Edular

As part of more comprehensive compliance and ethics programs, many companies have formulated internal policies pertaining to the ethical conduct of employees.

These policies can be simple exhortations in broad, highly-generalized language (typically called a corporate ethics statement), or they can be more detailed policies, containing specific behavioral requirements (typically called corporate ethics codes). They are generally meant to identify the company's expectations of workers and to offer guidance on handling some of the more common ethical problems that might arise in the course of doing business. It is hoped that having such a policy will lead to greater ethical awareness, consistency in application, and the avoidance of ethical disasters.

To be successful, most ethicists would suggest that an ethics policy should be:

• Given the unequivocal support of top management, by both word and example.
• Explained in writing and orally, with periodic reinforcement.
• Doable....something employees can both understand and perform.
• Monitored by top management, with routine inspections for compliance and improvement.
• Backed up by clearly stated consequences in the case of disobedience.
• Remain neutral and nonsexist.