Summary

Today's business environment requires that organisations act in an ethical manner in all their interactions with their stakeholders. Whether a more comprehensive Compliance Programme is introduced, a decision-making model, a Code of Ethics or a Code of Conduct, some fundamental aspects must be planned and incorporated. These include:

• A senior manager must be assigned overall responsibility and accountability for development, implementation, and evaluation of a company's ethical practices;

• Staff managing ethics should have advanced training in ethics;

• Senior managers and the Board are responsible for modelling high ethical standards and for fully supporting the company's ethical initiatives;

• Employee representatives should be involved in the development of ethical initiatives;

• Documentation should support the company's stance on ethics, be readily available to all stakeholders and apply to not only challenging ethical decisions, but day-to-day practices;

• Ethics initiatives need to be reviewed regularly to ensure they meet the ongoing business needs of the organisation and are performing to expectations and plans;

• Training must be provided at all levels of the organisation and include the opportunity to discuss and work through scenarios that are real to the organisation.

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