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BBA 1st Year Business Ethics Relationship Between Ethics & Corporate Excellence Short Question Answer

Q.19. Write a short note on “Code of ethics and workplace policies”.

Ans. A corporate code of ethics is a document that spells out a general standard of ethical behaviour by which employees are expected to abide. Such codes are important because they help companies avoid allegations and occurrences of abuse, misuse and misappropriation of company’s resources and clients’ and shareholders’ trust. To ensure maximum effectiveness, a company needs workplace policies that support the code of ethics.

Purpose of Code of Ethics : A code of ethics tells employees, customers and members of the public at large that a business is dedicated to integrity, transparency and accountability. It makes its expectations clear to everyone who has dealings with that company. A code of ethics can address a wide variety of topics, including sexual harassment, discrimination of people belonging to protected classes, money management and communication with customers.

Why a Code is Not Enough: A code of ethics is a good start, but it’s not enough. Often, codes of ethics leave a lot up to personal judgment, which can be full of the flaws. The result is unethical behaviour on the part of employees. Thus, workplace policies need to be in place that mirror and support the code of ethics, spelling out how employees should act given specific situations so that they are always behaving ethically. If a code of ethics represents a company’s intentions, then workforce policies are the method for carrying out those intentions.
Where Policies Come in: Policies that have the effect of eliciting the behaviour you want from employees will ensure that there are no violations to the code of ethics. Such policies should permeate all aspects of a company’s operations, from performance evaluation forms to actual job descriptions. For instance, assigning competing roles to a single job title could result in conflicts of interest and ethical breaches. Consider a human resource manager who is both responsible for investigating personnel complaints and making termination decisions. The HR manager might be put in the compromising role of having to fire an employee who has previously made a complaint. The question might then arise as to whether the HR manager terminated the worker because he deserved termination or because he lodged a complaint that required investigation.

Putting Code and Policies to Work: Formal and informal training to ensure current and new employees understand the company’s code of ethics and related policies is a must. This training should not be a one-time occurrence, but rather an ongoing process, to ensure that the idea of acting ethically, and the know-how to do so, is always fresh in people’s minds. Also, it’s a good idea to designate someone within your company that the employees can turn to if they have an ethical dilemma with which a policy cannot help them. Because managers can commit ethical breaches as easily as other workers, such training should be delivered by trained human resource employees.

Q.20. How do you implement Total Quality Management (TQM)?

Ans. Implementing Total Quality Management : Total Quality Management (TQM) is a philosophy in which the core focus is on meeting.the customers’ needs and ensuring their complete satisfaction. Quality at all levels of the organisation and reduction of waste are the key components. Implementing Total Quality Management must start at the top. Upper level executives must not only embrace the concept of TQM, but must also be actively involved in promoting the customers’ needs first.

(1) Assess the overall health of the company as it currently operates. If conditions such as lack of management skills and poor employee morale currently exist, you must first address those problems for a better chance of success in implementing TQM.

(2) Study the history of the company in relation to change. If the company has a good track record of responding favourably to changes in the marketplace and making necessary modifications to business practices along the way, it is probably a good organisation implement TQM.

(3) Introduce the concept of TQM to the senior level executives. Implementing TQM can’t be delegated, it must be driven by senior management in order to succeed.

(4) Enlist the services of TQM consultants. They can help you to audit the company in its current state, suggest areas of improvement and provide training to key employees who can then pass along that knowledge and skill to other employees.

(5) Empower the employees to identify needed changes, with the knowledge that the management value their ideas. Systems of reward for measurable improvement should be considered. Employees at all levels of the organisation must feel that what they do contribute to the customer’s satisfaction.

(6) Realize that implementing TQM is a long process and doesn’t happen overnight. But with managemeDt commitment, Consistent training of employees and an eye on the ultimate goal of retaining satisfied customers, TQM can be achieved.

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