Introduction
Actions are essentially dictated by the values. Identifying both actual and proclaimed organizational values will actually assist an institution guarantee that all of its actions are indeed commensurate with these values hence this will enable such an institution initiate a robust structure that is essential in supporting values operationalization. Various ethical issues for institutions and especially international ones arise due to differing value systems. For that reason, ethical audit will fundamentally enable an institution establish guidelines that are clear about acceptable behavioral limits.
Ethics audit refers to the systematic evaluation of the ethics programs or performance of an organization to determine the effectiveness of such an organization. This research paper focuses on Citibank Ethics Audit, which is among the major international banks. The first part summarizes the ethics audit findings and the second part discusses the suggestions for addressing the ethical concerns and issues that were identified during the process of ethics audit.
Summary of the Audit findings
Initially, the assignment was to conduct ethics systems check-up where the instruction was to mark a “Yes, No, or Sometimes” answer on the provided ethics items under various system categories. The major system categories contained different items totaling 76 items where at the end of each system category we were to provide subtotal points for “yes” answers and the overall percentage. The ethics audit findings for Citibank under these system categories are as summarized below:
Hiring ethical job candidates
The “Yes” answers in this category had a total of 75%. The total items were 6 where “yes” answers were 3 and “sometimes” answers were also 3. For instance, the importance of the ethics was truly highlighted in organization’s job listings. The reference checks were sometimes conducted with a potential former supervisor or employer. The strength in this category is that background check ethics essentially highlighted the code of conduct. The weakness observed here is that, at times conducting drug test fail to extensive background.
Code of ethics and Conduct
The overall “Yes” answers in this category was 80% where “Yes” answers were 3, “Sometimes” answers were 2, and 1 “No” answer. The code of conduct is present in Citibank. However, the bank manager needs to fully support this code of conduct. All employees were not participating in yearly ethics codes survey.
Ethical decision- making.
Under this category, the overall score was 0%. The number of items were 3 where there were no “Yes” answers, “Sometimes” answers were 2, and 1 “No” answer. The organization failed to train its employees in using the ethical decision- making framework. The strength here is that Citibank considers ethics. Nevertheless, past actions indicated that employees fail to act ethically.
Ethics training
The total number of items under this category was 6. The total “Yes” percentage was 50% where “Yes” answers were 2, 3 “Sometimes” answers, and 1 “No” answer. Ethics training workshops are present in the organization, but there is no follow up ethics training. Thus, there is a need for the organization to engage in follow up ethics training.
Employee Diversity
This ethics system category scored 90%. The overall items were 7 where “Yes” and “Sometimes” answers shared 3 marks, and 1 “No” answer. Citibank hires its employees from all over the world. Nonetheless, they do not hire for overall mission hence it is important they start doing so.
Ethics reporting system
This category had 5 items and the answer for 3 items was “Yes” and that for the remaining 2 items was “sometimes.” The total score under this category was 0%. Citibank has an ethics system in place, but have been fined severally hence it is crucial for them to learn and desist from engaging in unethical actions.
Ethical leadership, work goals, and performance appraisal
The total number of items under this category was 10. The overall percentage was 30% where the answer for 3 items was “Yes,” “Sometimes” answer had 5 items, and 2 items received a “No” answer. This organization has a system in place, but its leaders usually keep getting in trouble hence there is a need for them to stop engaging in unethical activities.
Empowering ethical employees
Under this ethics system category there was 10 items, of which 2 received a “Yes” answer, 5 items received a “Sometimes” answer, and the remaining 3 items received a “No” answer. The overall percentage was 0%. This organization has a system in place, but the working environment is very competitive hence it is important for the management to stop being unethical.
Environmental management
Out of the 8 items under this category, 4 got a “Yes” answer, 3 got a “Sometimes” answer, and 1 got a “No” answer. The total percentage therefore is 90%. Citibank activities did not affect the environment directly. However, this organization does not provide the necessary resources that help in environment management hence it needs to help other organizations that participate in environmental management.
Community outreach
There was a total of 8 items where 4 received a “Yes” answer, 3 received a “Sometimes” answer, and the remaining 1 item received a “No” answer. Therefore, the overall percentage is 90%. This organization gives money to the community, but they also lobby hence there is a need for them not to expect back when they give out this money.
Organizational assessment
Out of the 7 items, 1 received a “Yes” answer, 4 items received a “Sometimes” answer, and the remaining 2 items received a “No” answer. Thus, the total percentage for this category is 50%. The organization reacts to the ethical issues. Conversely, it is not pro-active with these issues hence it should stop engaging in unethical behaviors.
The overall “Yes” answers were 28 meaning that the organization is pretty good, but it can be a lot healthier.
Suggestions for addressing the ethical concerns and issues identified.
