Ethical Issues in Business

Competency 310.2.3: Ethics Programs - The graduate can develop an appropriate and comprehensive ethics program for a given business venture.



Objective 310.2.3-08: Develop an ethics program for a company. 

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Introduction:



Because of the increased scrutiny on the actions of corporations and those who act on behalf of organizations, there has been increased attention placed on the ethical actions within organizations. Many organizations have responded to this increased scrutiny by establishing formal ethics programs to address what are appropriate actions for those working for the company.



Given:



You are the ethics officer at a new company, Company X, and you have been charged with the task of creating an ethics program as a part of the new employee handbook. Your program should include a standards and procedures section, an ethics training section, a section regarding employee misconduct, and a plan for evaluating and improving the ethics program after implementation.



Task:



Develop an ethics program (i.e., as can be found in an employee handbook or employee guidelines)(suggested length of 5–7 pages) for the given company in which you do the following: 

A. Develop an applicable standards and procedures section that includes four elements of acceptable or unacceptable behavior found in a code of ethics.



B. Develop a section that identifies at least three specific elements for an ethics training program.



C. Develop a section that explains the processes for each of the following:

1. Monitoring employee misconduct

2. Auditing employee misconduct

3. Reporting employee misconduct



D. Develop a section that explains your plan to do the following:

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the ethics program after implementation.

2. Provide suggestions to improve the ethics program after implementation.



E. When you use sources, include all in-text citations and references in APA format.