Question

If you were selected to become the Ethics Officer in a new organization, describe how you would develop an effective ethics program. While doing this, keep an industry or business you are familiar with in mind and select the biggest obstacle to your program. Discuss how this obstacle might vary between industries.

Answer 1

Developing ethics program has many challenges as the officer needs to consider the employees and their cultures and ethics which might vary from person to person. The officer needs to create a common ethical code for the company where every employee must follow it while at work . While developing this program the officer needs to be very careful not to create any negative effect on any group of employees and hurt their culture and ethics. We need to consider our industry and the type of work we do and define how far we need to stretch regarding ethics . Some industries might be operating in local mode while some in international mode. The biggest barrier would be the diverse cultures that wouldbe present in our company and the way they react to the ethical structure . In global environment this problem would be much more . We need to consider the local culture before designing the ethical program and must ensure we design them in a general scenario without any biased nature. This varies from industry to industry . Some industries might need to more involved ethically while some need not be ethically concerned and we as ethics officer need to know the ethical considerations and requirements of our industry .