Ethics
Business Ethics
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Questions to be asked by the Board, Management
and Ethics officer
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Open, honest, responsive and accountable
Who is left out or kept in the dark? Why?
How happy are we to be associated with our decisions/actions?
Are we listening or just hearing?
What can we learn?
How do we help others to understand us?
How do we recognise and deal with conflicts of interest?
Relating to colleagues and customers fairly and with respect
Do we treat everyone as we would like to be treated?
Do we deal with people with respect and without prejudice?
How do we keep rights and obligations in balance and proportionate?
When do we hold to our commitments and resist ‘fudging’?
Who benefits and who loses out? Should they?
Committed to acting competently, responsibly and reliably
Do we do what we say we will do?
Under pressure do we swap co-operation for coercion?
Do we dither or delay?
How is error treated?
Do people trust us? If not, why not?
Can we meet our commitments and plans?
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Organisations internationally have an ethical framework they operate under in addition to adherence to rules and regulations they are obliged to follow. Sometimes it is unwritten, but increasingly it is seen as good practice that companies outline publicly their business ethics as well as their operational and business values. They will often be described in business plans, annual reports, corporate websites and on widely disseminated materials.
As well as publishing an ethical framework does every company follow its published ethics to the letter? Are ethics the domain of compliance or do they rest with the Board of the company as part of its governance remit?
The UK’s Financial Services and Markets Act provides an ethical framework underpinned by the FSA’s core values. They are summarised as follows:
- Open, honest, responsive and accountable
- Committed to acting competently, responsibly and reliably
- Relating to colleagues and customers fairly and with respect
Whilst these values were designed to apply to the UK they translate across world markets.
A good ethical framework charges the company to:
- ensure that specific individuals are responsible for ensuring compliance
- communicate ethical standards and procedures to all employees, and institute effective training programmes
- monitor and audit their achievement of standards, and safeguard whistleblowers
- operate disciplinary procedures to penalise breaches
- respond promptly and effectively to failures
"To be completely clear, a box-ticking approach to regulating culture will not work. The regulator must focus on the actions a firm takes and whether the board has a compelling story to tell about how it ensures it has the right culture; which rings true and is consistent with what the firm does,” Hector Sants October 2010.
See Hector Sants full Mansion House speech on culture and ethics (October 2010) for the FSA's latest thinking.
CTP Global assists Boards in defining their ethical framework. To discuss your requirements contact us now...
CTP Global – Good Governance: Great Performance
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