Business Ethics: Key Elements, Essay Example

As our company moves into wider arenas and vast opportunities, it is more critical than ever that we have an ethics policy in place understood by all. The company’s expansion, in fact, demands this, because the ethics policy provides a foundation upon which the expansion may safely occur. In simple terms, as long as we remain guided by shared values, we are empowered to move forward in ways beneficial to every employee. The nature of ethics is that their impact does not vary, and the ethics we set out will serve the new branch overseas just as effectively they attend to interests at home.

In a very real sense, I do not perceive our team’s lack of international management experience, or even training in ethics, as a liability. Given the scope of what we are undertaking, in fact, this is an asset because it allows us to develop a training program uncomplicated by preconceived ideas or experiences likely to have influence. We are beginning from a clean beginning, as it were, and the most essential element to be grasped is how crucial actual training in ethics is. It is unfortunate but corporate ethics tend to be perceived as ephemeral concepts not particularly applicable to real life and the machinery of business. Nothing could be farther from the truth. On one level, an understood and enacted ethical policy offers the greatest degree of protection for the company, in that a consistent awareness of upholding values translates to the elimination of violations and risks all too often resulting in litigation. Pragmatically speaking, the ethics training reinforces the very tangible aspect of ethics, which is vital for the company’s survival and success. On another level, the ethics themselves, made known to and comprehended

by all, promotes greater organizational unity. In any department or in any facility, it is understood that certain guiding principles are in play, and this forges solidarity because those principles are in place for the good of all. Ethics, in no uncertain terms, is the platform on which the successful company must function, and the better acceptance of this equates to the more harmoniously run company.

With regard to implementation of training, there are several factors we must bear in mind. While we seek to create an ethical foundation that will serve as a constant, the company’s expansion adds new dimensions to this. Multicultural interaction inevitably brings with it contrasts in values typically perceived as inflexible; the cultural ethic we insist upon at home may be, in fact, an ethical violation elsewhere. A reality we must accept as we move into international arenas is that an assumption of “universal” ethics is likely going to generate problems (Jackson, 2011, p. 11). This very dilemma, however, must be built into the ethical training we create. More exactly, this is a circumstance that is answered, not necessarily by adapting or changing policies, but merely by awareness. Linked to this needed awareness of potential cultural differences is, not unexpectedly, an emphasis on communication. All whom we train, no matter the rank, will understand that the surest safeguard of ethical processes when doubt is present is inquiry. No matter the culture, then, our people will know it is their responsibility to become as aware of that culture’s ethics as much as possible, as the home base will seek to gain such information beforehand. We go in, in other words, understanding that the values we hold to may have different meaning for others, and that communication and respect are indispensable.

Our team enjoys an advantage as well in that “universality” of ethics, if unrealistic in international affairs, is very much an imperative in regard to training. More exactly, the purpose of ethical policy itself requires that we train everyone connected to the organization similarly. Certainly, gradations of responsibility call for refinement of training; upper management, having authority over the workforce, calls for more in-depth training for the many potentials of ethical conflicts inherent in positions of high rank. Nonetheless, all staff is to be grounded in the basic ethical tenets, as the additional training for upper management goes more to identifying possible examples only falling into that rank’s purview. Awareness of global differences or challenges is, again, crucial, but equally crucial is that we instruct and instill in all employees an elementary understanding of the ethics held to be inviolable by us. That these ethics are “basic” also lessens the conflicts arising from cross-cultural differences. If outright universality of ethics is not possible, there is still a general and global agreement as to essentials of worthy behavior, and these essentials will form the core of all training.

References

Jackson, T. (2011). International Management Ethics: A Critical, Cross-Cultural Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press.