Essay Example on Ethical Conduct in Business: Creating a Successful Environment

Introduction

Ethical conduct in the business environment is crucial and should be a key consideration in ensuring the success of an organization and promoting its survival in the dynamic competitive world. With new trends in the global markets, such as competitiveness and growth, the nature of problems linked to ethical conducts has doubled (Erwin, 2011). To help manage, solve and ensure the success of a business, one of the leading solutions is the need to develop ethical policies.

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The ethical code is meant to prevent misconduct and uphold the conduct of a business in harmony with integrity principles and in agreement with all pertinent regulations and laws. Therefore, human resource departments in business organizations should be responsible for developing appropriate steps to improve the compliance levels in these environments. There is a need to implement stringent measures against those individuals prone to defying organizational conducts even if the said behaviors don not necessarily lead to corporate upheavals. In practice, such individuals must observe the set measures, not because of the consequences attached, but because they are in support that these principles should be upheld.

Internationally, the ethical issues regarding jewelry organizations encompass how their valuable jewels are mined and sold. The advanced approach for ethical business follows a profit maximization framework while maintaining corporate social responsibility (CSR). Customers will tend to associate themselves with firms where their welfare is prioritized as opposed to profits (Singh, 2011). The ethical policy for the jewelry firm is developed with due respect to the guidelines in the jewelry business. The plan is developed following an evaluation of our rivals' practices and adjusting them where vital. The ethical dogma likewise has lawful reflections in that it tries to accomplish all the legitimate principles established out by different laws.

Code of Ethics Policy Statement for Greenwich St. Jewelers

Greenwich St. Jewelers (A jewelry firm in New York) upholds specific guidelines to be observed by its employees in achieving organizational code of ethics. The guidelines are aligned to ensure that the employees' misconducts do not damage the corporate reputation or result in losses. The ethical code of conduct in this firm exists to safeguard and guide the firm's employees and clientele from the adverse effects of any dishonest behaviors that may arise (Zahedi et al., 2015). The code of conduct also provides affirmation on the firm's dedication towards employees, customers and other stakeholders' welfare by laying out the typical behavior in issues concerning handling of gifts from vendors, classified information and conflict of interest.

The conduct of employees within the realm of this policy statement will be used in evaluating their competence and judgment. Subsequently, the assessment and valuation as warranted from the ethical code will be used in making considerations in regards to pay increase, promotions and assignment placements (Zahedi et al., 2015). Moreover, the assessment and valuation from the policy will be applicable in making retrenchment decisions, dismissals or recommendations for disciplinary actions to prevent misconducts in the firm (Reamer, 2015). Neglecting the principles laid down in the ethical dogma will be the foundation for the administration to consider corrective actions.

Code of Ethics Policy on the Acceptance of gifts from Vendors

Accepting of gifts or gratuities from vendors is subject to approval from Greenwich St. Jewelers. Staff should not accept any tips or donations except those that comply with the applicable law and which can be used in furthering the purpose and mission of the Company. Gifts of insignificant value should be reverted with immediate effect and reported to the supervisor.

The firm will not consent any gratuities or donations whether of obvious or binding if one way or another, these gifts may threaten the donor's fiscal security. On evaluating the nature of donations, Greenwich St. Jewelers shall at times desist from providing advisory service on the existing tax regulations that concern any contributions and will alternatively guide our respected donors to seek other specialized guidance.

Greenwich St. Jewelers will willingly assent gifts in both kind and money; donations in kind will be acceptable based on the Company's discretion, while those in cash and securities will be willingly accepted.

Specific gifts, including donations and properties whose source has not been sufficiently proven, needs to be assessed before they can be accepted in the company. The assessment is based on the liabilities and special obligations these gifts may place on Greenwich St. Jewelers.

Greenwich St. Jewelers will not be liable for offering compensation to donors whether through commissions, finder's levies or other approaches for customers who may offer gifts to the firm.

Greenwich St. Jewelers shall respect its donors' secrecy, including the identities of those who want to stay unidentified workers will only be alerted if need be. Also, the firm shall respect the wishes of its contributors on the basis of conditionally accepted donations.

