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Here is a link to the published journal and article

Performance Improvement Intervention: Ethics Management Program
Nikki Strawn
Strawn, N. (2017). Aligning Strategic Goals for More Space. Journal of Training, Design, and Technology, 1(1), 49-54.

Abstract
With the increase of social media, global connectivity and media coverage of corporate scandals, ethics management has become crucial in shaping and organization’s values, maintaining an organization’s public image and securing profit & productivity. An ethics management program is a performance improvement intervention that conveys corporate values, uses codes and policies to guide decisions and behaviors, implements extensive ethics training and evaluating to ultimately provide guidance in not only in ethical dilemmas but in everyday business decisions. This paper explores ethics management as a performance improvement intervention, gives examples of how the intervention has been used to resolve performance problems, identifies the benefits and challenges of ethics management and offers tools and strategies required to successfully implement an ethics management program. The significant and positive impacts that an effective ethics management program has on employees, organizations and society as whole places ethics management programs as an imperative performance improvement intervention for any human performance practitioner when seeking to implement organizational changes. 
Performance Improvement Intervention: Ethics Management Program 
An ethics management program plays an important role in shaping an organization's values, culture and vision and ultimately improving an organization's overall performance. An ethics management program is a performance improvement intervention that conveys corporate values, uses codes & policies to guide decisions and behaviors, implements extensive training and evaluating to ultimately provide guidance in not only ethical dilemmas but in everyday business decisions.

There are five tools that are important to establishing an effective ethics management program. They are codes of ethics, codes of conduct, policies and procedures, real to life ethical dilemmas and training. Code of ethics is a document that provides a guide of ethical principles to help professionals conduct business honestly and with integrity. They outline the mission and values of the organization, identify how professionals are supposed to approach problems and establish the organization’s core values and standards. (McNamara, n.d.) The code of ethics serves as the constitution of the organization and govern decision making. “The code serves as the organization’s conscience, should be integral to the organization’s communications strategy, and serves as an annual assessment tool for continuous improvement.” (Collins, 2012) 

Code of conduct is a document that outlines specific behaviors that are required or prohibited, identify social norms of the workplace and outlines rules and responsibilities. Codes of conduct are comparable to the by-laws of the organization and govern action. Policies and procedures are also vital for an organizations ethics management program. Organizations manage values and ethics through the use of policies and procedures.  McNamara (n.d.) writes, “For example, we're most familiar with the value of social responsibility. To produce behavior aligned with this value, organizations often institute policies such as recycling waste, donating to local charities, or paying employees to participate in community events.”

Using real to life ethical dilemmas is another vital tool to an ethics management program. Oftentimes ethics management programs make the mistake of presenting ethical decisions as more simple and concrete “right” choices than what real ethical dilemmas truly pose.  In the Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers, the author states “Perhaps too often, business ethics is portrayed as a matter of resolving conflicts in which one option appears to be the clear choice. Case studies are often presented in which an employee is faced with whether or not to lie, steal, cheat, abuse another, break terms of a contract, etc. However, ethical dilemmas faced by managers are often more real-to-life and highly complex with no clear guidelines, whether in law or often in religion.” (McNamara, n.d.) Using real to life ethical dilemmas in an ethics management program is key to developing an awareness of the complexities of ethical dilemmas and growing one’s own ethical intuition and moral compass. If organizations are not challenged with nor practice resolving real and complex ethical dilemmas together, they will not be prepared in the face of a true ethically turbulent time.

Ethics training is the means of informing employees about what the ethics program is, how it works and their roles in it. The purpose of ethics training is "to enable employees to identify and deal with ethical problems developing their moral intuitions, which are implicit in everyday choices and actions" (Sacconi, de Colle & Baldin, 2002, p. 13). Ethics training and compliance programs include but are not limited to the following topics:
·        Upholding an organization's code of ethics,
·        Identifying standards of acceptable behavior on the job,
·        Maintaining integrity in supplier relationships
·        Maintaining privacy and data protection,
·        Recognizing and preventing money laundering
·        Regulating international trade control and financial transactions
·        Addressing improper payments and gifts
·        Complying with laws and regulations
·        How and when to report concerns regarding unethical conduct
·        Specific ethics-related resources and reporting methods
·        Addressing conflicts of interest

In ethics training, employees not only learn about the ethics and values that guide the organization but they also learn the methods and tools used to ensure ethical standards are met. For example, employees will learn to use an ethics checklist, a ten step method decision making tool or the twelve questions approach tool.

