Policy Etrhics, Essay Example

Ethics

With any set of rules or regulations there are the proponents and opponents representing the various and often conflicting stances on certain subject matter (Barsky 2009). In this case there is a policy regarding employee’s responsibilities regarding attendance, conflicts of interests, intellectual property, privacy, confidentiality, dress code and other pertinent rules and regulations regarding the actions and conduct that is expected from the employees. These guidelines outline the approved and expected behavior of all employees of the company at all times. This outline of behavior and actions provide a foundation to establish good conduct and level set expectations for all employees. In order to maintain good order and discipline within an organization it is a requirement to establish a baseline of conduct among employees. This policy outlines the code of conduct that is necessary to maintain that good order and discipline while also providing the ability to maintain flexibility for leadership to make the appropriate modifications and adjustments to the policy to maintain flexibility and the ability to adapt and respond to specific situations. This flexibility in the maintenance and enforcement of the policy allows the leadership to better serve their contingency and be not only effective but efficient in their leadership and business implementation.

Policy Updates

With any policy that is establishing ground rules for the proper conduct of an organization’s members there needs to be an established timeframe to review, update and modify the existing policy to ensure that it reflects the goals and objectives of the organization as well as maintaining the appropriate updates to the ever changing and dynamic workforce the policy is governing. Specifically the policy should incorporate a way to escalate changes to the policy or provide a forum or other communication method to provide suggestions to policy updates or to inquire about clarification on specific areas of the policy. In general the policy needs to be broad enough to encapsulate the entire organization’s workforce but also needs to be clear and concise on key points such as intellectual property and time/attendance governance. The policy overall does not need to be changed but there is an opportunity for improvement by correlating the policy with business processes. The policy is the foundation on how employees are expected to act, perform and react in specific situations. The general guidelines are found in the policy but day-to-day application will require inputs from the various work environments the employees are performing their tasks. For example the dress code varies depending on location, safety concerns or other external factors. This external factor plays a key role in how the policy is interpreted and implemented. The feedback look regarding specific policy addendums could be added for each location as to provide more clarity and understanding to the situation.

Corporate Representation

The general guidelines for appropriate conduct and how each employee handles their actions are outlined in the policy. For example, the dress code portion of the policy outlines the approved dress code as a casual dress code environment. While the dress code is casual in nature there are specific guidelines that outline the appropriateness of certain attire and accessories. It also outlines what attire is appropriate during certain situations such as in the corporate environment as well as the environment of certain projects. The purpose of outlining the dress code is to ensure that all employees understand what is not only appropriate to wear to work but also to allow the full understanding that the employee is a representative of the company and the dress and appearance of the employee is a direct reflection of the company and its culture. The employees are the face of the company and their appearance provides a face to the corporate entity. This policy on dress and appearance is retained within the policy to ensure adherence of the dress code and would be maintained and upheld by not only reference to the policy but also through the actions and leadership’s direct reflection of the policy with their dress and appearance. Through the leaderships leading by example the policy would directly be representative by the actions in their personal dress and appearance. This can also be upheld through the accountability to the adherence to the policy as it is written as well as the stipulations on the environment the employee is working and the expectations that are established by the actions and written guidance.

Escalation and Resolution

With the corporate structure there is a certain hierarchy which allows the rules and regulations to be established, maintained and enforced. Through assigned accountability and the leadership’s engagement in the policy’s creation and enforcement there is also the ability for a feedback look for employees to voice their questions, concerns and comments on the policy and its many different subject areas. Employees can invoke the “open door policy” which allows a medium for the employees to voice concerns.

This portion of the policy allows for an employee to provide formal feedback for their concerns and comments. This provides the outline for the proper procedure to file a complaint or feedback as well as the structure for the timing of the submission. This formal open-door policy also allows the visibility regarding escalation and the appropriate response at each corresponding level of the organization. The policy outlines the appropriate response that sets the expectations the employee can expect and what deliverables the leadership is responsible for providing to fully resolve the issues that are raised.

The policy on the open-door policy is retained through a thorough and rigorous outline of the expectations regarding the process and procedure for increasing the awareness of certain issues, complaints, comments and other feedback as well as the appropriate timing and expected results of processing these questions and suggestions. The policy will be implemented by pushing leadership to properly process each filing and by leading by example by following these concerns to completion and resolution. The escalation process allows those comments, suggestions and complaints to gain greater visibility and greater awareness and required action from leadership depending on the impact and severity of the issue.

Making it Better: Conclusion

The policy’s many areas of focus allows for a general baseline to set the expectations and increase the awareness of the proper protocol and actions that are required for the employment at the company. This employment policy will be upheld and retained through the increased accountability of each employee and the enforcement and adherence of leadership to the same rules and regulations outlined in the employee’s employment policy. The implementation of the policy allows leadership to make the appropriate decisions based on the formal guidelines and allows a full understanding of the policy and the expectations of the employees as they work for their company.

The general policy outlines a very broad grouping of key areas of the business that leadership feels is critical to performing specific responsibilities and functions within the organization. The enhancements to the policy would take the form of additional sub-sections that would be specific to certain situations and organizational locations. This would provide a focused approach to raising awareness and clarity to the employees and would eliminate ambiguity to certain situations. The other area of improvement would occur in establishing a systematic and periodic review of the policy as well providing ad-hoc inquiries and suggestions to updates, points of clarification and modifications to the policy by employees and leadership. These improvements would allow clarity and understanding of the policy while also allowing the policy to retain the form of a living document that can be modified and updated as the organizations requirements and needs change to the business environment.

References

Barsky, Allan Edward. (2009) Ethics And Values In Social Work, An Integrated Approach For A Comprehensive Curriculum. Oxford University Press, USA.