How can firms ensure that their code of business ethics is read, understood, believed, remembered, and acted on rather than ignored?

Analysis of Code of Business Ethics

Question 1: Ensuring the Code of Business Ethics is understood and acted on

An organization can adopt various measures focused on ensuring that its employees understand, believe, remember and act on the code of business ethics. Creating awareness about the code of ethics and the benefit of this code, for instance, can help the staff know how to behave. The organization can carry the awareness campaign by giving employees the copies of the code of ethics or even positing the same on the notice boards of the different departments within the organization. It can also integrate these codes into the job training, and administer exams to test whether the employees understand the codes.

Question 2: Bribery and Bribery Examples

Bribery is an illegal practice or an act in which one solicits, gives, promises or offers a favor or money so that they can be favored by others who are either enforcing laws, or offering business deals. Such san act, therefore, lead to one having unfair advantage over others. Examples of such an act is one offering to give another person a certain amount of money if the individual awards them a business contract.

Other examples include giving a judge money to rule in one’s favor, and a border official accepting money to allow one to illegally enter into a country (Vranka & Bahník, 2018). Acts such as giving offerings, selling drugs, and accepting token of appreciation do not constitute acts of bribery.

Question 3: Formulation and Implementation of Strategies

It is imperative that firms should formulate and implement their strategies from the perspective of the environment in which they operate. Adopting this approach when formulating and implementing the strategies is important because it influences an organization to take into account the sustainability and corporate social responsibility when it is deciding on the best strategy. An organization does this to ensure that it engages in ethical business practice, and that its practices does not lead to the depletion of resources and environmental degradation (Samuel, Derrick, & van Leeuwen, 2019).

Question 4: The Importance of Whistleblowing

When an individual reports an incidence of breach of business ethics, this act should not be seen as an act in which one rattles or rats another employee. Instead, people should see the act as a good thing to do because it can help an organization in various ways. For instance, it can prevent the legal ramifications which may arise when an organization fails to meet certain ethical or legal obligations. It may also help save the organization’s reputation (Garrick, 2017).

Question 5: Relationship between Personal Ethics and Business Ethics

It is common to see people having personal ethics, and an individual project their ethics in terms of the way they behave. In this case, one can tell an individual’s personal ethics by observing the behaviors of the individual. This is the same case with the business ethics which is about dictating how people should behave or the kind of attitude they should have.

One’s personal ethics can determine how they accept or comply with the business ethics, and if one’s values clash with the business’ values, then it is difficult for such a person to work in such a business environment. The personal values which one hold can influence how they see the organizational ethics (Pope, 2015).

Things which matter to one may not necessarily matter to the organization they work. If an organization’s ethics dictate that one should behave in a certain manner, an individual would have an obligation to behave as the organization requires even if such dictates go against one’s values. Therefore, the ethics of a business, and those of an individual should not be the same.

Instead, one should direct their personal ethics towards helping enforce or implement the codes of the ethics of their business.

References

Bergman, C., Dellve, L., & Skagert, K. (2016). Exploring communication processes in workplace meetings: A mixed methods study in a Swedish healthcare organization. Work (Reading, Mass.), 54(3), 533–541. Doi:https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-162366.