Ethical Issues
The recent wave of accounting scandals in Corporate America has led toa resurgence of interest in the subject of business ethics. As a result,most business firms, large and small, have developed and implemented anethics statement to affirm that ethical behavior is an important element inthe work environment. Of course, there are some firms who do not have sucha formal, published statement, but nevertheless claim to have a code ofethics underlying their business practices. Such firms point to theirorganizational values, as embodied in a vision or mission statement asproof of their ethical behavior. The company I work for, Standard ParkingCorporation (SPC), belongs to the latter category. SPC's mission statement reads, "To maximize the value provided to ourclients through excellence, innovation and efficiency in managementservices provided by a superior team of transportation and parkingprofessionals dedicated to the highest levels of customer service." Thepreceding statement reflects the values of SPC, including the valuesexpected from the individuals who constitute the organization. As Simsobserves, "Some commonly held organizational values are the importance of
On hearing this, I was delighted that I wasworking for a progressive organization, which did not get mired by apreference for its own thinking, and was able to identify and accept itsflaws by benchmarking itself against the best practices in the corporateworld (Beyond Feelings, p. Further,the company has an addendum of company behaviors, defined as personalaccountability, teamwork, externally driven, urgency of action, and winning-making money (Praxair, 2004). Finally, heseemed to reach some conclusion and requested me to leave behind a copy ofPraxair's statement. 's vision and values statement, which seemed to address allaspects of business ethics. nondiscrimination, quality ofwork life, and the like. Theseaspects could either be included in an expanded mission statement oraddressed separately in a formal, published ethics statement. As such, whilethe company has succeeded in driving its employees towards achieving higherlevels of customer value, it perhaps runs the risk of SPC employees failingto observe ethical values that are not explicitly stated. 4) Therefore, to understand thespecific ethical principles espoused by my organization, I set out tointerview the Head of our Human Resources Department. During the course of the interview, I learnt that the organizationbelieved that its primary ethical responsibility was to deliver value toall its stakeholder segments by succeeding in achieving profitable businessgrowth.
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