THE NEED FOR CORPORATE ETHICS
A workplace that has no regard for ethical standards runs the risk oflosing valuable employees and customers. If you do not value honesty andintegrity, employees will become disgruntled and customers will take theirbusiness elsewhere.
A lack of ethics or integrity in your organization can cost you morethan just disgruntled employees and dissatisfied customers. Federal sentenc-ing guidelines adopted in 1991 impose heavier penalties on companies con-victed of criminal wrongdoing that cannot prove that they’ve made effortsto install ethical measures to prevent and deter illegal conduct.
1In addition,the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 implemented stiff criminal penalties forethics breaches.2(The Sarbanes-Oxley requirements will be discussed inmore detail in
2 — How to Establish a Corporate Ethics Program, and Section
6 — Ethics in Employee Benefits and Compensation.)
HR professionals are feeling the squeeze of ethical dilemmas nowmore than ever.According to a 2003 survey conducted jointly by the Soci-ety for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Ethics ResourceCenter, 52 percent of respondents felt at least some pressure to compromiseethical standards, an increase from 47 percent in 1997.
3 The top five reasonsgiven by HR professionals for the pressure to compromise ethical standardswere the need to: 1. follow the boss’ directives (49%); 2. meet overly aggressive business/financial objectives (48%); 3A workplacethat has no regard for ethicalstandards runs the riskof losingvaluableemployees andcustomers.
3. help the organization survive (40%);
4. meet schedule pressures (35%); and5. be a team player (27%).4HR professionals are in a unique position to observe ethical miscon-duct throughout their organization.The five leading types of misconductobserved by HR professionals in the 2003 survey were:51. misreporting time or hours worked (59%);2. employees lying to supervisors (53%);
3.management lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public(31%);
4. misuse of organizational assets (29%); and5. lying on reports or falsifying records (28%).6As you can see,there is a widespread need for a core ethics program inmost business organizations.A code of ethics can provide guidelines of be-havior and help improve the overall identity of your organization.Accordingto the Code of Ethics Toolkit7compiled by SHRM, t
he main reasons for implementing an ethics program are to:• build trust internally and externally;
• increase awareness of key ethical issues;
• stimulate and legitimize ethical dialogue;
• build consensus around vital issues;
• guide decision making;
• encourage staff to seek advice;
• foster the reporting of misconduct and related concerns, and
• clarify where employees should go to seek advice.An effective workplace ethics policy deters employee misconduct,avoids conflicts of interest, helps keep employees honest, provides guidelinesto employees for resolving sensitive issues,and makes clear that employees atall levels will be accountable for ethical lapses.
Source:
http://WWW.ASDF.com
A workplace that has no regard for ethical standards runs the risk oflosing valuable employees and customers. If you do not value honesty andintegrity, employees will become disgruntled and customers will take theirbusiness elsewhere.
A lack of ethics or integrity in your organization can cost you morethan just disgruntled employees and dissatisfied customers. Federal sentenc-ing guidelines adopted in 1991 impose heavier penalties on companies con-victed of criminal wrongdoing that cannot prove that they’ve made effortsto install ethical measures to prevent and deter illegal conduct.
1In addition,the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 implemented stiff criminal penalties forethics breaches.2(The Sarbanes-Oxley requirements will be discussed inmore detail in
2 — How to Establish a Corporate Ethics Program, and Section
6 — Ethics in Employee Benefits and Compensation.)
HR professionals are feeling the squeeze of ethical dilemmas nowmore than ever.According to a 2003 survey conducted jointly by the Soci-ety for Human Resource Management (SHRM) and the Ethics ResourceCenter, 52 percent of respondents felt at least some pressure to compromiseethical standards, an increase from 47 percent in 1997.
3 The top five reasonsgiven by HR professionals for the pressure to compromise ethical standardswere the need to: 1. follow the boss’ directives (49%); 2. meet overly aggressive business/financial objectives (48%); 3A workplacethat has no regard for ethicalstandards runs the riskof losingvaluableemployees andcustomers.
3. help the organization survive (40%);
4. meet schedule pressures (35%); and5. be a team player (27%).4HR professionals are in a unique position to observe ethical miscon-duct throughout their organization.The five leading types of misconductobserved by HR professionals in the 2003 survey were:51. misreporting time or hours worked (59%);2. employees lying to supervisors (53%);
3.management lying to employees, customers, vendors, or the public(31%);
4. misuse of organizational assets (29%); and5. lying on reports or falsifying records (28%).6As you can see,there is a widespread need for a core ethics program inmost business organizations.A code of ethics can provide guidelines of be-havior and help improve the overall identity of your organization.Accordingto the Code of Ethics Toolkit7compiled by SHRM, t
he main reasons for implementing an ethics program are to:• build trust internally and externally;
• increase awareness of key ethical issues;
• stimulate and legitimize ethical dialogue;
• build consensus around vital issues;
• guide decision making;
• encourage staff to seek advice;
• foster the reporting of misconduct and related concerns, and
• clarify where employees should go to seek advice.An effective workplace ethics policy deters employee misconduct,avoids conflicts of interest, helps keep employees honest, provides guidelinesto employees for resolving sensitive issues,and makes clear that employees atall levels will be accountable for ethical lapses.
Source:
http://WWW.ASDF.com