Ethics management is classified as an organizational design and development intervention. Organizational design and development is a process that examines the operation and management of an organization and facilitates needed changes in an effort to improve efficiency and competitiveness. (Van, Moseley, & Dessinger, 2012) Within organizational design and development interventions, ethics management is categorized under organizational values. “Organizational values are the “stuff we all live by,” our organizational energy, the reason for the organization to exist. They create the organization’s vision of the world— how people are treated, how employees act, how they function as teams and make decisions, how people respond to mistakes and failure, how they take risks, learn, and grow, and how information is communicated and shared.” (Van, Moseley, & Dessinger, 2012)
A lack of ethics leads to a substantial amount of performance problems for organizations including legal issues, negative employee performance, poor employee relations, and lack of company credibility.  Legal issues could include facing large fines, fighting costly court battles and even facing criminal charges. Workplaces that lack a strong ethics culture may find employees ignore procedure and protocols resulting in careless, costly and sometimes deadly errors. Employees are more likely to lie about time spent on the job and duties performed and take advantage of employer resources.  “A lack of ethical behavior can also cause tension among employees, with some employees resenting those who do not play by the rules and still manage to get ahead. Unethical behavior in the workplace also has the potential to lead to a lack of trust among employees, which is detrimental to a business that relies on collaboration and a sense of community.” (Zeiger, 2011)  An organization's image is highly scrutinized by the public when organizations face ethical violations. Recovering from ethical negligence is costly and time consuming and often results in a loss of a key customer base and consumer confidence for a period of time. Table 1 identifies other performance problems where ethics management strategies may be a possible intervention selection.

Table 1:  Examples of Performance Problems and Ethics Management Interventions
Current state
Intervention
Improved performance
Significant customer complaints on false advertising of services or products

Marketing Ethics Training
Honest sales staff, increased sales, increased consumer faith
Tension and arguments amongst supervisors and co-workers
Workplace Ethics and Behavior Training, Include workplace ethics in job performance evaluations

Increased teamwork and collaboration
Poor community image
Implement Corporate Social Responsibility  Program
Improved community image
Misuse of company technology

Acceptable use policy training & post AUP near equipment
Efficient use of company resources

