Social Performance Part II: Ethics Program - Assignment Example

Social Performance Part II: Ethics Program Social Performance Part II: Ethics Program Briefly describe your company and then benchmark the codes of conduct used by similar companies in the industry. Critique the codes of conduct of at least three (3) similar companies in order to write codes for your company. The company of the writer of the paper runs under the transportation industry since it is considered as a necessary service in any community. People need to travel to go from one place to another whether they want to study, work, eat or enjoy their lives. Buses, cabs and trains are already part of the necessity of people in their everyday lives because those vehicles allow them to reach their destination faster. Hence, they save time and energy. The company chose the said industry because of sustainability. Despite of the quick advancement of technology and lifestyle due to modernization, the demand for public transportation does not cease to exist. Most people do not have the money to buy their own vehicles so it is very convenient for them to travel using the public transport services. It has become sustainable not only because of the demand but it also sustains the lives of people by providing income opportunities through employment. Businesses will not run without people so the company needs employees to run the business. In return, those hired ones are paid for their work. Having ethical program or code of conduct for the business is also necessary to attain sustainability. It will serve as a list of guidelines that the employees must follow to ensure that the business performs its corporate social responsibility. It is important to remember that business is about adding value to the lives of people by solving their problems. In the case of the company in the paper, it solves the transport problem of the people in the community. Three similar companies may be used to identify, describe and formulate the necessary considerations in creating the code of conduct for the transportation company. The bases for the code of conduct will come from the companies named Stagecoach Bus, New South Wales State Transit and Bus Eireann. For Stagecoach Bus, its code of conduct focuses on the management of complaints and feedback. It is handled by the operations director who sorts and manages the information provided by the passengers to ensure that the performance of the business meets the demands and needs of their market. Stagecoach Bus also provides its contact information via website, flyers and postings in their buses to allow its customers to easily send their feedbacks. In addition, the staffs of that company are well-trained to ensure that the travel of the passengers is comfortable and safe. Those staffs also help in handling the complaints given by the passengers and they are investigated for verification and solution. If ever Stagecoach Bus cannot handle the situation, it seeks the help of the group that can provide the necessary support. Some of the organizations that can be contacted are the Bus Passengers Platform and Bus Appeals Body and they can handle the complaints that the bus company cannot handle on its own. The passengers are informed quickly about the development of their feedback or complaints (Stagecoach Group, 2012). Next, the company would be Bus Eireann. That company has seven main principles placed as their code of ethics. Those are being followed by their staffs every day. Those are work environment consideration, interest disclosure, information confidentiality, integrity, legality, loyalty, and fairness (Bus Eireann, 2013). Work environment deals with the impact of the staffs to the environment and safety of themselves and their coworkers. On the other hand, interest disclosure focuses on the prohibition of employees to deal with conflicting business interests with the bus company. Next, information confidentiality deals with the privacy of the information or data and should not be leaked to anybody. Then, integrity shows that the staffs must be honest and do the right things while at work. Legality deals with the adherence to the laws of business practices. On the other hand, loyalty focuses on commitment to the workload and to the company. Lastly, fairness focuses on the equality on the rights and work of all employees for the sake of the company. The third bus company would be the State Transit Authority of New South Wales. The company has the values that deal with the focus on safety, customers, honesty, teamwork and accountability (State Transit Authority of New South Wales, 2012). Safety is very important because the staffs must be able to avoid having any injuries that may become detrimental to their performance and affect the business operations. They should also give importance to the safety of the passengers since the business relies on the earnings from the customers (passengers). Next, the focus on customers is not limited on their safety but also on the satisfaction that they get when they ride the bus. The State Transit Authority of New South Wales must be keen to feedback and complaints to improve its services. Another consideration would be honesty. The staffs must be able to render services without any biases and lies. Negative acts may be harmful to the business. Next would be teamwork which promotes the synchronized works of the staffs to achieve common goals. Lastly, accountability focuses on the importance of being responsible for the actions. It should be observed by all employees as they get to learn what leadership is. 2. Analyze ways ethical challenges affect your business and create a code of conduct for your company. Provide a rationale on how these specific codes enhance your company’s ethics program. Ethical challenges can be detrimental to a business because they may hinder the growth that a business may be able to attain. Instead of getting positive developments, negative growth may be observed if those challenges are not addressed. Some of the challenges may appear in the form of uncooperative staffs, less productive activities, small lies, untrained personnel, immature behaviors and many more. Those can really hinder the success and sustainability of an organization when not properly identified, analyzed and solved. It shows that having a code of conduct is very important to make the company successful. The code of conduct for the hypothetical bus transit company would involve honesty, teamwork, environment-friendly, passenger-friendly, loyalty and safety. 3. After reviewing the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations, explain how these guidelines influence the ethics program you created. Guidelines would be necessary to create an effective code of conduct. Without the standards, the quality of the set ethical rules may not be followed. It is very important to implement the code of conduct according to the standards to minimize criminal offenses and suitable officers must be placed in office to ensure that the code of conduct is observed based on the set standards. The code must also be able to prevent the assignment of responsibilities to people who are involved in crimes and other dangerous activities. The requirements and other information regarding the ethical guidelines must be properly disseminated through training programs and newsletters. The information must be easy to understand and to be applied. There should also be a system of evaluation and reports that are publicly available that protects the employees from harm. There should also be activities that will be given to discipline those who committed the offense and for those who are not able to detect the offenses well. Lastly, necessary response must be observed in taking actions to correct the crimes and offenses that are committed (Ethics Resource Center, 2005). 4. Anticipate where the challenges or setbacks may be in the adoption and enforcement of the codes of conduct for your company. Explain how you will address these challenges and anticipated setbacks. The challenges may lie in the hands of the employees who may have their own selfish interests. Their actions may hinder the company from growing and may bring about a bad public image. Those acts can really affect the profits and performance of the business and may become unsustainable. Passengers and other external agents may also pose some challenges which cannot be directly corrected by the organization. What the company can do is to constantly upgrade itself through trainings and internal interventions to boost its performance and reputation. Those setbacks can be remedied by the constant development of the business and applying the feedback provided by external bodies and clients. 5. Given the influences of changing economic, political, social, cultural, and technological forces on business and society, explain how you can ensure that your codes of conduct will remain relevant in the years ahead. For the code of conduct to remain relevant in the future, consistent trainings and studies must be conducted. Through those two activities, the code can be revised and the business may be able to adapt to its environment. References Bus Eireann. (2013). Code of business ethics for employees. Retrieved from http://www.buseireann.ie/inner.php?id=308. Ethics Resource Center. (2005). Federal sentencing guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.ethics.org/resource/federal-sentencing-guidelines. Stagecoach Group. (2012). Code of practice. Retrieved from http://www.stagecoachbus.com/codeofpractice.aspx. State Transit Authority of New South Wales. (2012). Statement of business ethics. Retrieved from http://www.sydneybuses.info/publications/ Statement%20of%20Business%20Ethics%202012.pdf. Read More