Ethics Management Programs

Typically, ethics programs convey corporate values, often using codes and policies to guide decisions and behaviour and can include extensive training and evaluating, depending on the organization. They provide guidance in ethical dilemmas. Balancing competing values and reconciling them is a basic purpose of an ethics management program.

Benefits of Managing Ethics as a Program

There are numerous benefits in formally managing ethics as a program, rather than as a one-shot effort when it appears to be needed. Ethics programs:

• Establish organizational roles to manage ethics.
• Schedule ongoing assessment of ethics requirements.
• Establish required operating values and behaviours.
• Align organizational behaviours with operating values.
• Develop awareness and sensitivity to ethical issues.
• Integrate ethical guidelines to decision making.
• Structure mechanisms to resolving ethical dilemmas.
• Facilitate ongoing evaluation and updates to the program.
• Help convince employees that attention to ethics is not just a knee-jerk reaction done to get out of trouble or improve public image.

Guidelines for Managing Ethics in the Workplace

The following guidelines will ensure the ethics management program is operated in a meaningful fashion in a company:

• Although the deliverables of an ethics management program (e.g. codes, policies and procedures, budget items, meeting minutes, authorization forms, newsletters, etc.) are important, the emphasis should be on the sound and acceptable process followed to achieve these deliverables.
• An ethics management program is meaningless unless the lists of ethical values, or codes of ethics also generate policies, procedures and training that translate those values to appropriate behaviours.
• The development of ethical codes should aim to sensitizes employees to ethical considerations and minimize the chances of unethical behaviour occurring in the first place.
• Make ethics decisions in groups considering diversity, and make decisions public, as appropriate.
• Integrate ethics management with other management practices such as strategy, personnel policies, etc.
• Use cross-functional teams when developing and implementing the ethics management program to enhance a sense of participation and ownership.
• Creating a corrective rather than a punitive culture, help employees to recognise and correct ethical mistakes. There is however a limit to how much can be tolerated.