how to implement good business ethics
fostering an environment of ethical behavior and decision making takes time and effort and starts at the top most companies need to create a code of conduct ethics guiding principles reporting procedures and training programs to enforce and encourage ethical behavior once conduct is defined and programs are implemented continuous communication with employees becomes vital leaders should constantly encourage employees to report concerning behavior additionally there should be assurances that whistle blowers will not face adversarial actions a pipeline for anonymous reporting can help businesses identify questionable practices and reassure employees that they will not face any consequences for reporting an issue monitoring and reporting unethical behaviorto prevent unethical behavior and repair its adverse side effects companies often look to managers and employees to report any unethical acts they observe or experience however barriers within the company culture such as fear of retaliation for reporting misconduct can prevent this from happening published by the ethics compliance initiative eci the annual global business ethics survey reaches out to thousands of employees in 42 countries about various ethics related topics including the strength of the ethics culture in their workplace whether they have witnessed any misconduct where they work and if their employer is making efforts to promote integrity in the 2023 survey published in may 2024 65 of the employees surveyed said they had observed at least one act deemed to be a violation of their organization s standards or the law in the past 12 months and 72 of them said they had reported it worryingly 46 of these employees then went on to admit that they had been retaliated against for raising concerns 4indeed fear of retaliation is one of the primary reasons employees cite for not reporting unethical behavior in the workplace eci says companies should work toward improving their corporate culture by reinforcing the idea that reporting suspected misconduct is beneficial to the company additionally they should acknowledge and reward the employee s courage in making the report 