Introduction
XYZ Motor Company is one of the fastest growing truck and small car manufacturing Automobile Corporations based in the United Kingdom. The company’s headquarter is located in London within the United Kingdom. XYZ motor company was founded and incorporated as a public company in 1962 and it has 6,000 employees currently working in different levels of production.
The company’s employees have been allowed the freedom of joining a trade union of their choice. The company’s profitability has been outstanding over the years; however, the social responsibility score is very low probably because the company does not have ethics program.
To achieve a higher score of social performance, the company has decided to develop a credible Code of conduct by benchmarking and reviewing the codes of conduct of companies dealing in automobile business such as Toyota Motor Manufacturing (UK), Ariel Motor Company and Bentley Motor Company.
These codes of conduct of these companies are published in booklets and handbooks which also contain principles, policies and penalties for non compliance. The review has greatly helped the company to create credible codes of conduct to be used by its members.
Ethical Challenges Affecting XYZ Company
Ethics refer to the generally accepted codes of conduct in any business organization. According to Paine (1994), ethics should be the driving force of any business organization. Working conditions has been one of the major problems the company has had to deal with. The business is expected to provide a good working condition for instance better remuneration for employees which requires a lot of cost.
In addition, health and safety issue has been a great challenge and the company incurs a lot of expenses in maintaining safety standards for employees. Besides technology advancement such as internet growth has also made it difficult for the business to safeguard its information (Paine, 1994).
XYZ Company is committed to conducting business in a transparent and honest way possible with a major goal of winning the trust and loyalty of all the costumers. Besides, the company’s reputation depends largely on how we handle matters concerning our corporation’s business internally and externally.
These codes of conduct apply to all the stakeholders of XYZ motor company including agency personnel to the company and contractors provided they are acting on behalf of XYZ Company. Therefore, all members of the company are expected to read, understand and adhere to these codes of conduct.
The ethics guide at XYZ comprises of the following five principles which reflect our mission.
- Providing a competitive environment allowing advancement of staff on merit basis
- Ensuring that there is zero tolerance of any form of discrimination whether race, color or gender based.
- Respecting the requirements of the law at all levels of operation.
- Making innovations in the field of technology to provide that suit the ever changing needs of our customers.
- Recognizing and allowing the employees to join trade unions of their choices for collective bargaining.
Members of XYZ Company are required to carefully read and understand these code of conduct to ensure that you do not act in a way contrary to the expectation of the company’s moral standard. Any unclear part on the set standards should be reported immediately to the company’s attorney’s desk for assistance.
Key Codes of Conduct at XYZ Company
Safe and healthy working conditions
The company has installed fire extinguisher equipments and emergency exits to prevent damages of fire accidents. Each individual is required to take personal responsibility and be cautious not to do anything that may be harmful to one’s life. Therefore practices that may jeopardize health like smoking are prohibited within the premises of XYZ Company. Failure to adhere to this may lead to punishment including suspension or even termination of contract.
Equal opportunity for all
XYZ Company treats every one equally and opportunities for promotion and advancement are awarded on merit. Any form of discrimination based on race, religion, national origin, marital status or disability is highly prohibited. Moreover, harmonious and peacefully coexist with work mates and other business partners is a requirement. Employees are urged to report any instance of discrimination whenever such cases are detected (Dobson, 2005).
Societal Relationship with the Company
The company is also committed to ensuring a better working relationship with all the governmental agencies, therefore members are urged to act with due caution when interacting with any government representative in the interest of the company. Besides we shall not support any campaign activity in any way. XYZ Company upholds the adherence to the laws and government’s regulations guiding professional conduct in an organization.
Protection of company information and personal data privacy
The information of the company is very vital to its success; this means that members should safeguard the confidential information of the company at all times in all circumstances. This will ensure the sustainability of comparative advantage to compete favorably with other players in the market.
Production of quality and safe products
The motto of XYZ is to provide customers with high quality and safe to use products and services. It is the customers that define the quality of products; this has guided the company to produce quality products that go beyond the set standards internationally.
Federal Sentencing Guidelines’ Contribution to XYZ’s Ethics Program
The code of conduct of a safe and healthy work environment ensures fair promotions and advancement of members based on merit. It also reduces the risk of disastrous accidents like fire out brakes. Also to point is the code of conduct relating to product quality which encourages employees to endeavor in producing high quality products and services (Joseph, 2001).
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for organizations’ suggestion for an organization to have ethics programme that helps in preventing and detecting criminal conducts, guided the creation of my ethics programme largely. In addition, the principle of periodic assessment of the programs performance is primarily based on the provision of The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations.
Anticipated Challenges in Adopting Codes of Ethics
For the members to adopt these newly created codes in XYZ Company, requires a lot of motivation and supervision. This is because to individuals, the code of conduct guideline does not involve sacrificing one’s self-interest but it is a correct definition of one’s self-interest as a professional (Dobson, 2005). To address this major challenge I have designed a motivational and friendly supervisory mechanism that will ensure the codes of conduct remain relevant.
Measures for Maintaining Relevance of Conduct Codes in the Changing Business Environment
To ensure the relevance of the codes of conduct with time, I have developed a system of review for the codes of conduct before their final posting. The process has involved extensive research with thorough examination to identify factors that might pose danger to the ethical program of the company.
A constructive consultation with all the stakeholders has also been undertaken to ensure relevance, with opinions and views of the XYZ company employees largely incorporated to guarantee the durability and relevance of the codes of conduct with the test of time (Dobson, 2001).
In summation, it is important to note that for an organization to achieve a good working relationship with the society and for a better social performance to which every organization bears a responsibility, there is a great necessity for the creation of ethics program and development of codes of conduct.
References
Dobson, J. (2005). Monkey Business: A Neo-Darwinist Approach to Ethics Codes. Financial Analysts Journal, 61(3), 59-64.
Joseph, J. (2001). Integrated ethics and Compliance programs: Steps for successful implementation and change. Web.
Paine, L. (1994). Managing for Organizational Integrity. Web.