These days the business world has gone global, which has strengthened the ethics debate. Making payments in order to get business is ordinary practice in a lot of developing markets in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, and some companies feel indebted to play the game in order to compete and many of these companies have paid the ultimate price (George, 2008).
The only way to build a great global company is with a single global standard of business practice that is dynamically communicated and meticulously enforced. Applying situation ethics in developing countries is the quickest way to destroy a global organization. Operating ethically necessitates much more than a code of conduct. The CEO and top administration must connect with employees around the world to insist on transparency and compliance. Otherwise, they will never know what's going on. The company must have a tight system of monitoring and auditing local marketing practices, in order to make sure that things are done the right way (George, 2008).
General Electric's former general counsel, Ben Heineman, wrote an article in the Havard Business Review about high performance with high honor. He proposed that performance and ethics go hand in hand. Heineman argued convincingly that CEO's can't just distribute their policies and enforce them. Rather, they must get personally involved in making sure ethical behavior is practiced. They must engage employees in dynamic discussions of real-world issues and impart the way that things must be done (George, 2008).
The bottom line is that good ethics equates to good business. There is a direct connection between behaving ethically and creating long-term shareholder...
In addition, high integrity in outside business dealings goes hand in hand with creating greater transparency and increased honesty in internal relationships. This necessitates choosing leaders who are not only ethical themselves but also committed to ensuring their organizations operate ethically at all times (George, 2008).
In GE's case not only do they choose leads who are ethical but they make sure by training them in the way that things should be done and then expect them to disseminate this to those who they lead. If everyone in the company is provided the same message then there shouldn't be any reason that everyone can't abide by the rules and do things the right way. Companies that don't lay their business ethics expectations out there like GE does often find that there are some people who do not know what the rules are. One would think that doing things the right way would be inherent but often people find themselves in situations in which they must make a choice and they really aren't sure which way to go. This is the point it time if the company has provided good ethics training, the employee will know which decision to make according to company policies.
References
George, B. (2008). Ethics must be global, not local. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/feb2008/ca20080212_394828.htm
How GE builds global leaders: A conversation with Chief Learning Officer Susan Peters.
(2010). Retreived from http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2488]
Pike, M. (n.d.). Business ethics foundations: Key elements of an ethics program. Retreived from http://www.ethicsedge.com/remotearticle.htm
