Question 1: Think about the impact of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. Would organizations have tried to drive ethical behavior among employees without government encouragement?
At first glance, it is as if the entire U.S. economy, together with all the businesses and enterprises that serve as its foundation, is too big to regulate. At some point that is true. This is because no matter what type of regulation or act the government department responsible for regulating trade and commerce passed, many fraudulent and unethical business acts still continue to exist and operate. With regards to the impact of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, I firmly believe that such guidelines will never be enough. There are a lot of larger enterprises which do not mind whether they will be fined because of their illegal operations or not perhaps because some of them are confident they can pay for even a record $875 million fine. A more effective step would be to establish guidelines, impose sanctions for those who will not abide by such guidelines, and give incentives and exclusive privileges to those who will accurately and faithfully follow the standard guidelines, all at the same time. Therefore, government encouragement is really an essential entity for organizations to impose only ethical trade and commerce behaviors among their employees.
Question 2: After reading about how a number of companies try to encourage ethical behavior, what stands out? What approach is most unique? Which one do you think is most effective? Which one would make the biggest impression if you were an employee?
After knowing that there are indeed organizations who do not practice culturally competent and ethical trade and business practices, I think what stands out here is the encouragement and emphasis of the government and the effort of the companies to impose strict protocols and guidelines regarding business laws and ethics. I totally agree to the fact that Mr. Durand’s approach can be a totally effective one. However, the government can always do something to prevent fraudulent entities to exist and fraudulent activities to occur. They could, for example, formulate an incentive program wherein organizations which can prove they have clean, accurate, and U.S. guidelines-adhering records will be rewarded with incentives and privileges. Variations of this scheme can also be made. For example, the longer an organization’s commitment to the guideline is the more incentives and privileges from the government it can receive, etc. If I were an employee, I would always think that the government and each individual organization’s management can always do something to minimize the occurrences of fraudulent and unethical activities. The more these two entities work together, the greater the outcome would most likely be.
Question 3: Think about all the Communication Opportunities provided by Social Media. How could an organization use social media like Facebook, Twitter, and the like to promote ethical behavior and communicate the organization’s values? What are the advantages and dangers of those media?
There are a lot of ways how an organization could take advantage of all the available social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and the like. One of the most simple but effective strategies they could apply to promote the ethical behavior and communicate the organization’s values is to create a social media fan page. The fan page should explain the history and roots of the organization, a simple explanation about how they make profits, how they handle their clients or make sales, how they take care of their customers and employees, and all other things that they think could uplift the organization’s reputation as a transparent and as one that prioritizes ethical behaviors towards its customers and employees. The advantage of this is that the public will be able to know more things about the organization without having to come to the business venue. However, one drawback of such strategy is the possible invasion of the organization’s privacy. This is however just a risk factor and it can easily be prevented mitigated as long as proper legal and ethical procedures regarding advertising will be followed.