Many companies and organizations have faced performance problems that can be traced back to ethics.  Stephen J. Gill, Ph.D., an independent consultant with over 25 years’ experience in employee training, performance improvement, and organization development writes:
BP’s oil spill. GM’s faulty ignition switches. Takata’s airbag ruptures. Volkswagen’s emissions fraud. Simplicity’s crib deaths. Samsung’s phone fires. Wells Fargo’s customer deception. In each of these cases, somebody knew about the ethical violations long before lives were affected significantly, but company culture at the time either discouraged those individuals from speaking up or motivated leaders to sell products even with the knowledge that the risk of failure and criminal negligence was high. They chose sales and profit over doing the right thing. I’m sure all of those companies include ethics in their employee training programs and list ethical behavior among the values in their employee handbooks. The problem is not with training compliance; it’s with the way people learn about ethical behavior and the way that behavior is supported by the culture of their companies.” (Gill, 2017)
A comprehensive and interactive ethics management program that incorporates more than just outlining the concepts of “doing the right thing” could help eliminate many of these corporate ethical problems that society faces today. An ongoing ethics management program that communicates expectations and requirements, has buy-in and modeling from all levels of business, and develops measurements to determine if ethics are being maintained can yield desired results. Such programs can prevent ethical dilemmas from tarnishing a business image, destroying a product's reputation, losing a key customer base or ruining consumers' lives.  Over a decade ago, Krouse and Giacalone (1997) outlined what was needed for an effective ethics training program. To achieve ethics training success, they suggested that the
program must:
             • help people understand ethical judgment philosophies and decision-making heuristics;
             • address areas of ethical concern within their industry/profession;
             • teach the organization’s ethical expectations and rules;
             • help people to understand their own ethical tendencies;
             • take a realistic view, while also elaborating on difficulties in ethical decision-making;
             • have people use the material in the workplace, then return to training to analyze use
Bellsouth was one of three corporations that were recognized as leadership examples in ethics management by the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in 2001. BSR helps companies achieve commercial success in ways that respect ethical values, people, communities and the environment. According to the BSR ethics training report these organizations were chosen because they “represent innovation, higher than average commitment, unusual industry practice or a comprehensive approach to ethics training."(BSR Staff, 2001)  The report states:
"BellSouth integrated its ethics and compliance training materials into multiple delivery sources to demonstrate to employees that ethics is integral to every part of the business and to leverage existing infrastructure. Using media such as CD-ROMS, videos, and the company's Intranet, BellSouth blended its ethics and compliance training into new employee orientations, general management courses, sales training, and other learning modules. The ethics and compliance team saw Human Resources as a key partner in its work, and continually looked at ways to include ethics and compliance topics in other employee training programs. In addition, each operations unit had a compliance executive and a coordinator responsible for ethics and compliance oversight in that operating division. These managers drew information from "the bottom up," conducted risk assessments, and reported back to the compliance office when gaps in training or communication were discovered. If the subject could best be handled on a small scale, the compliance coordinator would take care of it. However, if the corporate compliance office saw that many areas were addressing similar issues, time and money would be saved by creating cross departmental programs. Examples of this included antitrust and environment training. While the company used technology to deliver the message, it viewed that the most productive work came from face to face meetings, where employees were giving the time to sit and discuss the nuances of various ethical dilemmas." (BSR Staff, 2001)
Effective ethics management implementation strategies include recognizing that managing ethics is a process, implementing formal ethics management program, establishing an ethics committee, having chief executives that fully support the program, integrating ethics management with other management practices, using ethics as a regular organizational assessment tool and using cross-functional teams when developing and implementing the ethics management program. (McNamara, n.d.)
Helping employees comply with organization standards set by laws, policies and codes of conducts is an obvious benefit of an ethics management program. Furthermore, formal ethics management programs enhance an organization's workplace culture, public image and ultimately their profit. An ethics management program is good for business, ensures the best use of company resources and maintains quality and productivity. A strong ethics management program ensures good and proper relationships with employees, customers and vendors, boosts morale and promotes teamwork. (Hunt, 2012)  The benefits of establishing an effective ethics management program in an organization is not only vital to the organization's prosperity but also to the prosperity of society. Organizations that practice ethical behaviors impact the safety and well-being of its employees, consumers and environment as a whole.
Implementing a quality ethics management program does not come without its challenges. Ethics is a behavior that is difficult to enforce and assess. Miranda Morley (2011) notes that such ethics compliance “can be cumbersome, contradictory and ultimately ineffective when people, including supervisors who cannot enforce the codes and still have a productive workplace, abandon them in favor of ‘common sense’.” Like most interventions, implementing and maintaining an ethics management program within your organization can be expensive and time-consuming.  Ethics management programs must be continually updated to comply with laws and changes in the organization. Proper management of ethics requires commitment of company financial and personnel resource to contribute to hiring of ethics management. (Root, n.d.) Another disadvantage is that ethical businesses may not have access to as many strategies as unethical businesses. “In a period of economic crisis they cannot adopt unethical practices without damaging their reputation, and it can be harder for them to intentionally change their image when the market demands such an action. They are overall more stagnant entities which become bound to single viewpoints, products and platforms for better or for worse.” (IAC Publishing, n.d.)  Unethical organization prioritizes short-term thinking and quick profit where ethical organizations prioritize durability over time, strong relationships with their target markets and reputable reputations. If not managed properly, establishing codes of ethics may actually lead to unethical corporate behavior and unequal application of the code of ethics amongst employees. Upper-level management may be allowed certain behaviors that are restricted for other employees or some workers’ rights may be infringed upon by the organizations’ ethics code. (Morely, 2011)
With the increase of social media influence, global connectivity and media coverage of corporate scandals, ethics has become a critical issue to organizations worldwide. Human performance practitioners must always consider how the culture and values of an organization has the ability to influence and impact society when suggesting organizational changes.  The significant and positive changes that an effective ethics management program has on employees, organizations and society as a whole should not be underestimated nor overlooked when applying performance improvement interventions.
References
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