Phase 4 IP 1

Phase 4 DB 1 Rebecca Lyn Oberstadt INTD670-1304B-04 Leadership and Ethical Decision-Making Instructor Maurice Ivy December 12, 2013   Code of Conduct When it comes to discussing things with the management team, things have to be done in a manner that can smooth ruffled feathered. The teams are already stressed out due to the merger, the potential of losing jobs and now they are finding there are all sorts of changes they are facing as well as new rules and regulations. Now they have to face a code of conduct after the fact they have to worry about ethics and the SOX act and regulations. Everybody is on edge. Making sure the management members know how to deal with ethics and code of conduct issues and how to better inform their employees as well. When it comes to code of conduct many people think it’s one thing versus another. “It is meant to clarify an organization's mission, values and principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct.”(Ethics.org, paragraph 1) According to research on code of ethics it’s a type of business model where not only employees but consumers can look up the business and see what they stand for and how the company works. When a company writes a code of conduct they need to think about where they want to go with their business. They need to figure out what mission they need to have for the company. These are things like values the employees have or the values of the owners of the business. Things like great customer service may not be enough but stating your business has integrity in mind is another thing that’s great. It gives the employees something to think about, things to keep in mind during the business day and it should help them stay on track if they find they may be wandering off the values established by the company. When it comes to figuring out what issues should be considered when drafting a code of conduct you need to look at the bigger picture. “The trick is to strike the right balance between producing a huge document that covers every possible base but runs the risk of not being read and producing a short, snappy Code that does not really communicate enough and leaves you exposed in a number of areas.” (Acc.com, 2013) by making your code of conduct easy-to-read easy-to-follow and incorporating all of the things your company wants to establish in the code of conduct. You might just end up with a document that you are happy with. When considering the issues that could possibly arise when writing the could have taught conduct you should make sure that it is not too wordy, but it is the length is just right and that covers everything in a short and concise manner. Considering that has a code of conduct could have anything to do with personal relationships the values and morals of the company things that you could do on and off company time. Those are things that people would worry about having to incorporate into their current jobs for code of conduct some code of conduct have greater and more stringent qualities to them vs. blacks and short and easy going. Below is a list of topics that could possibly be on a code of conduct document that I found online. The website www.ACC.com • “Alcohol and drug abuse; • Audit / accounting fraud / substantive SOX / national corporate governance compliance; • Compliance with company rules; • Confidentiality; • Conflicts of interest; • Data protection / privacy; • Discrimination / equal employment opportunity; • Dress code • Intellectual property; • Reporting system / whistleblowing hotlines” When it comes to making sure the new code of conduct is put in place and implemented correctly with the business they need to make sure that all factors are taken into consideration. There is a merger going on between two different companies makes things a little bit more difficult. The fact that these two companies are similar and everything that they do certain types of code of conduct issues that might arise, but when it comes to infringements and dress code and things like that the smaller company might have different rules and ideas about things versus the larger of the two companies. I think that this merger could be difficult for the first few weeks or even months of the situation, but keeping in mind that this is all new to everybody. I think establishing a new and fully implemented code of conduct that would start the day that the merger is signed will help everybody all around. When approaching a management team about this code of conduct issues in the fact that they do not currently have one and trying to establish a new one they need to be sensitive to the topics about the fact that they do not currently have one instilled into each company each company needs to be aware of the situation. If they are not our Eddie and try and smooth than as fast as possible by forming what management would consider guidelines and rules and showing them that the sky, but the rules are basically what they currently follow and it would be easy to turn it into a code of conduct policy. I think that this would stop more problems from happening in the future by allowing the companies to merge smoothly with the implementation of a code of conduct   Bibliography Page Acc.com(2013) Drafting and Implementing a Global Code of Conduct. From: https://www.acc.com/legalresources/quickcounsel/daiagcoc.cfm Ethics.org(2009) Why Have a Code of Conduct. From: http://www.ethics.org/resource/why-have-code-conduct