To function in the business world setting with its challenges, a company needs well-developed ethics. Traditionally, ethical principles by which company’s decisions are guided are explained in a company’s ethics guide, which lists key principles of the company’s ethical standards. Typically, the content of the specified document is mostly the same in any organization, yet its title may vary significantly. The choice of the name for the ethics guide developed for an organization defines people’s attitudes to the rules in it. The reason for this is the fact that the perception of the document and the willingness to follow it are defined by the impression that the ethics guide produces.
Comparing different ethical guides and their titles, one can find a plethora of unique ones that allow for keeping the authenticity of the text and its message. Particularly, Unilever’s “Code of Business Principles and Code Policies” can be considered the favorite one since its title explains concisely the content of the guide and prepares the reader for it. The specified code of ethics conveys the importance of mutual respect and acceptance in the organization, emphasizing the role of fair treatment of all parties (Unilever, 2020). Therefore, it reflects the purpose of providing staff members with guidance to the expected conduct and, at the same time, giving them enough freedom of choice.
Depending on the type of business, the title of an ethics code may be even more unique. For example, a restaurant can choose the following title for its code of ethics: “The Taste of Fairness: Ethical Guide for the Restaurant.” Likewise, a pharmaceutical company can be very creative in the specified area choosing a title as “The Ethics of Producing Treatment: Ethical Code of the Pharmaceutical Company.” However, most organizations prefer the traditional way when naming their codes of ethics. For example, the one of Apple is titled “Code of Conduct (Ethical Statement),” and the one of Nestle is known as the “Corporate Business Principles and Code of Business Conduct” (Apple, Inc., 2020; Nestle, 2020).
References
Apple, Inc. (2020). Code of conduct (ethical statement). Web.
Nestle. (2020). Corporate business principles and code of business conduct. Web.
Unilever. (2020). Code of business principles and code policies. Author.