Complete guide to ethics management: an ethics toolkit for managers flashcard

Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers Written by Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, Authenticity Consulting, LLC.

Copyright 1997-2008. (This guide is located at http://www. managementhelp. org/ethics/ethxgde. htm on the Web. ) The profession of business ethics has long needed a highly practical resource that is designed particularly for leaders and managers — those people charged to ensure ethical practices in their organizations.

Unfortunately, far too many resources about business ethics end up being designed primarily for philosophers, academics and social critics. As a result, leaders and managers struggle to really be able to make use of the resources at all. Also, far too many resources about business ethics contain sensationalistic stories about businesses “ gone bad” or prolonged preaching to businesses to “ do the right thing”. These resources often explore simplistic ethical questions, such as “ Should Jane steal from the company? ” The real world of leaders and managers is often much more complex than that. This guide is a straightforward and highly practical tool designed to help leaders and managers implement comprehensive ethics management systems in their workplaces — systems to deal with the complex, ethical issues that can occur in the day-to-day realities of leading and managing an organization. For Web readers: This free guidebook is about 20 pages long (8 1/2″ x 11″ pages).

If you are reading the document on the World Wide Web, please wait until the document is fully loaded before attempting to link to its sections listed below. The best approach to using this guidebook may be to print it out for ongoing reference. The Free Management Library provides additional information about ethics and a great range of other free information about management. For a complete list of library topics, see http://www. managementhelp. org/topics.

htm Disclaimer: The author, Carter McNamara, MBA, PhD, makes no warranty, express or implied, nor assumes any legal liability for accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information from this guide. Another Tool to Effectively Infuse Ethical Principles: If you are planning to infuse strong, ethical principles throughout your company or want to change the culture of your company, then you might take the advice of Bob Kniffin, Vice President of External Affairs, at Johnson and Johnson (J&J) company. The way that J&J handled an ethical issue (the “ Tylenol scare” crisis) in the 1980s is probably one of the most inspiring and enlightening examples of how to successfully deal with a major ethical issue in business. Kniffin was one of the key players in helping J&J to handle the crisis so effectively.

Kniffin said that it was not the J&J Credo (a form of a code of ethics) that helped J&J to handle the crisis so well. Rather, it was the ongoing “ challenge sessions” that the company regularly held in order for each person to clarify their own perspective and commitment to the J&J Credo. Authenticity Consulting’s peer coaching groups are a powerful, yet straightforward, means to organize, facilitate and evaluate challenge sessions. For more information about the peer coaching groups, go to our publications site (http://www. authenticityconsulting.

com/act-lrn/AC_pubs. htm) and consider the “ Program Planning Kit”. About this Free Guidebook · This free guidebook aims to fill a large void of practical, realistic ethics information for leaders and managers, whether nonprofit or for-profit. · This guidebook takes about two hours to read. It is concisely written and well organized as a step-by-step guidebook for handy reference.

· This guidebook is free in order to make its contents highly accessible to organizations, particularly those with limited resources. The free nature of this document does not in any way indicate that its content are of low value — high fees and impressive presentation do not necessarily imply high value. The author hopes the online form of this document remains a dynamic community resource that is continually modified and improved by feedback, particularly from leaders and managers — those people in the trenches who are charged with applying business ethics techniques in the workplace. This document contains the following sections: Document Fills Void of Practical Ethics Information for Leaders and Managers What is Business Ethics? 10 Myths About Business Ethics 10 Benefits of Managing Ethics in the Workplace One Description of a Highly Ethical Organization Ethics Management Programs: An Overview Guidelines for Managing Ethics in the Workplace 6 Key Roles and Responsibilities in Ethics Management Ethics Tools: Codes of Ethics Ethics Tools: Codes of Conduct Ethics Tools: Policies and Procedures Ethics Tools: Resolving Ethical Dilemmas (with Real-to-Life Examples) Ethics Tools: Training About the Author Bibliography of Practical Resources Also see Related Info in the Free Management Library. Acknowledgment Particular “ Thanks! ” goes to Twin Cities-based consultants, Doug Wallace and Jon Pekel, of the Fulcrum Group (651-714-9033; e-mail at [email protected] com). Do not copy without reference to copyright owners. Not to be used for commercial purposes. Method Three – Twelve Questions to Address Ethical DilemmasLaura L. Nash poses 12 questions to help managers address ethical dilemmas. 1. Have you defined the problem accurately? 2. How would you define the problem if you stood on the other side of the fence? 3. How did this situation occur in the first place? 4. To whom and to what do you give your loyalty as a person and as a member of the corporation? 5. What is your intention in making this decision? 6. How does this intention compare with the probable results? 7. Whom could your decision or action injure? 8. Can you discuss the problem with the affected parties before you make your decision? 9. Are you confident that your position will be as valid over a long period of time as it seem now? 10. Could you disclose without qualm your decision or action to your boss, your CEO, the board of directors, your family, society as a whole? 11. What is the symbolic potential of your action if understood? misunderstood? 12. Under what conditions would you allow exceptions to your stand? (adapted from: Nash, L. (1981). Ethics Without the Sermon. Harvard Business Review, (59)) Ethics Tools: Training The ethics program is essentially useless unless all staff members are trained about what it is, how it works and their roles in it. The nature of the system may invite suspicion if not handled openly and honestly. In addition, no matter how fair and up-to-date is a set of policies, the legal system will often interpret employee behavior (rather than written policies) as de facto policy. Therefore, all staff must be aware of and act in full accordance with policies and procedures (this is true, whether policies and procedures are for ethics programs o