Research Proposal on "Benefits to a Company for Training New Employees on Ethical Behavior"

Research Proposal 13 pages (3860 words) Sources: 7 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Training New Employees

Writing

Benefits to Training New Employees on Ethical Behavior

A company's ethics will often establish its reputation. Good business ethics are vital for the long-term success of a company. Putting into practice an ethical program will promote a successful company culture and increase profitability. Developing a business ethics program takes time and effort, but doing so will do more than advance business, it will change lives.

Most people involved in business, whether being a small business owner, employee, or chief executive officer of a multinational company, ultimately face ethical or moral quandaries in the workplace. Such quandaries are typically complex, in the fact that they force the person making the choice to weigh the benefits that various business decisions impart on individuals, including him or herself, and groups with the negative consequences that those same decisions typically have on other individuals or groups. Reaching a right or just termination when faced with moral problems can be a confusing and troublesome proposition.

Ethics training for employee programs should be part of all companies as they provide insights for liability protection as well as advance employee morale, their retention is also positively affected by these programs. Ethics are very important for a business as it helps to establish how a company is perceived by others. If a company has a reputation of being ethical and trustworthy employees as well as customers and colleagues will feel proud to be connected with the business, not the same case though if ones ethics and reputation is bad.



Table of Contents

Executive Summary

Introduction

Business Ethics

Why Train Ethics

Benefits for Training Ethics

How to Train Ethics

Conclusion

Introduction

A company's ethics will often establish its reputation. Good business ethics are vital for the long-term success of a company. Putting into practice an ethical program will promote a successful company culture and increase profitability. Developing a business ethics program takes time and effort, but doing so will do more than advance business, it will change lives. A company's ethics will have an influence on all stages of business. It will influence all who work together with the company including customers, employees, suppliers and competitors. All of these groups will have an outcome on the way a company's ethics are developed. It is a two way street, the influence goes both ways, which makes understanding ethics a very significant part of doing business today. Ethics is very important, as bad news can now spread faster and farther than ever before (Business Ethics Training Manuel, n.d).

Ethics is about conduct. In the face of quandary, it is about doing the right thing. Ethical managerial leaders and their people take the right and good path when they come to the ethical choice points (Kerns, 2003). Business ethics is frequently defined as the principles and standards that establish acceptable behavior in business organizations. The suitability of behavior in business is determined by customers, competitors, government regulators, interest groups, and the public, as well as each individual's personal moral principles and values. It is thought that most unethical activities within organizations are sustained by an organizational culture that encourages workers to bend the rules (Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, n.d.).

It is often very difficult to recognize specific ethical issues in business practice. Whether a decision maker recognizes an issue as an ethical one often depends on the matter itself. Managers, for instance, tend to be more concerned about matters that affect those close to them, as well as issues that have instant rather than long-term consequences. Consequently, the perceived importance of an ethical issue significantly affects choices that are made (Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, n.d.).

Learning to distinguish ethical issues is the most important step in understanding business ethics. An ethical issue is an identifiable trouble, situation, or opportunity that necessitates a person to choose from amongst several actions that may be assessed as right or wrong, ethical or unethical. In business, such a choice frequently entails weighing monetary profit against what a person thinks is appropriate conduct. The best way to judge the ethics of a decision is to look at a situation from a customer's or competitor's point-of-view (Business Ethics and Social Responsibility, n.d.). Good ethics training is the key to recognition.

Business Ethics

Most people involved in business, whether being a small business owner, employee, or chief executive officer of a multinational company, ultimately face ethical or moral quandaries in the workplace. Such quandaries are typically complex, in the fact that they force the person making the choice to weigh the benefits that various business decisions impart on individuals, including him or herself, and groups with the negative consequences that those same decisions typically have on other individuals or groups. Reaching a right or just termination when faced with moral problems can be a confusing and troublesome proposition. But businesspeople are liable to reach and act on ethically appropriate decisions if they do not lose sight of the fundamental issue of justice. Those who get preoccupied by issues of productivity and legality in measuring the morality of a business decision, on the other hand, frequently reach ethically slanted choices. As has been demonstrated time and again in the business world, the validity of a course of action may be completely inappropriate to its rightness. " in addition, any discussion of business ethics is a subjective one, for everyone brings different concepts of ethical behavior to the table. These moral standards are shaped by all sorts of things, from home environment to religious background to cultural customs" (Business Ethics, 2012).

Recently, the issue of business ethics has gained increased attention. "Corporate research and regulatory groups such as the Ethics Resource Center and the Council on Economic Priorities point out that the number of corporations that engage in ethics training and initiate socially responsive programs has increased dramatically over the course of the past two decades, and that courses on business ethics have proliferated in America's business schools during that time as well" (Business Ethics, 2012). But observers have also noted that over that same period of time, the business world saw numerous instances of stock price pumping through corporate downsizing, punitive actions against whistleblowers, and other practices that point to a still-prevalent emphasis on the bottom line over all other considerations in many industries.

Why Train Ethics

It only takes one employee, or even an agent of a company, to commit a crime, and an entire company may be held accountable. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, a company may face very large fines, a 5-year probationary period, recompense for the victim of the crime, and more. The good news is that a company can reduce their likelihood of this happening if they establish an effective compliance and ethics program. To do this, one must train their employees at all levels, and all agents, on ethics. "According to the Federal Sentencing Commission, an organization that has an effective compliance and ethics program can reduce its fines for a criminal conviction by as much as 90%" (Developing a Training Plan for Legal Compliance, 2012).

The Federal Sentencing Commission states that the Federal Sentencing Guidelines apply to all companies whether they are publicly or privately held, and no matter what their nature of business is. This includes corporations, partnerships, labor unions, pension funds, trusts, nonprofit entities, and governmental units. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines outline seven steps an employer must take to have a successful compliance and ethics program:

A company must ascertain standards and procedures in order to prevent and detect criminal conduct.

A company's high-level personnel must be well-informed about and manage the content, implementation, operation, and effectiveness of the program.

A company must take realistic efforts to evade giving substantial authority to an individual that the organization knew, or should have known, has engaged in criminal activity or other conduct not in agreement with an effective ethics program.

A company must take realistic measures to occasionally conduct training programs for and distribute information to the company's governing authority, high-level personnel, employees, and agents.

A company must watch and audit for criminal activity, occasionally assess the effectiveness of the program, and create and communicate procedures for workers and agents to report criminal activity without fear of retaliation.

A company must offer incentives to comply with the program and impose disciplinary measures for engaging in criminal conduct or failing to prevent or detect criminal conduct.

A company must respond properly to criminal conduct and adapt the compliance and ethics program, if required, to prevent further criminal conduct (Developing a Training Plan for Legal Compliance, 2012).

Benefits for Training Ethics

Ethics training for employee programs should be part of all companies as they provide insights for liability protection as well as advance employee morale, their retention is also positively affected by these programs. Ethics are very important for a business as it helps to establish how a company is perceived by others. If a company has a reputation of being ethical and trustworthy employees as well… READ MORE

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