Shell Company is an energy petrochemical company with as many employees as ninety thousand and operates in eighty countries. Shell was among the first companies that brought to light their codes of conduct in the business world back in 1976. Their mission is to enhance the levels of profits through management of energies, ensuring that creativity is harnessed at effectives cost this helps to realizing the economically, and environmentally responsible ways of producing the products. The ethics are used as principles to govern the wrong and right conducts. Almost all organizations or cooperations have codes of ethics that govern the employees, the management and the stakeholders of the cooperations. They provide the right path for conducting their businesses. In this paper, Shell Oil Company is used to show the methods used why the methods are used, that is the circumstances when the codes are used, how the ethics are applied and specifically when they are used.
In Shell Oil Company, the codes of conducts are well defined as the rules, or the expected behavior of all the stakeholders with respect to the running of the company. In the conduct, the people to which the code of conducts is written are spelt vividly, and they include the employees, the management which comprises the directors in every shell office and all other stakeholders involved directly or indirectly. According to Shell Oil Company, the code of conduct is needed to define and describe the expected behavior of the involved parties, in relation to the core principles of the business.
In the code of ethics, Shell Oil Company concentrated on duty for instance; employees should not accept any form of favors, from other third parties that maybe connected with it in one way or another. Additionally, the employees should not engage in any business outside the Shell business, this is because it may affect his or her performance of duties in the Corporation. Employees are expected to hold high moral standards of integrity, honesty while transacting in the business climate.
Now the conducts, as indicated previously, are supposed to help the management on how to go about the business, basing their values on honesty, respect and integrity, the directors especially strive hard to follow the mission, values and the vision of the statements, with respect to the violation, and making decisions, with regards to solving problems. The management and the directors have their roles dictated clearly in the code of conduct as to how, why and when they can enforce changes, if need be. The codes have special clauses that deal directly with deviant directors or the top leadership, and there are people who are responsible for ensuring that the codes of ethics are adhered to strictly. This is clearly stated in the Shell’s code of ethics 2010. To the management, the code of conduct is supposed to ensure that the security of the employees has been upheld. All the issues that may cause a conflict between the chain of command for instance the executive director, the chairperson, the financial officers, and the internal auditor. This is essential so that, any issues that may result to trickle down to the regular employees are prevented and the firm does not crumble down due to mismanagement.
Other people who are involved indirectly, for instance, the vendors and the wholesalers who are part and parcel of the organization, and the subordinate members of the corporation are also supposed to uphold some form of ethics, for instance, the Tell Shell Code is applied by these people, must report behaviors that are discordant with the duties, and to seek the necessary advice about what he or she is concerned about. The particular people are also free of talking to the particular managers, the supervisors or any other persons that are put to be responsible for issues that may need attention.
In other cases, conflict of interest may come about, when personal relations affect the decision making, in the code of ethics, an employee should avoid conflict of interest or negative influence that may put the company at jeopardy. If an employee of whichever rank finds that there is some form of conflict, then he or she is supposed to report to the relevant officer in charge. In other situations, when an employer feels like one plans to apply his knowledge for external gains, then a written formal report must be written to the relevant authorities.
For shareholders, the conduct still applies. Any person who is involved in the inside dealings, during the process of trading shares, or securities, when he has a confidential knowledge or one shares this information with another party, who in turn trades the shares or securities. In the code, the confidential business of Shell does not permit this information to be used in employees’ personal gains, in terms of securities and shares’ trading. Any stakeholder must always keep away from spreading rumors that hold false information or that can change the market in one way or another. If one believes that the coworkers are involved in one way or another in insider dealings or in manipulation of the market, then a report must be taken to the relevant people.
The code of conduct covers much more areas, which controls the entire transactions that may be involved in the cause of the transaction. They are particularly ensured to be considered, so that other branches of the company are at par with the updated ethics and any form of unruly behavior can be treated with the similar contempt that the whole organization is conversant with. It is a matter of fact that the code of ethics has been able to do extreme wonders in terms of dealing with cases that need to be tackled head on, and to other issues that are outside the domain of what is encrypted in the codes.
In conclusion, Shell Oil Company, relates to the core ethics and the values of integrity, honesty, and the respect of all employees and the code of conduct does not spare any defaulter working or associated with the Shell Company or any joint venture, as seen the Shell Oil Company, has a whole set of codes that are the guidelines that help insiders in conducting their businesses in relation to the entire business world. By following the code of ethics, the company can uphold its ethics and high reputation of the class and the involved prosperity. The code of ethics allows employees to accomplish the very ethics, using the guidelines. And how to keep away from issues that may affect the reputation of the company.
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