Business Challenges
Business Challenges
- The Code of Conduct is used for ensuring that the assets and resources of the newly merged company are only used for business purposes. The code will also ensure that company assets and resources are not used for personal use by company and business leaders (Gilman, 2005).
- There will be scenarios where the merged company will face conflicting business situations. The Code of Conduct will help the management to ensure they avoid conflicts of interests while pursuing their clients and business partners (Gilman, 2005).
- The merged company will face a challenge in terms of protecting their intellectual rights, copyrights, etc. The Code of Conduct will also help in protecting confidential information of the merged company (Gilman, 2005).
- The newly merged company will also face challenges in terms of protecting employee’s rights. The Code of Conduct will also be helpful in prohibiting and combating discrimination and harassment cases in the company (Gilman, 2005).
- Even with the Code of Conduct, there can be violations in the merged company. The Code of Conduct will also ensure disciplinary action against employees and management when code violations are identified (Gilman, 2005).
Policy for Preventing Situations
The Code of Conduct will be developed in the newly merged company that will ensure that above mentioned problems are avoided or disciplined. The Code of Conduct will help to ensure that management and employees would end up prohibiting and combating discrimination; carrying out disciplinary action against code violations; protecting confidential information; avoiding conflicts of interests; and ensuring the assets and resources are used for business purpose. The Code of Conduct will ensure that any situation that is against the ethics guidelines gets identified and combated. Overall, the policy will work as a framework for making sure unethical business practices are avoided in the newly merged company.
Reporting and Investigative Measures
Establish Protocol
The company needs to establish standard protocol in the code of conduct where employees will be encouraged to report situations where they have noticed unethical business behaviour (Goldfield, 2015).
Empower Employees
Reporting of unethical practices is alone not enough; investigation is also needed to ensure code of conduct is followed in the merged company. Also, empowering employees in HR is needed to ensure they can carry out investigation over the unethical behaviour (Goldfield, 2015)
Review Code Continuously
Employees need to be informed about the new Code of Conduct for the merged company and they need to be encouraged to follow the set guidelines. It is essential that Code of Conduct is reviewed to include measures that identifies and eliminates possible unethical behaviours from employees (Goldfield, 2015)
Reinforce Consequences
The Code of Conduct should create scenarios where ethical behaviours are reinforced and employees are encouraged to report practices against the Code of Conduct (Goldfield, 2015).
Hire For Values
It is important that employees hired support the values mentioned in the Code of Conduct. This means when they notice unethical behaviour in the organization they are bound to report it (Goldfield, 2015)
Show Employees Appreciation
Another measure that can encourage employees to report unethical behaviour is by appreciating employees that show the courage to report (Goldfield, 2015).
Enforcement and Punitive Measures
Certain punitive measures will be included in the Code to Conduct to ensure unethical behaviour in the merged company is prohibited. Employees or management members that are found violating the guidelines of the Code of Conduct will be punished in the form of suspension from employment. It is important that employees that are found supporting discrimination and divulge confidential information to outside organization are fired from the employment and made an example of for other employees. Employees need to be informed and reprimanded for acting in their best interest when there is a clear conflict of interest that can hurt the merged organization. Above all, employees that are found using assets and resources of the merged company for their personal use will end up getting sanctioned and sued.
Governing Structure for Ethics Committee
Traditional Model of governance will be employed by the ethics committee for PALEDIUM and UWEAR. The traditional model will mean the management committee will govern and oversee ethical operations through an ethics committee developed along the functional lines such as sales, human resources, purchasing, finance, etc. The ethics committee takes in complaints from different functional lines and investigates the situations.
But, the ethics committee will only investigate and provide details of the unethical business practices, they will not carry out the punitive measures. The executive directors or the management will take care of determining the punishment and enforcement of the determined punishment. Handing over the punitive powers to the management would help in making sure the decisions are made in the best interests of the merged company. The ethics committee might not be in the best position to understand the intentions of the employee, making it logical to hand over the punitive powers to the management.
References
Gilman., S.C. (2005). ETHICS CODES AND CODES OF CONDUCT AS TOOLS FOR PROMOTING AN ETHICAL AND PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC SERVICE: Comparative Successes and Lessons. Retrieved 23 January 2017 from, https://www.oecd.org/mena/governance/35521418.pdf
Goldfield., B. (2015, 20 January). A Proactive Approach to Addressing Unethical Behavior in the Workplace. Retrieved23 January 2017 from, https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/241924
