The Business Ethics and The Ethics of Business

In 2002, the U.S. corporate world was rocked with scandals. Enron, Arthur Anderson, WorldCom, Citi Group, HCA, Tyco and others have been headlines in the press and the main story in the news because of failures of business ethics. This made me re-emphasize and underline to each of my clients then and now, the importance of business ethics and to challenge each of my clients to integrate their core values ​​in their policies, practices and decision-making process. And make sure that they devote themselves to doing business with the highest ethical standards.

A 2005 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) was released by the Ethics Resource Center October12, 2005. Some of the key findings are:

52% of employees observed at least one type of misconduct in the workplace last year, with 36% of these observations at least 2 or more violations.

69% of employees report their organizations to implement ethics training, to 14 percentage points since 2003 NBES.

65% of employees indicated their organizations have a place you can see the ethical.

55% of employees who observed misconduct at work reported to management, down 10 percentage points since 2003 NBES.

Five of the six elements of formal ethics and compliance measured by NBES have increased over time with the presence of written standards of ethical business conduct by 19 percentage points since 2004.

The NBES defines misconduct as any behavior that violates the law or organizational ethics standards. The two most common types of misconduct observed by employees are abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees and lying to employees, customers, suppliers, or the public.

Types of behavior as observed by employees include:

21% observed abusive or intimidating behavior towards employees.

19% observed lying to employees, customers, suppliers, or the public.

8% noted a situation that puts the interests of workers relative to organizational interests.

16% witnessed a violation of safety rules.

The 16% observed misreporting of the actual time worked.

12% observed discrimination based on race, color, sex, age or similar categories.

11% observed stealing or theft.

9% observed sexual harassment.

Note: For the full press release on NBES vai to: http://www.ethics.org

At the end of 2005 I am still asking the question - How can a company "SUSPEND" code of ethics of the company? How can an individual entrepreneur in conducting business or a government official elected or appointed local, state or federal, to give up their business ethics in government? And what can you do to respond to this dysfunctional behavior and unacceptable?

Here are five things I believe we need to ensure that happens.

1. Business and government need to seriously look to strengthen their programs of ethics and demonstrate a commitment to integrity in the way they conduct their business activities and government.

2. Companies and organizations must build ethical values ​​and vision statements and mission of their strategic plans and ensure that managers and employees understand the importance of these values ​​and ethical standards.

3. Ethics should be integrated into everything the organization and the individual does.

4. The organizations should reward ethical behavior and punish unethical behavior. Everyone needs to accept responsibility for his actions.

5. Each new ethical problem must be addressed immediately and a clear plan established to address the issue.

How does your company or organization address ethical? I'd be interested to hear from you. If you want to share how your organization addresses the issue of ethics, send your thoughts to me by going to our contact form on my website at http://www.businesscoach4u.com ......