Company ethics programs and Federal Sentencing Guidelines compliance

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Ethics Program

The following pages focus on presenting the challenges that JEMC must address in order to improve its codes of ethics and conduct. The Company Presentation section provides the description of JEMC and the presentation of the codes of conduct of important companies in the industry. The Ethical Challenges section analyzes the ethical problems that the company's activity must address. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations discusses the guidelines developed by the government in the case of companies that do not follow rules and regulations. The Challenges of the Codes of Conduct section analyzes some of the most important problems determined by developing these codes of conduct. The Relevance of Codes of Conduct section provides some recommendations on how the relevance of these codes of conducted can be improved.

Company Presentation

The company in this case is JEMC that is considered one of the premier retailer franchises in the U.S. The company is a brand catalyst that ensures the relationship between customers and different bands of JEMC's clients. The company develops this activity in the attempt to not prejudice clients' objectives. The company is in the advertising business.

The activity of advertising requires that companies in the field develop strong codes of ethics that are intended to protect the interests of their clients, but also the interests of the public. This is a difficult objective to reach in this business. This is because in certain cases the interests of advertising agencies' clients are not in accordance with the public's interests. The ethical guidelines in this field usually refer to account conflicts, contracts, ethics, media, pitching, producing TV ads, sub-contracting, and others.

When benchmarking other companies' strategy, it is recommended to address the most successful companies in the field. Therefore, the companies selected for this analysis are represented by Leo Burnett, BBDO, and Saatchi & Saatchi. The code of conduct developed by Leo Burnett is based on transparency. In other words, the company is interested in improving customers' approach to their pitches by increasing the transparency level of information they provide. This objective can be reached by gathering important information on the customers and structuring the pitch based on this information (Nair, 2011). The code of conduct also recommends an improved time management strategy that is oriented towards efficient management of the customers' time, but also of the company's time. In addition to this, the company considers it is important to increase investments in pitches.

The code of conduct developed by BBDO is intended to follow the guidelines recommended by association in this business activity. The same situation applies to Saatchi & Saatchi. The reduced number of complaints addressed to the activity of these companies reveals the fact that their codes of conduct are complex and are able to address the issues that usually affect companies' activity in this business.

Ethical Challenges

There are numerous ethical challenges that influence the activity of advertising agencies. These challenges refer to account conflicts, contracts, ethics, media, pitching, producing TV ads, sub-contracting, and others. In addition to this, organizations in this field have developed guidelines on using individuals with disabilities in TV ads.

The ethical challenges in this field have a significant impact on advertising companies. This is because the activity of these companies is oriented towards the public. This means that the advertising production must take into consideration the rules that apply on communicating in the public space. Advertising agencies must ensure that their products do not discriminate or produce harm to certain categories of people.

Therefore, it is recommended that JEMC develop a code of ethics intended to follow the guidelines established by these organizations. These guidelines can also help the company improve its ethics program (ICC, 2012). This is because this also refers to contracts established between the company and its clients. By being obliged to establish these contracts in accordance with the industry's standards, the company is protected against unethical behavior from its clients.

Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations

The most important guidelines that JEMC must follow are represented by guidelines established by industry associations. This is because they refer to the activity developed by the company, which is different from the activity of companies in other industries. Therefore, it is important to develop an ethical code based on these guidelines. However, it is also important to follow the regulations established by the government. The objective of these regulations is represented by establishing a general framework in which companies can develop their activity.

The purpose of these guidelines refers to protecting consumers, protecting the interests of the government, but also ensuring the companies benefit from the protection of these rules. In other words, these guidelines help ensure that the relationships between companies are based on correct issues. Certain companies consider that these regulations are too strict. But they do not understand that these regulations are intended to protect their interests, and not to limit their influence.

Companies that do not agree with these regulations state that their influence on the market and on other companies is limited, and they cannot work with these companies the way they want to. However, they should understand that this means that other companies have a reduced level of influence on them also. In other words, their interests are better protected by these guidelines.

Challenges of the Codes of Conduct

There are several challenges determined by developing these codes of conduct that the company must address. Some of these challenges refer to the fact that the activity of the company is modified as a result of these codes of conduct. This is because they require different approaches to the company's activities. This is usually the case of establishing contracts, developing pitches, and the relationships between the company and its customers. These challenges are easy to address. They are not likely to cause problems in the case of JEMC.

There are also other challenges that present greater importance to the company. These challenges are represented by the influence of these codes of conduct on the production of the company (American Marketing Association, 2012). In other words, the products that the company develops can be affected by modifications determined by these codes of conduct that must be in accordance with federal regulations. This situation also requires that the company invests in increasing the level of transparency in the communication with customers.