Corporate Ethics: Enhancing Professionalism and Relations

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Table of Contents

Recommendations
The Leader as a Role Model
Environmental Influence
Adoption of Universal Ethical Standards
Ethics Training
Evaluation
Work Cited

Recently, there is an increasing attention paid to the ethics of corporate relations. Employers devote more efforts to the questions of corporate ethics and personal mutual relations at the process of personnel selection, employment, and subsequently in the course of the direct employees’ performance of their professional role. Observance of the ethics of business relations is one of the main criteria for an estimation of the professionalism of both the single employee, and the organization as a whole.

The implementation of the organization’s norms and rules of business ethics becomes its “business-card” and defines in many cases the fact, whether the partner or the client is going to cooperate with the given organization further, and how successful their mutual relations will be established.

The usage of the standards and rules of corporate ethics can be perceived by encircling colleagues and partners benevolently in any case even if the person does not possess enough practical skills to apply the ethics rules. The effect of perception can be repeatedly intensified if the ethic behavior becomes natural, which can be demonstrated when the ethics rules are not only the internal psychological requirement of the person, but also worked out in the process of regular training.

In the light of the previous outlines that consider the position of the corporate ethics in the business world today, the position of “Eclipse’s” CEO is totally adequate. Considering the international market of “Eclipse” and the multinational diversity of its employees the question of implementing a business ethics program should not be taken as a counterbalance for money savings, since such an implementation could be considered as a long term investment in the company. In addition taking in consideration that in such market as the airlines companies, where the key investments, i.e. the airplanes have a number of established manufacturers that mostly are identical within all the airlines companies, when the destinations and the prices are swayed approximately in the same level, the factors that might advance the company along their competitors are their corporate ethics. If approaching corporate ethics as an ethical code, the first step could be considered in establishing the arch of rules and norms of behavior which can be divided by all the participants of the group. With the help of such code certain models of behavior and uniform standards of relations and joint activity are set.

Practically all directions of corporate ethics have the rules corresponding to the norms of behavior in a broad sense. Besides, without exception all the directions of business ethics are based on basic norms of ethics. This can include respect of self-dignity, the respect of the personal status of other persons, understanding the interests and the motives of associates’ behavior, social responsibility for their psychological security, and many more aspects. However, practical implementation of corporate ethics might consider other issues and recommendations that are based on a wider plane than the aforementioned. In the situation of “Eclipse” merely releasing a booklet on “how to behave within your company”, will not be enough to solve the arisen ethical issue.

Recommendations

In presenting the recommendations, there is a need to identify the approach that will be used, and thus will be labeled accordingly.

The Leader as a Role Model

According to Michael E. Brown and Linda K. Trevino ethical leadership can influence the followers’ behavior. In their article “Ethical leadership: A review and future directions”, the authors focused on the relation between the moral and ethical properties of the leaders and the ethical behavior in the organization defining the ethical leadership by the personal characteristics related to the leader as fair and principle decision making combined with an ethical behavior in both personal and professional life.(597) Thus, the situations that are most likely to influence the employees’ ethical perception are:

Role modeling- This can be implemented by intensive instruction to the leaders on the required ethical properties that should be followed.
The organization’s ethical context- This can be achieved by promoting certain ethical aspects unified in all the divisions of the company and stating them as a main policy issue.
The moral intensity of the issues faced by the leader – This factor is interconnected with the ethical role modeling, in a sense that a specific behavior of the leader in intense situation could influence the employees, and thus this can achieved in implementing a system of awards and publishing of one’s particular achievements. (600-602).

Environmental Influence

In a research analysis presented in the article “Corporate Ethics Programs as Control Systems” by Weaver and Trevino, the results showed that various environmental influences are strongly associated with ethics program scope in the organization. (53) In defining these environmental influences, they should act as the practical procedures in this recommendation on how to achieve higher corporate ethics behavior.

Some of the influences are omitted as they are not adjustable such as the company’s size and the financial performance, and the others include:

Awareness of the USSC (US sentencing commission) guidelines- The influence of that factors implies that the company should pay attention and promote the various norms and standards in the company and accordingly adjusting the scope of their corporate ethics program).
Media attention – This factor is self explanatory in a way that the more the company is covered in the media, the more their they focus on their corporate ethics. One way of implementing this recommendation is to cover the company in the media as a series of interviews with the leaders and distinct employees.
Business Standards – This factor implies the constant participation in various conferences and meetings such as Conference Board ethics meetings. (43-44).

Adoption of Universal Ethical Standards

According to a research in the article “International Ethics Standards for Business” by Carlson and Blodgett, the absence of knowledge of the ethics standards especially for international companies can result in an inadequate reaction by the employees in certain situations. This absence of knowledge is a result of the employees not being informed about corporate preferences. Thus, the implementation of this recommendation will require to adopt an international system for ethical standards such as the “Caux principles, or to revise the ethical standards of the company according to that system to include all the major updates and preferences. (Carlson, and Blodgett).

Ethics Training

In the research published in the article “The Influence of Country and Industry on Ethical Perceptions” by Schlegelmilch and Robertson that analyzes the different ethical issues in the international business, there are a strong influence of the country and the industry of the ethical perception of the company. The results of the research imply that the company should consider the ethics training that was developed in the country which the branch of the firm is located in. This lead to consider implementation of local training programs along with the global to get the personnel to be familiar with the ethics of a particular country. (Schlegelmilch, and Robertson).

Evaluation

When implementing the recommendations mentioned, “Eclipse” should develop a system to measure the results of this implementation. The system might include feedback analysis, a series of polls, surveys and interviews. For an industry such as the airline companies surveys can be developed to grade the services of the company in the offices and the airplanes. The possible outcomes within the organization might also include an increase in the satisfaction, motivation and commitment of the employees along with a direct influence on the response in situational events. If the ethical standards are successfully translated into behavior the company will spend less time preparing or going through various lawsuits and litigations.

In general, implementing an ethical code is not limited to writing a document. There should be a specific execution as all the procedures involved should be considered. This in the condition when all the employees accept the corporate ethics of their company all the recommendations shall work.

Work Cited

Brown, M. E., & Trevino, L. K.. Ethical leadership: A review and future directions. Leadership Quarterly, 17(6), (2006) 595-616.

Weaver, G. R., Trevino, L. K., & Cochran, P. L. Corporate ethics programs as control systems: Influences of executive commitment and environmental factors. Academy of Management Journal, 42(1), (1999) 41-57.

Carlson, Patricia, and Mark S. Blodgett. “International Ethics Standards for Business: NAFTA, CAUX Principles and Corporate Codes of Ethics.” Review of Business 18.3 (1997): 20+.

Schlegelmilch, Bodo B., and Diana G. Robertson. “The Influence of Country and Industry on Ethical Perceptions of Senior Executives in the U.S. and Europe.” Journal of International Business Studies 26.4 (1995): 859+.

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