Ethics Development 201: Mastering Ethical Applications in your Business

(four hours of hands-on instruction)

 

Objectives:

 With the intent to improve ethical management for self and others, 

  1. Share and discuss attendees’ corporate vision, mission and values. (from 101 course)
  2. Share and discuss attendees’ techniques and timelines for revising corporate vision, mission and values. (from 101 course)
  3. Share and discuss ways to evaluate employees’ upholding of corporate ethics (from 101 course)
  4. Share and discuss procedures for employees to bring ethical issues or questions to management’s attention (from 101 course)
  5. Share and discuss the policies and enforcement of attendees’ corporate procedures to ensure a safe and harassment-free work environment. (from 101 course)
  1. Identify 2-5 situations in which your ethical values have been challenged in the past.  Describe in detail at least one scenario, including why it was an ethical challenge, how it was handled, and what, if anything, you would do differently in the future.  (If your business has not yet faced any ethical challenges, identify 2-5 potential scenarios, expanding upon at least one to describe how you intend to address it.)
  1. Design, and- if time- write a communication piece from the CEO to employees regarding ethical policies and implementation in your business
  2. Design, and- if time- write a marketing piece from the CEO to clients regarding ethical policies and implementation in your business
  3. Design, and- if time- write a marketing piece from the CEO to the public regarding ethical policies and implementation in your business
  1. Articulate a policy for addressing grievances in a fair and consistent manner.
  1. Create an outline and a plan for implementation (location, date, time needed) for a company-wide employee handbook, training manual or training course which formally addresses your commitment to ethical business practices.
  1. Determine and design an employee survey, internal audit, or other procedure for evaluating employee attitude, acceptance and modeling of stated corporate ethics procedures.


OPTIONAL ACTIVITIES for further ethical applications:

A.    Design and implement a formal corporate philanthropy program.  Options include an employee volunteering program, providing internships, donating time or resources to the community, etc.

B.     Determine and implement a method to tie ethical behaviors to corporate compensation, either through observations, self-evaluations, independent evaluations, customer surveys, staff nominations, or other means.

 

SAMPLE COURSE STRUCTURE
 

8:00-8:50              Share, revise, and update foundational ethics policies and procedures

8:50-9:00              Break

9:00-9:45              Create narrative of ethical challenge(s)

9:45-10:30            Design three pieces which communicate your commitment to ethics

10:30-10:40          Break

10:40-11:20          Articulate a fair and consistent grievance policy

11:20-11:40          Design and schedule formal employee training

11:40-12:00          Create a measurement tool for employee buy-in