CODE OF CONDUCT IS A QUICK-FIX STRATEGY AND IS FORCIBLE. IT REDUCES ETHICS TO LEGALITY BY DIRECTING ON BOTH THE “LOWEST COMMON VALUES” AND “CONSEQUENCES OF DEVIATIONS”. DISCUSS.(250 WORDS)
Code of conduct represents the set of enforceable rules that should be followed by a person in an organisation. A Code of Conduct applies the Code of Ethics to a host of relevant situations. A particular rule in the Code of Ethics might state that all employees will obey the law, a Code of Conduct might list several specific laws relevant to different areas of organizational operations, or industry, that employees need to obey.
Codes, along with other measures, have helped some companies dig themselves out of scandals, and have helped many companies build a healthier work climate and reputation.
Code of conduct is necessary because:
- The Code of Conduct outlines specific behaviours that are required or prohibited as a condition of ongoing employment. Example: It might forbid sexual harassment, racial intimidation or viewing inappropriate or unauthorized content on company computers.
- It is used in an attempt to regulate behavior in very different ways.
- Code of conduct is a set of guidelines that influence employee’s actions.
- Code of Conduct originated from the code of ethics, and it converts the rules into specific guidelines, that must be followed by the members of the organisation.
- Code of Conduct is addressed to employees only.
- Code of Conduct is focused on compliance and rules. Example: It would have avoided and punished instances like recent Nirav Modi scam where ethics of the bank employees was under question.
- The organization’s desire is to obtain a narrow range of acceptable behaviors from employees
- Conduct regulations assert that some specific actions are appropriate, others inappropriate.
- Code of conduct consists of provisions general to all employees so some acts which are not mentioned might be considered ethical despite their unethical nature.It becomes a legal impediment in governance due to its rigidity which can affect the public servant leading to policy paralysis.
Lacunaes in the code of conduct, in many cases they:
- Do not address the range of a company’s business activities, especially its principal ones.
- Are not clearly linked with the company’s principal business objectives and culture.
- Are not effectively linked to concepts of business integrity.
- Set the wrong tone, perhaps one that is too legalistic or too vague.
- Contain the wrong degree of detail regarding expectations.
- Do not address the realities of conducting business.
- Do not provide employees with effective ways to address business challenges.
Conclusion:
Preventing corruption and improving the public service management are the main goals of the promotion of ethical standards for the civil servants. Therefore, there is need to imbibe ethical nature in children from school level itself. Along with that there is a need for top down compliance in the organisations for effective enforcement of code of conduct.