In real sense, ethical audit determines both external and internal consistency of an organization’s value base. It is important to test out the findings with the stakeholders groups so as to ensure that value base is one, which all the stakeholders accept and share. Results actually provide imperative management information and should be used to report an organization’s ethical and social performance. There are various reasons for examining an organization’s ethics state. These include risk management, stakeholder obligation, external societal pressures, and most important, identifying a yardstick for future improvements.
There are a number of ethical concerns and issues that came up during Citibank ethics audit. For that reason, the management of this multinational organization needs to address them to ensure that it conforms to the business ethics. Although this organization is pretty good in terms of business ethics, it can actually be healthier in managing business ethics meaning that there is a need for further improvement. When hiring their employees, there is a need for this organization to hire ethical job candidates. Thus, the human resource department should always conduct reference checks with the former employers and supervisors of their potential workers. The management should ask job finalists to orally respond to the potential ethical dilemmas on regular basis. Moreover, drug, alcohol, and polygraph tests should be conducted frequently
In terms of codes of ethics and conduct, the managers should vocally support the organizations codes of conduct and ethics. This will be crucial in upholding these codes of conducts and ethics since by these managers doing so, their juniors will follow them. They should in addition devise ways of training their employees to implement the organization’s codes of conduct and ethics. Finally, there is a need for all the employees in this organization to participate in yearly ethics code survey. The management thus must be active in encouraging all the employees the importance of participating in this survey.
In terms of ethical decision making, ethics should always be an important consideration in the organization. In addition, the management needs to train all the employees on how to use ethical decision making framework. This will be fundamental in helping them derive moral answers when ethical issues are going to arise. The organization also needs to create an enabling environment where all employees will feel comfortable to engage each other in ethics discussion when issues arise. For that reason, the organization management needs to improve the overall ethical decision making throughout the organization.
Ethical training is the other area where the ethical concerns and issues need to be addressed thoroughly. Ethics training must be put in place where all the employees will be have an equal chance of being trained. Ethics workshops in the organization must be facilitated by individual who the organization trusts. Moreover, all employees must be encouraged to share the real feelings that they have during these workshops as this will make them recognize competitive advantages of always being ethical and how this impacts the performance in the organization.
On employee diversity category, a trained person like a diversity officer should be accountable for the diversity issues so at to further improve this important area in every organization. Managers should always support the organization’s diversity initiatives. In addition, the cafeteria style benefit plans and flexible work schedules need to be improved to cater for the needs of the organization’s diversity workforce. Last but not least, the management must ensure that the organization’s performance appraisal, downsizing criteria, and promotion are not discriminatory as at times they discriminate against the diverse employee groups.
In terms of ethics reporting systems, there is a need for a trained individual like an ombudsman or an Ethics and Compliance Officer to be accountable for managing Citibank’s ethics program. On top of this, those employees who intentionally submit false accusation should be disciplined regularly. If this is going to be done, Citibank’s ethics reporting system will improve.
The other crucial ethics system category where ethical concerns and issues need to be addressed is in the ethical leadership, work goals, and performance appraisals. Managers should always take actions that are appropriate after the organization’s employees share the ethical concerns they have. In addition, the organization’s work goals should continuously be measurable, specific, challenging, and attainable. The performance appraisals in the organization should always be used to measure the ethical attitudes and behaviors. The management should constantly warn and discipline those employees who engage in the unethical behaviors. In addition, the management needs to use the 360- degree performance evaluations so as to obtain an employee’s holistic perspective. If the management is going to put this into consideration there will be an improvement in this area.
In terms of empowering ethical employees, the managers need to continuously request the employee input on the decisions, which directly impact their work life and also their work. These managers also need to continually raise the work expectations for the fence sitters. The organization’s go getters should be provided with leadership opportunities and autonomy. There is a need to regularly train the team members in collective problem-solving techniques and group dynamics. Additionally, appreciative inquiry techniques need to be used always when addressing the organizational issues. Last but not least, the organization should share the profits that employees help to generate so as to empower them ethically.
In terms of environmental management, all the managers should consider the impacts of the organizational operations on natural environment. This means that risk assessment must be always be practiced. An expert should also be accountable in this area. At all times, a green team that is cross-functional should address the environmental issues and generally the organization needs to operate in a green building permanently.
The other fundamental ethics system category is the community outreach. The organization should at every time donate services or products to the community organizations. Moreover, it should use the community service on regular basis. This is crucial as the employees will have an opportunity to develop leadership, management, and team building skills. The organization should also provide job opportunities to non-traditional employees. The organization needs to develop permanent strategic partnerships with the community organizations.
In terms of the organizational assessment, the organization should systematically inspect its ethical performance on a yearly basis. Citibank should also benchmark itself to the best ethical practices in the industry. It should also collect the information about its ethical performance from all the stakeholders. The unethical behaviors should also be tracked to their cause. Finally, when unethical behaviors occur, corrective actions should always be taken.
