Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics, asked at a recent meeting of the Business and Organizational Ethics Partnership: “What are the signs that a company is getting it right and addressing the most important dimensions of managing ethics in an organization?”
Anne Federwisch put together a summary of the presentation, Toward an Ethical Culture: Characteristics of an Ethical Organization, and a copy of the powerpoint slides.
His best practice elements:
- Statement of values
- Code of conduct
- Example of senior executives
- Training and repeated communication of values and standards
- Systems which embody the values
- Continuous evaluation of behaviors
- Effective hotline system
- Mechanism for resolving toughest cases
- Compliance enforcement system
- Periodic renewal process for values and standards
- Governance system for ethics and values
