'Conducting An Ethics Audit' (75 Points)

A lot of key factors would need to be considered when determining if a company is being ran ethically

An ethical audit is important to establish the company’s current weaknesses and strengths concerning how it conducts itself in an ethical manner. An ethics audit will involve evaluating the company’s standard of ethic, it ethic climate, and how well the company’s employees follow ethical standards. One of the first things to evaluate in an ethics audit is if a company has a written code of ethics and how comprehensive it is. Moreover, the written code of ethics should apply to everyone in the company from the top down with a clear zero tolerance policy in place for ethics violations. Included in a comprehensive ethics code should be a method for

While I totally appreciate the slight negative opinions of others here in my personal opinion it all comes down to the fact that Google is actually a business and so has to make money. I appreciate that some of its dealings are a little 'shady' but show me a Global corporation that doesn’t come across this way in some elements of what it does.  (Think Apple and its over priced media services.)

The Board of Directors would be in charge of the Code of Ethics for our company and subject to its rules and regulations. We three would be the committee and I am the Ethics manager and officer. Any and all concerns should be turned in via the online program for anonymous purposes and be directly handled by our committee. The employee and all personnel for our company may still contact the Ethics Officer personally if that is the more comfortable way to deliver the ethics concerns and perceived violations. The Ethics committee would be responsible for developing and interpreting policies and

The research was conducted on over 700,000 Facebook users, which is a good sample size. However, the sample does not state how the users were chosen. Were the users from around the world or concentrated in a specific location? In addition, the manner in which the research was conducted can be said to be unethical. Chapter two of You May Ask Yourself states the three ethical rules when conducting social research: (1) do no harm, (2) informed consent, and (3) voluntary participation. The research conducted on the Facebook users did not follow any of these ethical rules. As stated in the article, Facebook did not get actual consent from the users to interfere with their news feeds. None of the users knew they were part of the research, therefore, it was not voluntary. Facebook claims that while signing up for a Facebook account users agree to a section that states Facebook can use the information they receive about you for internal operations, including

An initial new hire and employee ethics training has to be develop and administered. Also on-going ethics refresher training for use throughout the employees career with Company Q will need to be incorporated in the program. Systems will be developed and put in place to monitor, audit, and report ethics violations. A time-line to re-evaluate these programs and their effectiveness towards meeting the companies social responsibility goals will be established. Based on the evaluation a revision or revamp of the program if necessary will be initiated. The ethics program needs to be reviewed and understood by all employees and expectation for compliance very clear. This can be accomplish by tying compliance in some form to employees and leadership individual performance goals. Shareholders all the way down to entry-level employees will benefit from the ethics program which will also put the company on track to being more socially responsible. Once a code of ethics is in place and training has been given, then Company Q can begin developing trust within the company and employees as well as the community. Continued education and training will enable the company to become more socially responsible.

There should be training on ethical behavior for all everyone in the organization, including executives, managers, and employees. The ethics program is essentially of no use unless all staff members are trained about what it is, how it works and their roles in it. All staff must be aware of and act in full accordance with policies and procedures, so it is imperative to make ethical training mandatory for all employees from the top down in order to set a good example that specifies no employee is above the law. Training should permit all employees to become familiar with the company's code of ethics, and also include topics such as responsibility, respect, impartiality, trustworthiness and empathy. The ethics program is essentially useless unless all staff members are trained about what it is, how it works and their roles in it (Complete Guide to Ethics Management: An Ethics Toolkit for Managers, n.d.).

There are several steps corporate and governmental leaders can take to promote ethical behavior to include developing a code of ethics and implementing ethical policies. Maintaining and supporting open communication with stakeholders and employees builds trust so that concerns are brought forward without fear of retaliation. Establishing systems and processes that support and do not sabotage ethical practices is significant to safeguarding against fraudulent and unethical behavior. However, even with the proper policies and reporting mechanisms, companies are not guaranteed that unethical behavior will not occur. With systems in place, a company is able to address issues and take action to discontinue the behavior. The most effective way to promote ethical behavior is through leadership commitment, training and demonstrating appropriate behavior. (Center for Ethical Business Cultures, 2008)

Google is one of the most popular, and most used web search engines in the world. Google also has many services that helps you send mail, generate website pages, and create blogs. With all of these great tools come many great, user-friendly features specifically tied to Google. Google has vastly become one of the best search engines in the world, if not the best. Google averages about 12 billion searches per month, which is the most by any search engine in the world. Users can also search for photos, newsletters, and even geographic locations. The best part is, that all of these services are basically free. Google has also set to build more then just a search engine. Google is working on Google glass, self-driving cars, and even have a cell phone called the Android. Google also owns the rights to YouTube, where many users go to upload and watch countless videos. Another great thing the company is doing is spending money on alternative energy sources; last year Google spent 1 billion dollars trying to increase the use of wind and solar energy. Google is also fighting in D.C. to keep the Internet free for Americans. Lastly, Google has one of the best working environments in the world. Google has been the number 1 best company to work for 5 times in a row, including this year. They have been reported to the best human resources department in the world, taking their employee’s happiness over profit. There is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Google is not the best company to work

Many fortune 500 companies have implemented a ethics program (Ruddell, 2015). This paper will examine the goals associated with establishing a ethics program, some action items, and considerations of the essential elements associated with ethic programs.

Business ethics is a major component of organizational success. Companies must strive to act in an ethical way, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is required of them by their stakeholders. Stakeholders have a vested interest in the performance of the organization (Jones, 2012, p. 28), above and beyond the organization’s financial performance. While shareholders expect to receive returns for their financial backing (p. 29) and expect an organization to behave in a way that ensures those returns, other stakeholder such as consumers (p. 30), the government (p. 32) and special interest groups (Weiss, 2014, p. 13), may be more concerned with how an organization operates and whether they follow legislated and/or accepted norms of ethical behavior (p. 50). Should an organization and its leadership cultivate a culture/structure in which unethical behavior flourishes, especially in this age of heavy government oversight, that organization will not last long. This paper sets out to

(Panza & Potthast, n.d.) Ethics is very important to a company’s success. Ethical behavior can bring benefits to a business. They can attract customers, which can lead to a boost in sales and profits. It can attract the right employees and increase productivity. It can also attract investors and keep the company’s share price high. Unethical behavior on the other hand can damage a company’s reputation and make it less appealing to stakeholders. It could also result in lower profits.

In the first section, this report outlines several ethical difficulties that occurred. Subsequently, some of Gap Inc.’s solutions for a better ethical policy are described. To conclude, some recommendations are made, but those are limited because of the quick and good solutions Gap came up with in response to its problems.

Facebook is involved in a serious controversy in the United States. And last but not least they are being accused of nothing less than ideologically manipulate the news that serves its users , all this is happening on the campaign trail, so the whole thing takes on an even greater dimension that already itself has.

Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the