Ethics Program for a Company Essay

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Ethical actions within organizations have attracted increased attention and concerns in the past few years because of recent incidents of unethical behaviors by management of some leading corporations across the globe. These incidents have in turn contributed to more scrutiny of activities of corporations and individuals who act on behalf of organizations. As a result, organizations have reacted to the increased scrutiny by developing and implementing formal ethics programs to help determine suitable actions for people who work for the company. As the ethics officer at Company X, a new business entity, one of the most important elements for enhancing the success of the company is developing an ethics program that will be included in the new employee handbook. The ethics program, which is the subject of this article, will include standards and procedure segment, an ethics training segment, a segment about employee misconduct, and an action plan for assessing and enhancing the program after execution.

Company X Ethics Program

The purpose of this ethics program for employees of Company X is to establish rules and regulations that will govern their behavior and contribute to the greater good of the organization. In essence, this program seeks to establish an appropriate working environment where the actions of every individual in the organization will be suitably governed to protect every individual from potential harm that can occur due to unethical practices. This ethics program will be the basis of preventing any unethical behaviors among the company's employees regardless of their position in the organization. The implementation of this program will require concerted efforts from both the company's management and its employees. The need for concerted efforts is fueled by the fact that every organizational member has a responsibility to ensure that their actions and those of others are geared towards the realization of company goals.

As part of the implementation of this ethics program, every employee will be required to demonstrate honesty, integrity, fairness, and communication in every situation. Honesty will entail being truthful in every speech and deed as well as numerous attempts to ensure that no misrepresentations and incorrect statements are made. On the other hand, integrity revolves around doing the right thing legally and ethically whereas fairness is ensuring that no intimidation, threats, or disparage are expressed to another individual or organization. Communication is vital in this process because every person is part of the team and the company's working environment.

Section 1: Ethical Standards and Procedures

The first section of this ethics program for Company X is applicable standards and procedures based on the various elements of acceptable or unacceptable behavior that are always part of a code of ethics. The four elements that guide these ethical standards and procedures are respect, caring, responsibility, and reliability. Under reliability, the company will strive to carry out everything it promises to do. As a result, every individual in the organization is expected to always be credible, consistent, honest, and trustworthy in speech and deed. In essence, a person's words and deeds for or on behalf of the organization must reflect trustworthiness. In relation to responsibility, every individual must exercise good judgment and accountability when carrying out activities in and on behalf of the company. The need to exercise good judgment and accountability in actions is fueled by the responsibility everyone should demonstrate for their actions. In relation to caring, the company's employees are expected to act with compassion and gratitude regardless of their position in the organization. Acting with compassion will include granting forgiveness and helping one another across organizational practices. In addition, the employees need to demonstrate gratitude to the organization as the company expresses gratitude for the contributions towards the achievement of organizational goals. With regards to respect, employees must treat each other and other members of the company with most respect as they expect the same. This will involve understanding and embracing differences, being considerate and courteous, and handling disagreements effectively.

Section 2: Ethics Training Program

Every employee shall undergo the Company's Ethics training course or program upon recruitment and annually thereafter ("Compliance and Ethics Program," n.d.). Upon completion of the training course, every employee will need to pass an exam or test. Those who fail the test will be required to study and analyze the material once again until they successfully undergo the test. Moreover, the company's management including supervisors will be required to undertake and pass the ethics training. While the ethics training program will have content that varies to cater for different levels of employees, there are several important elements that will be included.

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One of the components that will be covered in the ethics program is industry specific ethical rules and organizational ethics and rules. The industry specific ethical rules will address the various ethical issues and dilemmas that are likely to occur within and without the company whereas organizational ethics and rules will focus on applicable ethical procedures and standards established in the company. Secondly, the course content will incorporate philosophies on ethical judgment since understanding these concepts enable employees to develop critical thinking strategies for handling various ethical issues and dilemmas. In addition to critical thinking strategies, this component helps employees to discover their core values in relation to ethics. Third, the ethics training will include other pertinent topics like the requirements of Health Information Portability and Accountability Act and other subject matters covered by various regulations.

Section 3: Employee Misconduct

One of the major ways for demonstrating honesty and integrity during the implementation of this ethics programs is identifying and dealing with probable employee misconduct. This process involves evaluating employing misconduct, auditing employee misconduct, and reporting employee misconduct. The company will have an on-going and internal program for identifying and dealing with misconduct and illegal behaviors. In this case, the employee will institute a Compliance Committee and Officer who will use existing systems to determine any unethical, illegal, and non-compliant misconduct ("Corporate Compliance Program Overview," 2013).

With regards to monitoring employee misconduct, the Compliance Committee and Officer will engage the various departmental supervisors in detecting misconduct and unethical practices. The supervisors will work together with this department and personnel to identify any business activities that do not comply with applicable standards and procedures in relation to ethics. After the identification of such activities, the department and personnel will proceed with auditing employee misconduct through various steps. This process will entail identifying areas of risks and classifying the misconduct based on these areas of risks. It will also involve determining whether the misconduct is attributed to ineffectiveness of any policy and procedure.

Employees must promptly report any misconduct or violation of ethical standards and procedures in order for the organization to deal with it. The prompt reporting of such violations or misconduct should be provided by the perpetrator as part of demonstrating responsibility for personal actions. The misconduct or violations should be reported to the supervisor or the Compliance Committee and Officer or any other high-ranking employee. The company will strive to ensure that the reports are kept confidential while enforcing the ethics program.

Section 4: Evaluating Program Effectiveness and Making Improvements

The evaluation of the effectiveness of this ethics program after implementation will be carried out through internal audit. Monitoring the effectiveness of this program is geared towards assessing compliance with the established code of conduct and procedures and standards that have been adopted to promote compliance with the law. The internal audit of the ethics program will be carried out by the Compliance Committee and Officer who will act independently. This audit will be based on their evaluation and assessment of employee misconduct as well as established procedures and policies. In essence, the Compliance Committee and Officer will examine whether current practices match legal requirements and the established organizational ethical rules. The process will entail establishing effective communication lines for employees to air their concerns, complaints, and questions regarding compliance. The reporting system will include a non-retaliation policy, which will be reported and communicated to every employee in order to protect their safety and confidence. The other element of evaluation will be periodic risk assessment to lessen the risk of unethical practices.

The reporting system will act as the framework for employees to provide any recommendations for improvement of this ethics program. The company will encourage employees to not only report their concerns, complaints or questions but to also provide information that will help in enhancing the program. Secondly, the company's management will constantly examine new and updated laws and regulation from various outside sources and use them to make any necessary improvements to the ethics program. Third, compliance gaps will be regularly assessed and improvement plans developed and implemented. Finally, improvements to this program will be made through suitable and timely response to issues and developing measures to prevent them from occurring in the future.

In conclusion, this ethics program will help in the establishment of suitable actions and practices at Company X given the increased scrutiny and attention on ethical actions within organizations. As evident in this….....

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