Kickbacks and bribes are unlawful acts and strictly banned by law. An employee should not provide, solicit, offer or receive any form of bribery while transacting with Greenwich St. Jewelers.

Code of Ethics Policy on the Use of Confidential Information

Directors, consultants, officers and workers shall uphold information confidentiality entrusted to them by Greenwich St. Jewelers or other firms including customers and suppliers, and will only disclose any information if legally authorized by the supervisors.

Consultants and employees shall undertake appropriate measures to ensure that sensitive or confidential information from the Company remains within the jurisdiction of the Company and is only communicated to specific employees who need to have such information to run the firms' operations.

Sharing or using any classified information without legal consent is against the Greenwich St. Jewelers' policy and will result in severe consequences. Mishandling and unauthorized access to classified information will result to criminal charges.

Personnel, specialists, officers and executives shall not discuss internal matters of the Company or broadcast classified information of the Company to outsiders except when legally authorized to do so or after an agreement of confidentiality. The prohibition is applicable, especially on inquiries pertaining to the firm from, market professionals (the likes of investors, market analysts, dealers and brokers), security holders and the media.

Company workers, partners or associates with information pertaining to the violation of the confidential policies must come forward and report the issue to the relevant authorities to prevent the risk of being linked with colluding.

Concerns about confidentiality articles should be recorded with the manager of the Human Resource office in line for interpretation.

Code of Ethics Policy on Conflicts Of Interest

A conflict of interest arises you, as an employee, officer, administrator, specialist have an interest or take action that inhibits you from executing the duties and responsibilities the Company has assigned you in an honest objective and effective manner (Frederickson & Rohr, 2015).

Employees and associates should serve in the best interests of the Greenwich St. Jewelers Company exclusively in dealing with company clientele, contractors, suppliers, competitors and agents. The staffs and associates must be cautious and avoid any situations where their interests conflict with those of the Company.

All the staff and associates are required by the company law to punctually report any possible situations that may result in a conflict of interests to their supervisors.

Some of the situations that may result in a conflict of interest in Greenwich St. Jewelers may include the following

Employees and associates having close associates or family members who seek to transact with the Company with no approval.

Employees acting as agents, brokers or intermediaries for self-benefit or for the advantage of third parties in dealings that pertain to the Company's welfares.

Employees or associates are acting as a representative, officer, or consultant without the mandate of the Company to achieve self-benefits.

Issues to Be Considered When Implementing an Ethics Policy

One of the vital factor to be considered in implementing an ethic policy is integrity and trust, which help in rooting the code to the staff and associates of the Company. Secondly, the is need to develop channels to monitor the adoption of the new policies by setting up a board as well as avenues to report any beaches in a confidential approach (Singh, 2011). Additionally, conformity to this code of ethics should be included as part of the employment contract to ensure it is observed to the letter. Finally, there is a need to name a particular individual to the accountable for overseeing the implementation.

The Communications Plan of the Ethics Policy

Copies of Greenwich St. Jewelers' code of ethics policy should be given to all staff to ensure they are familiar with the policy, including suppliers and partners. The ethical issues could also be included in the Company's training programs to effectively reach all staff (Lee et al., 2014). To communicate to staff in oversees, Greenwich St. Jewelers Company should make the copies available in languages understandable by these people.

References

Erwin, P. M. (2011). Corporate codes of conduct: The effects of code content and quality on ethical performance. Journal of Business Ethics, 99(4), 535-548.

Frederickson, H. G., & Rohr, J. A. (2015). Ethics and public administration. Routledge.

Lee, Y. K., Choi, J., Moon, B. Y., & Babin, B. J. (2014). Codes of ethics, corporate philanthropy, and employee responses. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 39, 97-106.

Reamer, F. G. (2013). Ethics and values. In Encyclopedia of social work.

Singh, J. B. (2011). Determinants of the effectiveness of corporate codes of ethics: An empirical study. Journal of Business Ethics, 101(3), 385-395.

Zahedi, F., Sanjari, M., Aala, M., Peymani, M., Aramesh, K., Parsapour, A., ... & Dastgerdi, M. V. (2013). The code of ethics for nurses. Iranian journal of public health, 42(Supple1), 1.