Question

What are some of the steps required to conduct an ethics audit

Answer 1

Ethics audit is an organizational process to check the extent of formal ethical practices within an organization. The major component of ethics audit includes the following.

• Compliance to established ethical policies
• Compliance to general work culture of the organization
• Progress of Ethics training
• Procedures followed by ethics enforcement sections

The collection of information about the processes mentioned above requires trained and qualified professionals in ethics, appropriate data collection and assessment tools, availability of standards and bench marks and cooperation from the organization.

Every ethical audit must have a goal, purpose or objective against which the audit will be implemented.

• Before conducting an ethics audit, the professional must establish a detailed foundation based on the policies set by the organization.
• Second step is to develop appropriate metrics to compare the ethics practice in the organization
• Third step is to develop a cross functional team to improve the transparency and effectiveness of the audit
• Fourth step is to conduct the audit within given time
• Fifth is to identify the ethical anomalies in the system
• The final step is to report the findings to the relevant stakeholders of the organization