Creating even ethics policies for a company
Managers and workers make daily decisions that may have a direct or indirect ethical impact. Whenever employees make decisions, they must be aware of both the legal and ethical implications of their decisions. Consideration must be made as to how these decisions affect others.
Many daily decisions may not appear to be an ‘issue’: hiring an employee based on a gut feeling or giving preference to customers based on whether you agree with their opinions. However, these small decisions can have much larger impacts down the road. In order to reduce the exposure from managerial decisions, companies have established policies and procedures to guide managers on their decision points.
For this assignment, you are playing the role of the Human Resources Director for E-Z Printing Office Supply Company. You are to create seven ethics policies for the small company. Here are some guidelines to help you get started:
• Your company has 30 employees; seven of these are managers.
• Write 7 ethics policies for both employees and managers to follow.
• Each policy will focus on one decision-making event, such as hiring practices, promotion rules, discipline, time-off/vacation approval, relationships with vendors, acceptance of gifts, financial reporting, reporting expenses, or customer returns and refunds. These are just examples; you may select any appropriate topics you wish for your policies.
• Each policy will clearly identify the process that it discusses and provide direction on how employees and managers are to address the situation. The policy should provide specific expectations, give advice on resources available to the manager/employee, and state if an ethical situation should be escalated to another management level. You must ensure that you specify any consequences for breaking the policy, such as the level of discipline (even up to termination)
• Keep in mind the scope of these policies. This is a smaller organization, and so there may be managers or even the company’s president or owner who oversee multiple departments and employees. One of those employees is you! Therefore, you can specifically state who will handle certain problems. For example, in the case of an allegation of workplace harassment, you may want to state that the reporting party goes directly to the manager in charge of Human Resources.
• Keep your policies practical. Again, this is a local, smaller company specializing in printing. There will not be as many detailed policies as you would see in a larger organization. These policies are a guide for all employees and managers as they make day-to-day decisions, so select appropriate topics. As an example, because it is a small company, a fair time-off policy would take into account the fact that not all employees can be gone at the same time. However, this policy must also comply with legal requirements such as FMLA, employment contracts, and laws on wages or hour limits.
• While doing research, try to find a policy format that you like so you can use it to create the 7 policies; this will help you focus your writing and make it cohesive so the reader can understand and apply it. You can find examples online, as well as templates that are available on government websites like the U.S. Small Business Administration. Be sure to cite sources in the body of the paper, as well as including in the references section.
Sample Solution
Policies pertaining to business ethics are crucial in showcasing exemplary employee behavior. The public is more likely to trust a company with high ethical standards, and customers are more likely to purchase from them. Compliance with regulatory requirements and maintaining a competitive edge for the business are linked by ethical practices. Find out more about the fundamentals of business ethics laws, the different ethical dilemmas that businesses face, and commonly asked questions. The execution of laws pertaining to things like social responsibility and fiduciary duties is correlated with business ethics. When you create formal policies that outline how an employee should act in the company, ethics are also a part of them.
