In that regard, NatHealth Inc. managers and supervisors are trained to recognize potential ethical conflicts as early as possible, to analyze possible course of action, and to take decisive action by implementing the best possible ethical decisions and corresponding solutions that are the most consistent with organizational ethical values and principles.
In addition, all NatHealth Inc. managers attend a week-long mandatory training retreat every September at which they attend strategic meetings and receive training in several different aspects of their operational responsibilities. Two days are reserved for ethics-specific discussions, policy reviews, and updated training in the full range of ethical issues in the workplace. Subsequent to their return, individual managers conduct an ethics policy review session with their direct reports at which time they provide supplemental ethical instructions to update all employees with respect to any changes in organizational ethics policies and expectations.
Monitoring:
While the organization does maintain scrupulous and detailed personnel files, ethical issues are addressed proactively in a manner intended to immediately rectify all identified ethical problems rather than primarily through documentation. In fact, one of the principal reasons that NatHealth Inc. does not issue employment contracts is precisely because the organization chooses to retain as much independent autonomous authority to terminate employees as allowed by law (Halbert & Ingulli, 2007). All employees are hired as at-will employees and without employment contracts of any kind. This allows the organization to take a so-called "zero-tolerance" approach to specific kinds of ethical transgressions that would necessitate much more protracted types of remedial responses in different types of employment relationships (Halbert...
Managers are taught how to encourage their direct reports to do so as well.
Similarly, whistle blowers are also protected within the NatHealth Inc. organizational culture to an even greater degree than required by law. Whereas most organizations strongly discourage going over a supervisor's head, NatHealth Inc. teaches that compliance with established ethics policies is important enough to seek out resolution beyond the immediate supervisory level if necessary. In that regard, organizational procedures include protocols for seeking alternate sources of supervision and guidance with respect to ethical controversies anytime they arise in connection with issues that could prove difficult to resolve directly with immediate supervisors.
Finally, NatHealth Inc. has also established several community foundations and charitable ventures designed to contribute positively to the local community in ways that go beyond the organization's immediate business operations. To a large extent, those organizational goals relate to (1) promoting education through scholarship funding and (2) environmental conservation.
References
Halbert, T., and Ingulli, E. (2007). Law & Ethics in the Business Environment.
Cincinnati, OH: West.
Locker, K. (2006). Business and Administrative Communication 2nd Edition. Boston,
MA: McGraw-Hill.
Myers, D., and Spencer, S. (2004). Social Psychology. Toronto, Canada: McGraw-
Hill.
