Ethics is the process of questioning, discovering and defending our values, principles and purpose. It’s about finding out who we are and staying true to that in the face of temptations, challenges and uncertainty. It’s not always fun and it’s hardly ever easy, but if we commit to it, we set ourselves up to make decisions we can stand by, building a life that’s truly our own and a future we want to be a part of.
Accountability
Having the Code of Ethics explicitly state that it applies from entry-level employees to top executives is something that should be emphasized. Top management needs to be role models when it comes to adherence so each employee in the lower ranks can view them as leaders who live up to their actions based on the Code of Ethics.
The lack of integrity will definitely put everything in the company at stake. If regular training on the Code of Ethics is given, they can be reminded that they are accountable for every action they make.
The most crucial component within a thorough Code of Ethics is not necessarily an explanation of what is prohibited conduct, but a clear explanation of accountability mechanisms that are triggered when the Code of Ethics is violated by employees. Within many companies, there is a huge gap between what is outlined as unacceptable conduct and what actually happens when employees engage in that unacceptable conduct.
Employers can hold their employees accountable for carrying out company values by consistently taking appropriate corrective action when employees violate the Code of Ethics. This can include such corrective measures as mandatory trainings, written warnings, suspension, coaching, and all the way up to termination.
Company Property and Resources
Concepts of resources
Resources are an organization’s assets and are thus the basic building blocks of the organization.
They include tangible assets, such as its plant, equipment, finances, and location, human assets, in terms of the number of employees, their skills, and motivation, and intangible assets, such as its technology (patents and copyrights), culture, and reputation.
Threshold resources are the minimum resources required to withstand competition. Organization’s strategic capabilities are determined by three important internal factors:
Available resources
Competencies to undertake activities.
Balance of activities, resources and business units.
What makes resource valuables?
Is the resource or skill critical to fulfilling a customer’s need better than that of the firm’s competitors.
Is the resource-scarce? Is it in short supply or not easily substituted for or imitated?
Appropriability: Whether the resource is supportive enough to generate gains?
Durability: How rapidly will the resource depreciate
Company Resources are basic building blocks of company authority and can use to achieve its objective and target.
Company resources include tangible assets, (such as its plant, equipment, finances, and location, human assets, in terms of the number of employees, their skills, and motivation) and intangible assets (such as its technology (patents and copyrights), culture, and reputation).
Types of Company Resources
The Best types of Company Resources which are crucial to Company are following:
Financial Resource:Financial resources are the assets of company which are used for company activities likes paying salaries, buying raw materials etc. Best financial resources management approach is important to achieve the objectives and target of the company.
Human Resources: Human resources are the building block of any company. Without Human resources, there are no performance and achievement.
If you work at an organizaton , you already know the litle bit of the Human Resources. Organization have a department for recruitment of employees and deal with staff, like paying salaries, onboarding, training and development.
Material Resources: Material Resources are the tangible assets of company that can use to achieve its objectives and targets. Material resources can be touched or seen .
Material resources are dynamic nature . They are changed with the change in time and technology. When new technology are Implemented, it may be replace old machines by new one for better performance.
Intellectual Resources: Intellectual Resources are the intangiable assets of company that can be use to achieve its objectives. Intellectual Resources cannot be touched or seen.
It can include recipes for those who deals with food. Or it can include a particular way of doing things. It is impossible to measure the actual value of intellectual resources.
Conflicts of interest
A conflict of interest occurs when a party has competing interests or loyalties because of their duties to more than one person or organization. A person with a conflict of interest can't do justice to the actual or potentially conflicting interests of both parties.
Learn more about conflicts of interest so that you can be proactive and avoid them when possible.
What Is a Conflict of Interest?
A conflict of interest involves a person or entity that has two relationships competing with each other for the person's loyalty. For example, the person might have a loyalty to an employer and also loyalty to a family business. Each of these businesses expects the person to have its best interest first. Thus, the conflict. Conflicts of interest can happen both personally and professionally.
How a Conflict of Interest Works
A conflict of interest can exist in many different situations involving personal loyalty and loyalty to a private employer, government employer, or professional relationship. Specific instances of conflicts of interest can include a public official whose personal interests conflict with their expected loyalty to the organization, a person of authority in one business that conflicts with their interests in another company or organization, or an attorney who attempts to represent both parties in a divorce.
Lawful behavior
Examples of Ethical Behaviors in The Workplace
Examples of ethical behaviors in the workplace includes; obeying the company's rules, effective communication, taking responsibility, accountability, professionalism, trust and mutual respect for your colleagues at work. These examples of ethical behaviors ensures maximum productivity output at work. And could be pivotal for career growth.
Obey The Company’s Rules & Regulation
At the start of an employee contract, companies may need the employee to sign various documents, including the company rules and regulation agreement form. Also, the employee may be given a handbook that may serve as a guide.
Some common rules are tardiness, inappropriate dressing, and language, etc. Due to the excitement of getting a new job, some employees do not properly read these rules and may end up deferring them in the future.
