Standards and Procedures
Ethical behavior is very important in ensuring that Company X is successful in its normal operations. In this section of the ethics program, it is important to understand some of the applicable standards and procedures that define how individual employee should behave. This section would identify some of the elements that are considered unacceptable within Company X. In this company, it is unacceptable for employees to receive any form of material benefits from the clients. If a client decides to reward an employee for exceptional service, such rewards should be delivered through the supervisors. Employees are not expected to engage in any verbal or physical conflict that may cause damage to the firm’s property or loss of profit. Any disputes should be solved through established channels within this organization. The organization strongly advises against romantic relationship among the employees. This is meant to avoid unnecessary conflicts or compromises at workplace. Our code of conduct also prohibits acts of laziness at work, absconding of duties, absenteeism, or coming to work late without any justification because this may affect the overall performance of the organization.
Specific Elements for an Ethics Training Program
When developing an ethics training program, there are some specific elements that should be given serious considerations to ensure that the process is successful. When developing this program, the following issues should be given consideration in order to achieve the desired objectives. According to Menzel (2012), the first element is the relevance of the training to the industry. Each industry has some specific ethical needs that should be observed by the employees. The ethical conduct expected of a waitress is different from that of a teller. The training program must be industry-specific in order to be effective. The second element is the need to maintain a realistic view in the training program. Employees are human beings, and the expectations put on them must be that which is achievable. Setting unrealistic standards may lead to an overall failure of the training program. Finally, it is important to base such training programs on ethical judgment philosophies. The aim of the training program should be to make the trainees to realize the need for the ethical practices within the firm. They must understand the reason why the organization expects them to behave in a given pattern. This will make the implementation process to be easy.
Ethical Processes
Monitoring employee misconduct
After the training program, there will be a close monitoring of the ethical practices of the employees in order to determine whether they are following the codes of conduct expected of them. As Rendtorff (2009) says when defining transformational leadership, sometimes it may be necessary to allow the employees to monitor their own behavior in order to make them more responsible. However, the problem is that sometimes when people realize that their actions are not being monitored, they may be tempted to ignore some of the codes of conduct, and especially those that they believe are oppressive to them. For this reason, the management will closely monitor how the employees are conducting themselves, and how well they are observing the set ethical practices. Monitoring will be done by the immediate supervisors. This means that the junior employees will be monitored by the junior managers. The junior managers’ behavior will be monitored by the mid managers who will be monitored by the top managers. The top management unit will be monitored by the owners of the company and other stakeholders within this firm including all other employees.
Auditing employee misconduct
According to Lewis and Gilman (2012), sometimes it may be necessary to conduct an audit of employees’ misconduct within the firm. Some employees may engage in actions that may put the firm into problems, especially if the misconduct is directed towards the clients. For this reason, it may be necessary to conduct regular audits on such misconducts in order to determine if some punitive measures may be needed in order to deter such undesirable act. Sims (2003) says that in order to conduct an effective audit on ethical practices within an organization, there are some steps that should be followed. The first step is to establish a detailed foundation that will make employees to understand what the firm considers as misconduct. The second step would be to develop metrics that would be used to measure the degree and frequency of the misconduct. The third step would be to create cross-functional teams within the human resource management that would be responsible for the auditing of employees’ misconduct. It is important to set punitive measures against those who engage in gross violation of the values of the firm in order to make other employees realize the need to remain ethical.
Reporting employee misconduct
There should be an appropriate channel that will be followed when reporting employees’ misconduct within this company. It is expected that the employees will be able to report to their immediate supervisors on issues that violate the set principles. However, it is a fact that some of the employees may not be willing to report themselves when they misbehave. For this reason, a system will be developed to help in this process of reporting the misconduct. The immediate supervisors will be the chief reporting officers at every level of management. Fellow employees who hide the misconduct of their fellow employees to the relevant authorities shall be fully held responsible for misconduct (Richard, 2009).
Ethical Plan
Effectiveness of the ethics program after implementation
It is important to ensure that the ethics program is effective after its implementation. The management will need to determine if the employees are behaving in the manner expected of them. The firm will have to base the analysis of the program on the organizational culture that it was intended to create. In order to achieve success in the implementation of the ethical program, it is important to make the employees appreciate its value other than making them feel that they are forced with rules which have no benefits to the firm (Treviño & Nelson, 2011).
Suggestions to improve the ethics program after implementation
The management should be able to determine when it is appropriate to improve the ethics program after implementation in order to address some of the weaknesses. The management should be very sensitive to the comments of the customers. Any negative feedback from the customers forms a basis for improving the program. Complaints from the employees about the program should not be ignored. The program should not be oppressive to the employees because it may affect their morale and effectiveness at this firm.
References
Lewis, C. W., & Gilman, S. (2012). The ethics challenge in public service: A problem-solving guide. New York: Cengage.
Menzel, C. (2012). Ethics Management for Public Administrators: Leading and Building Organizations of Integrity. New York: M E Sharpe Inc.
Rendtorff, J. D. (2009). Responsibility, ethics, and legitimacy of corporations. Frederiksberg: Copenhagen Business School Press.
Richard, M. A. (2009). Employee Assistance Programs: Wellness/Enhancement Programming. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, LTD.
Sims, R. R. (2003). Ethics and corporate social responsibility: Why giants fall. Westport: Praeger.
Treviño, L. K., & Nelson, K. A. (2011). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. New York: John Wiley.