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Unit VIII Scholarly Activity

Nguyen Khoi Nguyen

Columbia Southern University

Business Ethics

Professor: Dr. Clay Owens

January 23, 2021

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Introduction

I suppose to run a fashion company named Good Heaven a year ago. We have identified

our mission is to provide style and quality products to customers with affordable prices. The

environment of textile and garment industry requires much ethics to ensure the appropriate

behaviors. After the start-up period, the business currently goes into its orbit and it is time to

issue our Code of Ethics to make sure every employee in this company to understand and

implement as instructed.

Main contents of Code of Ethics

The Code of Ethics includes the main points as follows:

Purposes

 To protect our corporate reputation and brand.

 To become a trustworthy partner.

 To Ensure employees and partner to build, implement and develop sustainably.

Scope of application

This document is to apply all aspects of behaviors that are accidental or intentional of:

 Employees - Employees

 Employees - Corporates

 Employees - Clients

 Employees - Partners

Elements of Code of Ethics

1. Integrity. This is the foundation value of our company to ensure of being honest and

having strong moral values[ CITATION Man14 \l 1033 ]. Integrity could be indicated in
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commitment of words and actions of employees, or their respect and fairness towards

other people.

2. Compliance. Company is to follow the governmental rules and regulations. Whereas the

company rules and governmental rules have violation, company shall follow the stricter

rules.

3. Conflict of Interests. Individual must separate personal interests from business dealings.

In the event of conflict of personal and business interests, business interest always take

priority.

4. Bribery. Bribery is not tolerated in our organization and prohibited although it is for

purposes of business gain.

5. Discrimination. Discrimination is illegal and not tolerated in our organization. The

fairness is affirmed to maintain throughout our organization.

6. Sexual harassment[ CITATION Vie15 \l 1033 ]. Repeated and unwanted behaviors of sexual

nature perpetrated upon an individual by another are prohibited by laws of government

and company policies.

7. Fraud. Creating false impression by using any purposeful communication that deceives,

manipulates, or conceals facts is prohibited in our company.

8. Intellectual property, rights and privacy. Intellectual properties are protected by laws

to respect the creators. During the time of service to company, any intellectual property

belongs to company under any circumstances. Company rules also protect the private

information of users, customers and employees.

9. Environment responsibility. Company commits to protect the environment in finding

eco-friendly products and keep the environment green.

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10. Social responsibility. Company has mission to contribute part of our profit in building

better society to everyone.

Question responses

From the employer’s view, the Code of Ethics ensures the specific guidelines to

employees to follow and keep them on the right track of acceptable behaviors. The number of

questions decrease after issued as well. Employees also improve their respect and loyalty as well

as be a part of an ethical organization. Code of Ethics creates advantage competitive to other

companies if entire organization could live with the instructions. By applying ethical culture,

customers loyalty also increases and could save much cost in marketing and advertising.

From the employee’s view, Code of Ethics ensure they would be treated with fairness and

equality. Employees are also protected by the employer to unwanted actions such as sexual

harassment. Therefore, the working environment increases its values and employees could feel

safe to focus on their jobs. Fairness is also ensured to recognized good employee to be promoted

and respected. As being a part of an ethical organization, employees could easily approach and

do business with other partners to expand their business. One of the most important things is that

employees now have identified clear track to follow before being whistled and punished.

However, there are several obstacles for company to perform their ethical decisions.

Keeping integrity is one of the most difficulties in doing business. Sometimes, to expedite the

business, employees tend to violate the ethics and rules. Government processes are also obstacles

to take much time and resources to complete. This could lead to the loss of business

opportunities so many employees choose to perform trade-off between integrity and business.

Being boycotted from other companies in market is making it harder to follow the rules. The
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loneliness of an ethical company could have negative effect to cooperation ability of a company

and its survival.

Although there are many obstacles to perform ethical culture, it is a right way to follow

Code of Ethics to achieve sustainable growth. To do this, screening for appropriate candidates

should be performed to select the right persons to fit in the positions. Training also plays a good

part of ensuring everyone understand and speak the same voice. Managers should do coaching

and demonstration for their subordinated to follow. Rewarding and punishing policies must be

established to encourage the good side and eliminate the wrong side. Effective communication

system with anonymous feedback should be applied to respect and encourage precise

information to be reported in time. Non-retaliation scheme should be widely announced and

strictly implemented to protect the information providers.

Conclusion

In conclusion, being ethical is one of the most important concerns of every company.

Code of Ethics is a document to transfer the content and willingness of employer to employees.

By keeping words and actions coherently, Code of Ethics is then being effectively performed and

maintained.
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References

Velasquez, M. G. (2014). Business Ethics Concepts and Cases, 7th Ed.

Vietnam Ministry of Labour, I. a. (2015). Code Of Conduct On Sexual Harassment In The

Workplace. Hanoi.