Reflective Analysis of Business Ethics Class

Reflective Analysis of Business Ethics Class

Business ethics is understood to be the moral principles that serve as a guideline on how a business ought to be undertaken. It is the mandate of companies to employ staff and consequently move forth with training them to understand the application of ethics in with the best strategies for policy implementation. One common dilemma that exists with progressing business ethics sits with the lack of a determining component for that which is ‘right’ or ‘wrong.’ To make sure this scenario is eliminated within the company environment, organizations usually turn to provide their employees with customized ethical training unique to their company culture. Such approaches are helpful for employees as they come in handy when handling any ethical issues that may arise within the workplace. Reference, to this case, will reflect on Harcourt Real Estate Company’s Code of Ethics evidenced through the lens of what was taught in class. Harcourt is a Sydney based company that allowed me the opportunity to work with them last summer.

From the working experience at Harcourt, they have in place a Code of Ethics manual that is broken down into seven sections. It was a mandatory requirement for all employees to take part in a one week course program referred to as the Code of Ethics. The program would usually include a group of 10 employees with each learning session. An ideal plan for making sure that the training focuses on individual inadequacies and proposes ways to manage their ethical practice as the guide of the course was able to dedicate a resourceful amount of time to individuals (Greenwood & Freeman, 2018). Primarily, the learning process here involved the setting up of ethical profiles for individuals in accordance with what is expected of the employees, not forgetting the company’s role in the whole process.

What these ethical policies did for Harcourt is set them up with a dedicated commitment aimed at the provision of not only a safe but also diver workplace that ensures harassment and discrimination were eliminated. In the long run, the responsibility to safeguard the work environment sat with the employees. It is a requirement that all employees get to comply with the Key Employment Document for Policies. To do so, they ought to continually engage the management and human resource personnel with inquiries on the same policies, which is inclusive on the company’s commitment to providing a working environment that abides by diverse and equal employment opportunities for all. From the ethics sessions, a couple of ethics were projected with the initial ethical guideline set out as; employee responsibility to each other.

The work environment at Harcourt is set up in a way that promotes people diversity, ideas, and viewpoints exchange and continued provision of value to the customers as well as its shareholders. Hence, the culture at Harcourt advances a workplace that is inclusive of people from diverse racial and cultural backgrounds and ensures they are not in any way discriminated against, harassed, or intimated. The company operates and abides by a zero-tolerance policy towards any nature discrimination and ensures all employees are protected from such instances around the clock (Conrad, 2018). In all its undertakings, employees get to be treated both equally and impartially, where people are rewarded on merit and their accomplishments. In no way do the employment practices end up favoring employees. If any situation is considered as having progressed a stance of favoritism, an investigation is launched into the issue. An interesting approach that has been adopted by the organization is a stricture that eliminates the opportunity for clients to be treated preferentially. Collectively, what exists here is an environment favorable for the enhancement of a safe and ethically sane workspace free from any harassment or bias.

Secondly, Harcourt has ensured the secure protection of data belonging to its customers, shareholders, as well as its employees. Data protection in the organization is through ensuring all employees are steadfast in securing information. The approach under this case is three-pronged; sound information management systems, confidential information protection, and continued safeguarding of knowledge belong to customers and employees. Thirdly, Harcourt abides by the industry code of competing not only fairly but also legally within the marketplace. To ensure that this commitment to fair practice is reached, the company operates in line with four fundamental practices of honesty (Antonaras & Dekoulou, 2018). Fair competition and antitrust, engaging in fair dealings, eliminating and avoiding engagement in unlawful transactions, improper payment avoidance, and corruption are the operations components upheld by the organization.

That aside, in running its operations, Harcourt ensures that any form of conflict of interest in running the activities of the company is eliminated. This includes ensuring that employees abide by the company’s policy of not accepting any gifts or entertainment favors with the hope of influencing a decision thereafter. To address the conflict of interest problem, Harcourt has in place a Human Resource Manual outlining how employees ought to handle different situations at work. From no sensual relationships policy with other employees, employees’ not holding competitive businesses or positions in other companies to the ideal approach of the provision of gifts and other entertainment forms to customers and fellow employees.

The fifth ethical guideline is developed around the premise of making sure the interests of Harcourt are protected; coverage here includes both tangible and intangible assets. Set up of this guideline borders along the lines of the appropriate use of company property such as telephones and information technology assets. Many at times, employees tend to dedicate a great deal of their time in accessing social media sites and forget to do their job (Weiss, 2014). Although such engagements, if moderated and done is a healthy well could result in a positive impact in productivity, Harcourt has in place a set of policy guidelines that ensure proper use of such assets at the workplace. Furthermore, employees accessing specific sites through work equipment places company information at risk of being corrupted or being stolen in the event of a hack.

The sixth principle calls to attention the ideal approaches the company has dedicated towards the management of insider information and the perfect approach in handling political interference in business. In today’s business environment, politics plays a critical role in shaping the dynamics of how the marketplace demographics get to turn out. The news has been rife with instances where politicians have asked for kickbacks aimed at pushing market decisions in favor of specific companies. Harcourt has in place a regulatory outline dedicated to guiding its staff and management on how to engage in such situations, thus eliminating any room where the company’s integrity is jeopardized.

Lastly, the final ethical initiative at Harcourt requires all its employees to abide by the company policy of staying true to environmental conservation. That initiative extends to being truthful in business undertaking and committed response to any concerns raised by the public on operations of the company. Companies find it hard to address public concerns that are tied to claims of business violations or interests on their financial misappropriations. Harcourt is keen on addressing such concerns through its quarterly press reports that focus on its financial statements and CSR project reports on environmental conservation while undertaking its operations.

The training process on the company’s code of ethics is undertaken annually and involves employees being certified. Hence, with every turn of the year, employees get their Harcourt Code of Ethics renewed as a demonstration of their commitment to undertake business ethically. With this scheduled annual commitment sign up, employees are reminded to stay faithful to industry and company ethical responsibilities in the daily execution of their tasks at work. Such an approach is a guarantee for the company to uphold a high sense of integrity while ensuring the continued development of its culture (Donde & Somasundaram, 2018). Although the Code of Ethics is set up to offer guidance to a variety of sectors of the industry and company policy, its focus does not address all components of the organization. The principles set out in the code are meant to serve the purpose of making sure that the company operations can be run soundly.

The underlying need is tied on trusting another employee would abide by the law and honestly in their undertakings, which translates to advancing integrity, honesty, and carrying out business fairly. Additional to the Code of Ethics, Harcourt’s employees are mandated to abide by the guidelines of their Employment Policy Document. The focus of this document is on providing the teams at Harcourt with an environment free from any form of discrimination or harassment. It encompasses an open door policy where employees can go to the top management and air their grievances as opposed to going through an extensive chain of command to have their issues addressed. To a great extent, Harcourt does an excellent job of upholding ethics at the workplace despite the complexities around business ethics. The approach to include business ethics training for employees allows them to question their decisions before making any commitments, which translates to operating with high integrity.

References

Antonaras, A., & Dekoulou, P. (2018). Cases on Corporate Social Responsibility and Contemporary Issues in Organizations . Hershey: IGI Global .

Conrad, C. (2018). Business Ethics – A Philosophical and Behavioral Approach. New York : Springer .

Donde, G., & Somasundaram, K. (2018). Ethics at Work: 2018 Survey of Employees . Sydney : Survey ibe .

Greenwood, M., & Freeman, E. (2018). Deepening Ethical Analysis in Business Ethics . Journal of Business Ethics , 1-4.

Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach. 6th Edition . San Francisco : Berret-Koehler Inc. .