Submitted by: Submitted by lstanley
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Category: Business and Industry
Date Submitted: 09/02/2013 06:56 PM
LaTresha Stanley
OMM640: Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Code of Ethics
Instructor: Lisa Wallace
February 25, 2013
Introduction
Ethics is defined as the discipline that deals with what is bad or good and with moral obligation and duty. Ethical issues are of a major concern because businesses and organizations can easily become unethical, as an evident in the numerous unethical corporate practices witnessed today. Organization operates in a natural and social environment and every organization has a duty to be responsible to the social environment it operates. Regardless of the pressures and demands, each organization by virtue of its existence is required to be ethical paths (Kinicki and Kreitner 2009).
A code of ethics is a set of principles of conduct within an organization that guide decision making and behavior. The purpose of the code is to provide members and other interested persons with guidelines for making ethical choices in the conduct of their work. Professional integrity is the cornerstone of many employees credibility. Member of an organizations adopt a code of ethics to share a dedication to ethical behavior and adopt this code to declare the organization’s principles and standards of practice. A code of ethics is a formal document rather than merely an environment, an understanding, a consensus, unwritten rule, or just an aspect of corporate culture. It is a t minimum a published document. In many organization employees are also required to sign a statement to the effect that they have read and understood it. Variations on this theme exist. In very large corporations or corporations reacting to recent scandals, sometimes only corporate officers or only financial officers are required to sign. In other cases multiple codes of ethics may exist may exist tailor made to such functions as purchasing, sales, accounting?
Codes of ethics are free-standing expressions of corporate will even when they...