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How to develop an ethics code of conduct
1. Ask yourself
Here is a check list that could be used as a starting point for your two-year review of the organisation’s Code of Ethics:
- Are there clear rules indicating how staff should behave towards each other and towards stakeholders?
- Is there a shared understanding among employees and managers of what success looks like and how to get it?
- Is there a shared understanding of the types of behaviour that support the company’s stated values?
- Do staff understand how decisions are made within the company, especially those that affect them?
- Is the organisation’s performance on its stated values measured and reviewed annually?
- Does the behaviour of senior managers reflect the company’s stated values?
- Have employees received training in the company’s values and how to resolve possible ethical dilemmas?
- Is there management agreement on how people should be measured?
- Is this measurement carried out?
- Is employee morale high?
- Is communication two-way - upward and downward?
- Is there a system for staff to raise concerns safely?
- Are the grievance procedures known and used?
- Are there clear sanctions for behaving badly?
2. Wise words
An ethical organisation is one that strives to live its values and to make these clear to all who have a relationship with it. It is perhaps not a perfect company but simply one that is still learning and growing, always keen to improve its performance.
3. The postage stamp
William Gladstone, when British Prime Minister, was occasionally forced to send a reply to a personal letter from his office. Such was his integrity that, on returning home, he immediately destroyed one of his own postage stamps.
The boss's behaviour can set the standard on which others can model theirs. …
