirect reporting relationship (Verizon Wireless, 2005).
The intricate detail of the code of conduct ensures that employees do not contravene the company’s policies. However, this makes the employees feel like prisoners the code of conduct governs virtually all their activities.
Atlantic Tele-Network has a less detailed code of conduct. The code of conduct requires employees to have personal and professional integrity. It also requires employees to treat fellow employees, customers and other parties respectfully.
In addition, employees should maintain the confidentiality of company information and use the company property for the benefit of the company and its clients.
According to the Atlantic Tele-Network code of conduct, employees should not have a conflict of interest between their professional duties and personal interests (Atlantic Tele-Network, 2009). Atlantic Tele-Network’s code of conduct is very brief. This makes it to be vague.
Cellcom should use the code of conduct of the above companies as the benchmark for creating its own code of conduct. Cellcom’s employees should ensure that they have personal and professional integrity. They should treat employees, clients and other parties respectfully and honestly.
This would prevent any conflicts between employees, or between the company and external parties. Cellcom’s employees should also ensure that there is no conflict of interest between their professional duties and personal interests.
This would ensure that employees perform their activities for the benefit of the company and its customers at all times. Employees should also maintain confidentiality of company information to avoid jeopardizing the company.
In addition, employees should not use information that they obtain due to their professional involvement with the company for personal benefit. Cellcom’s employees should ensure that they protect the company’s property at all times.
Cellcom employees should ensure that they adhere to existing state and federal legislation that governs the activities of the company. This would prevent breach of the laws, which may lead to tarnishing of the image and reputation of the company and expensive lawsuits.
The code of conduct adheres to the sentencing guidelines. The sentencing guidelines attach criminal liability to an organization due to the action of its employees while they are performing their professional duties.
This is regardless of whether the employee acted contrary to the organization’s guidelines. Therefore, it is vital for the code of conduct to ensure that employees’ actions are not contrary to the organization’s policies. The sentencing guidelines advocates for policies that ensure there is oversight of employees by high-level personnel.
In addition, sentencing guidelines advocate for effective communication between employees. Cellcom’s code of conduct ensures that there is proper communication between employees by ensuring that employees have personal and professional integrity.
The sentencing guidelines advocates for consistent implementation of compliance standards (USSC, n.d). This ensures equal treatment of employees who have violated the code of conduct regardless of their rank within the organization. Cellcom’s code of conduct governs the activities of all employees of the company regardless of their rank within the organization.
Implementation of the code of conduct is bound to face several challenges. People are always resistant to changes that they perceive curtails their freedom. Therefore, prior to implementation of the code of conduct, it is vital to highlight the importance of the code of conduct to the employees.
Employees should appreciate the fact that the code of conduct eases their activities and enables the organization to attain its objective. The management should not put much emphasis on the repercussions of contravening the code of conduct to reduce resistance of the employees to the code of conduct.
In addition, there should be fairness in imposing punishments to employees who contravene the code of conduct. All employees should face similar punishment regardless of their rank within the organization.
Business organizations exist in a rapidly changing environment. Therefore, it is vital to ensure that the code of conduct remains relevant despite the changes.
The code of conduct ensures that the actions of the employees of the organization should always be in the best interest of the company and its customers. Therefore, regardless of changes that may occur, employees will always engage in activities that benefit the company and its customers.
In addition, the code of conduct ensures that employees do contravene federal or state legislation that governs the activities of the company. Therefore, employees will always adhere to the existing legislation, which may change from time to time.
The code of conduct ensures that the company and its employees engage in socially acceptable activities. This helps in building the image and reputation of the company.
In addition, the code of conduct prevents the company from facing expensive lawsuits, which may cost the company millions of dollars. Therefore, having a code of conduct enables a company to kill two birds with one stone.
References
AT&T (n.d.). AT&T Inc. Code of Ethics. Web.
Atlantic Tele-Network. (2009). Code of ethics. Web.
Bouchoux, D.E. (2009). Fundamentals of business organizations for paralegals, Third Edition. New York: Aspen Publishers.
United States Sentencing Commission. (n.d). An overview of the organizational guidelines. Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission. Web.
Verizon Wireless. (2005). Your code of conduct. Web.