Ohio Central Savings Bank - Essay Example

Much of the code seems to revolve around the need to meet various aspects of new legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley. One particular aspect of the code concentrates upon the rights of individual employees to report possible abuses of power and perhaps unethical actions without fear of reprisal. This protection of whistle-blowers. An interesting aspect of the code is that it does not only provide general principles and goals, but also actual examples of what acceptable and unacceptable behavior might be. Thus dealing with the issues of privacy of information, “The identity of customers and potential customers and their personal, business and financial information” (savings, 2006), and for insider information,

Proposals or plans for mergers and acquisitions;
Earnings estimates or results, whether for the month, quarter, or year;
Determinations as to cash or stock dividends to be paid by the Company;
New product innovations;
(savings, 2006)

This is a very useful method of communicating an ethics code. Employees need to have both general principles of ethical standards and actual examples. If employees do not know whether an act is or is not ethical then tension may occur, and employees may become too worried about what they are doing rather than their job performance.
Along with actual details come discussions of more complex questions such as conflicts of interest. Here the code of ethics encourages thought and discussion throughout the company:

Everyone must avoid any action or situation that conflicts with the interests of the Company or its customers, or which gives the appearance of a conflict. The appearance of a conflict can at times be as damaging as an actual conflict and can diminish the valuable relationships we have developed with others.
(savings, 2006)

The idea that a company and its employees must appear to be ethical as well as acting ethically may seem self-evident, but as recent corporate scandals have shown it must be constantly repeated.
The Code of Ethics is excellent, but there is some room for improvement. Specific kinds of ethics related to different positions and jobs within the hierarchy might have been included. Thus the Code might have stated ethics that apply to corporate leaders and also to entry-level employees. Are they the same kind of ethics or different?