How organizational policies and procedures can impact ethics.
Organizational policies and procedures are very important for every company. They communicate to all members of an organization what is considered right and wrong, creating order and harmony among the workplace. These rules guide an organization. Most companies, especially the large ones, have a formal, systematic policy to promote ethical behavior. These efforts, called corporate ethics programs, are designed to make employees aware what is ethical and unethical and also to encourage them to follow the moral practices. Typically, ethical policies and procedures involve components like a code of ethics, ethics training, ethics audits, and ethics committees. (Greenberg, 2011, pp. 56-57) The integrated ethical policies and procedures can be effective; however, it is not easy. High ethical standards require both, businesses and individuals, to conform to some moral principles which often involves compromises or trade-offs (Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2011, p.7). Nevertheless, it has been found that in companies which have organizational policies and procedures according to ethics the employees are more likely to report the ethical misconduct to the company’s leaders, are considered as more accountable for ethical abuses and face less pressure in finding the middle ground with the standards of business conduct (Greenberg, 2011, p. 58). Likewise, another studies show also that the ethical policies are becoming very common in U.S. organizations. There is a long list of benefits of effective ethical policies and procedures. They are meant to impact the way the employees think and how they address ethical issues that arise on the job. The organization, by providing the workers with ethical standards, training, and resources to get advice, seeks to produce an environment where the employees are not