Example research essay topic: Running Head Corporate Ethics Program - 966 words

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Running head: CORPORATE ETHICS PROGRAM Corporate Ethics Program December 20, 2008 Corporate Ethics Program ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees aim to comply with all applicable laws and regulations of the United States and other world countries in which we operate, to act being guided by the basic principles and standpoints outlined below, and to uphold the highest possible sense of ethics. The management of the company will lead personnel by own example, with this corporate ethics program as a basis, to maintain a team spirit in the company and to inspire high morale of the personnel under their authority. The present corporate ethics program is proactive and voluntary and is focused around the following concepts: Policy and guidance Communication Ethics Training Model Monitoring system Policy Fair competition: ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees will undertake all efforts to make an orderly and fair concept of competition and pledge to carry out all business-related activity in a fair and ethical manner. Corporate Transparency: ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees will obey all applicable laws and regulations of the countries in which the company carries out business operation. ABC Development, Inc obliges to disclose its corporate information in a fair and timely manner, if necessary. Environmental Ethics: ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees will observe all environmental laws in the countries they operate in.

Human Rights: ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees will never discriminate on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality. ABC Development, Inc. will fairly respect human and civil rights. Information Management: ABC Development, Inc. , and their employees will respect the value of technical information and management possessed by other organizations and will work appropriately to establish a strict management system for it. Guidance Under the corporate ethics program top executives and management personnel will offer necessary guidance on ethical decision-making and will develop, publish and distribute among the employees policy papers on ethics-related subjects. Communication ABC Development, Incs top executives will develop the ethics website directly accessible to all companys employees.

The website will contain all ethics-related resources and information to facilitate employees awareness on ethical issues, to assist them, whenever required, and to help the companys departments to create local communication campaigns on ethical issues if necessary. Ethics Training Model ABC Development, Incs ethics training is based on the companys ethics values and is close to the company's daily operations in a highly competitive business environment. The aim of ethics training module is to provide employees with best possible training on ethical issues such as supply chain management, corruption, ethical behavior and to design and implement training modules aimed to develop a high level of personal integrity, understanding of the company's ethics, and developing ethical reasoning among ABC Development, Incs employees (Newman & Brown, 1996). Monitoring System Monitoring system will comprise of annual reporting system on ethical subjects, involving communication of the prohibition of discrimination, forced and child labor, communication of the companys Code of Business Ethics to the employees, evaluation of the employee loyalty and integrity, prohibition of moral and sexual harassment, to mention a few. This reporting system will help ABC Development, Incs top executives and management personnel to assess the companys performance, and ensure the respect of human rights (Hoffman & Frederick, 1995).

In its turn, the companys employees are expected to agree to be audited and monitored. Monitoring system will comprise of the following steps: Planning meeting During the planning meeting the companys top executives will discuss the goals, approach and timing of the external audit. The appropriate external auditors will be selected and contacted accordingly. The auditors are expected to do the following: To obtain enough understanding of the checkup (find out whether the audit has been conducted previously; review the code of ethics and appropriate procedures, etc. ) To review the best practices for the ethics compliance; To incorporate them into their work; External Auditors Fieldwork To conduct an entrance meeting. During this meeting the external auditors will review the scope and timing and create a schedule for subsequent meetings if necessary; To obtain from the companys management code of ethics and business conduct, organizational charts (e.

g. , for ethics and compliance function), charters, policies and procedures, etc); To gain understanding of procedures through a list of assessment questions; To communicate with employees to find out ethics violations; To evaluate information obtained and to prepare a report to the companys management. Monitoring system implies a number of social audits that will be carried out by external auditors to ensure fair checkups, and will cover the following ethical subjects: forced labor, non-discrimination and disciplinary practices, child labor, sexual and moral harassment, working time, health and safety, relations with sub-contractors and suppliers, freedom of association and remuneration (Krause, 1996). During the monitoring process, the external auditors will check the following: Whether the company has managed to develop successful compliance procedures and standards (namely, a code of ethics); Whether there is enough oversight by ABC Development, Incs top executives and management personnel; Whether the company fairly and effectively delegates authority to its employees; Whether ABC Development, Incs top executives have managed to communicate standards and procedures to the employees effectively; Whether the companys auditing / monitoring systems and reporting mechanisms are up to date or need any improvements; Whether the company has effective enforcement of disciplinary mechanisms if necessary; Finally, whether the company provides appropriate response after detection of any ethics-related issue, including modifying the ethics program currently in force; Bibliography Hoffman, W. , & Frederick, R. (1995). Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality. McGraw-Hill, Inc.

Krause, D. (1996). Effective Program Evaluation: An Introduction. Chicago: Nelson-Hall. Newman, D. , & Brown, R. (1996).

Newman, Diana L. and Brown, Robert D. Applied Ethics for Program Evaluation. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.

Research essay sample on Running Head Corporate Ethics Program