Therefore, it is important that new employees properly read these rules & regulations in other not to defer them.
Communicate Effectively
Effective communication is very important to avoid misunderstandings when dealing with issues in the workplace. Communicating effectively may mean different things to people at different points in time.
Let us consider the hypothetical situation of an employee trying to relay information to a French-speaking customer. The best way to communicate effectively with the customer is to have an employee who can speak French relay the information.
Effective communication may also have an employee breaking one of the rules and regulations of the company without getting penalized for it. An employee reaching out to HR that they will be coming in late due to some unforeseen circumstances may be spared for coming late if the situation is properly communicated.
Develop Professional Relationships
Good professional relationships are not only a thing that fosters teamwork among employees, but also help with individual career development for employees. Developing professional relationships with coworkers or other professionals outside the workplace will also directly or indirectly improve productivity.
Professional relationships between low-level and high-level employees will make it easier for ideas to be shared and knowledge to be passed to junior employees. That way, the company can confidently have an intern work on a tough project to meet a pending deadline due to the guidance from older employees.
Salespeople, for one, need to build external professional relationships with professionals from other organizations—especially those who are potential clients. These relationships will help create a contact person in another organization in case they need to sell a product to them.
Take Responsibility
It is important for employees to always take responsibility for decisions made both individually and in a team. This is, in fact, a leadership trait that every employee who is looking to take up a managerial position in the future should exhibit.
Discrimination/Harassment
What is unlawful discrimination?
Discrimination occurs when a person, or a group of people, is treated less favourably than another person or group because of their background or certain personal characteristics.
Federal discrimination laws protect people from discrimination of the basis of their:
race, including colour, national or ethnic origin or immigrant status
sex, pregnancy or marital status and breastfeeding
age
disability, or
sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status.
Discrimination can happen at different points in the employment relationship, including:
when recruiting and selecting staff
in the terms, conditions and benefits offered as part of employment
who is considered or selected for training and the sort of training offered
who is considered or selected for transfer or promotion
who is considered and selected for retrenchment or dismissal.
What is harassment?
Under discrimination law, it is unlawful to treat a person less favourably on the basis of particular protected attributes such as a person’s sex, race, disability or age. Treating a person less favourably can include harassing or bullying a person. The law also has specific provisions relating to sexual harassment, racial hatred and disability harassment.
Harassment can include behaviour such as:
telling insulting jokes about particular racial groups
sending explicit or sexually suggestive emails or text messages
displaying racially offensive or pornographic posters or screen savers
making derogatory comments or taunts about a person’s disability, or
asking intrusive questions about someone’s personal life, including his or her sex life.
All incidents of harassment – no matter how large or small or who is involved – require employers or managers to respond quickly and appropriately. If issues are left unaddressed, a hostile working environment can develop which can expose employers to further complaints.
Whistleblowing/reporting violations
Whistleblowers are company employees who report inappropriate or unethical behavior they discover at work. Whistle-blowing covers many areas of business in every industry, including but not limited to internal discrimination, predatory sales practices and dangerous working conditions. Business owners can learn the ramifications of well-known whistleblower examples to avoid catastrophic legal and financial penalties.
Whistleblowers are protected from employer retaliation under the Whistleblower Protection Act. Employers must allow investigations to occur without taking action against the reporting party. Understand the laws to ensure you are not subject to whistle-blowing, and follow legal protocol should someone report the company for infractions.
In a busy workplace it may be hard for managers or supervisors to keep a close eye on every individual and in some cases, this can lead to unwanted or inappropriate behaviour going unnoticed. Or perhaps inappropriate behaviour is occurring within the management team itself. When this happens, employees’ wellbeing can become affected as they can be left feeling uncomfortable in the workplace, and they may need support to feel able to speak out about this. Read on to find out what whistleblowing is and what kind of support can be offered to those who “blow the whistle”.
Why is whistleblowing support important?
This is an important service to include in any workplace because if employees feel as though they are not able to speak up about problems, this can lead to serious issues. Examples of this are a subdued workplace with an unpleasant atmosphere, where no relationships or trust is formed between staff. As a whistleblower, employees should not worry about facing any repercussions after passing on information on behaviour that they believe is a threat. The law can protect them if they are treated unfairly or lose their job because they are found to have blown the whistle and will be able to take action to bring justice if this is the case.
What whistleblowing support is available?
Our whistleblowing supportallows employees to speak confidentially about such negative problems that they have experienced or witnessed. We offer a helpline which employees can call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to talk to a trained professional. The appointed co-ordinator will then pass the information on to a designated person in the workplace who will be able to take necessary action. This can help to boost confidence when whistleblowing at work, as staff may not have to talk directly to a person that they know, which can reduce the fear of scrutiny. Our whistleblowing services include multi-lingual support, impartial advice and monthly reports. Whistleblowing support is one of the most effective ways to help bring underlying issues to the surface in a workplace and ensure that employees have a way to voice any concerns they may have.
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