An Ethics Management Plan; including industry and professional codes and standards including the underpinning approach of your organisation and the project management team.
1. ETHICS MANAGEMENT PLAN
1.1. Purpose
This Ethics management plan details the minimum standards of behaviour Swansea Hydro expects of our employees and contractors and also outlines the way we expect to do business. As practicing project managers and engineers, we are committed to doing what is right and honourable. We set high ethical standards for ourselves and we aim to meet these standards in all area of business and relations. As outlined in the Project management Institute’s code of ethics and professional conduct:
“Ethics is about making the best possible decision
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Our decision-making process is also driven by our focus on monetary value but also to consider the effect our decisions have on individuals and the environment. Seeking to hold all three in balance and act in a sustainable manner. By implementing this ethics management plan we ensure that the design and build product as produced to a high standard and in a sustainable manner.
1.1. Business ethics
Engineers Australia outlines a code of ethics which defines the values and principles that we as practicing engineers should have to shape the decisions we make. Engineers Australia’s Code of Ethics states:
“As engineering practitioners, we use our knowledge and skills for the benefit of the community to create engineering solutions for a sustainable future. In doing so, we strive to serve the community ahead of other personal and sectional interests” (Engineers Australia, 2017).
It is on the principles of engineers Australia’s code of ethics that we base our Ethics Management Plan. We at Swansea hydro commit to conducting ourselves in accordance with the following principals:
• Demonstrate Integrity by seeking to be well-informed, honest, trustworthy and respectful of
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This shall be achieved by harshly punishing unethical behaviour. It is important that even minor violations be approached with severity to avoid the slow emergence of unethical behaviour. This shall be tested by an external group who shall have a clearer analysis of the ethical behaviour of the organisation as a whole as outlined by Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011.
The PM team shall review decisions based on ethical intentions and not the outcome (Bazerman & Tenbrunsel, 2011). The PM team shall reward ethical decision regardless of the outcome. By encouraging this ethical behaviour we will build a positive reputation and trust and will benefit in the long term for producing quality products in an ethical and sustainable manner.
The PM team shall be mindful that conflicts of interest are often hard to identify but can have significant impacts on an organisation. The PM team will actively seek to identify and remove conflicts of interest from the decision-making process and from the
Ethical decision-making is the responsibility of everyone, regardless of position or level within an organization. Interestingly, the importance of stressing employee awareness, improving decisions, and coming to an ethical resolution are the greatest benefits to most companies in today’s world (Weber, 2015).
Martin, M.W. and Schinzinger, R. (2005) Ethics in Engineering. 4th ed. New York: McGraw Hill.
Ethics or rather morals entail mechanisms that defend, systematize as well as recommend conceptions of right or wrong. Many organizations develop ethical codes to ensure employees and employers understand the difference in doing good or bad. In that respect, ethics are an essential aspect of successfully running of any organization or government. Ethics ensure employee’s productivity levels are up to the required standards. It also assists them to know their rights and responsibilities. Additionally, employers, as well as any persons in management, are guided by them to ensure they provide transparent leadership. Ethics also defines how customers should be handled. Ethical codes govern the relationship between customers and an
To clarify, the Engineering Code of Ethics is the set of rules established by the National Society of Professional Engineers that all engineers are expected to adhere to. In essence, the fundamental tenets of this code are that all engineers are expected to prioritize public safety, as well as be honest with their clients and the general public while only doing work that they are qualified to do. (“Code of Ethics,” n.d.). The reason this code is crucial in this case is because it offers guiding principles for the men and women who are in charge of so many of the various structures and buildings that are used by everyone in society. If the engineering population were to fail to adhere to this code, many people’s lives would be put in jeopardy; buildings might crumble, planes may crash, and bridges could collapse. This means that this code serves to keep engineers in check so that the world maintains stability, therefore its importance cannot be emphasized enough. Furthermore, since this code is nationally recognized, if a company’s engineers were to violate any aspect of it, it would be seen nation-wide as a misuse of power for the sake
Most organisations begin the method of establishing organisational ethical projects by introducing codes of conducts. It helps to generate public trust and improve
This paper is an analysis of the ethical business decision matrix developed by The George S. May Company (May), a management-consulting firm. The paper will also compare how these guidelines were used by John D. Beckett (Beckett) in his company and how the author’s firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLC (PwC), uses them. The guidelines are meant to be used by employees. These guidelines are specifically a measure of moral and ethical principles tied to business ethics in acceptability of right and wrong behaviour in the workplace.
The importance of having a code of ethics is to define acceptable behaviors and promote higher standards of practice within a company. The code should provide a benchmark for...
The method of ethical decision making which was developed by Dr. Cathryn A. Baird presented two components contained in all ethical decisions which are; The Four ethical Lenses and the 4+1 Decision process. The Four Ethical Lenses issue claims that different ethical theories and the means in which we tend to approach the situations which form part of our ethical traditions are looked at in four different perspectives. From each perspective there are different values on which to decide whether the action taken is either ethical or not and each lens also lays emphasis on determining whether the decision made is of ethical requirement. In the 4+1 Decision Process, people who are responsible for making final decisions in an organization do it using four specific decision making steps and eventually will end up with one extra decision which gives a chance to reflect. The 4+1 decision process allows the decision makers to give solutions when faced with complicated ethical issues (John Muir Institute for Environmental Studies, 2000).
Organizational Ethics Issue Resolution Paper Introduction For this paper, Washington Mutual has been selected to show how the ethical decision making process can be achieved. When it comes to business ethics in the workplace, Washington Mutual has designed what can be considered a well balanced workplace with behaviors that are aligned with their moral values and business ethics. Business ethics are sometimes depicted as resolving conflicts where one option appears to be the correct choice. There are many different ethical dilemmas that are faced by managers and leaders everyday that are highly complex and have no clear choice or guidelines to assist in making the choices for resolution. There are times when an employee has to decide whether or not to cheat, lie, steal, or break their contract.
Instead of thinking morally about public safety the engineers decided that the consequences of their decisions would be better for Ford. This is an example where engineers thinking autonomously that led to a worsening from public’s view of Ford and their profession. Without a major engineering institution setting the codes, the way engineers operate may not change to meet the ever-increasing challenges in the rapidly changing world. The problem with cases like this is that the view the public holds over the profession is damaged, and much of the trust that is built up due to engineers following the codes of ethics is lost. In this situation the firm may not always think about public safety and a decision they make may in fact put the public in danger, the engineer is then faced with the dilemma of which code is more important.
An organization needs to adhere to ethics in order to effectively implement its mission, vision, and objectives in a way in which offers a solid foundation to management and their subordinates to properly develop and implement its strategies. By doing so, the organization as a whole is essentially subscribing to one commonality that directs all of the actions of the employees of the organization. Additionally, it assists in preventing such employees from divergence in regard to the proposed strategic guideline. Ethics additionally ensures that a strategic plan is developed in accordance to the interests of the appropriate stakeholders of the organization, both internal and external (Jin & Drozdenko, 2010). Likewise, corporate governance that stems from various regulatory parties makes it necessary for organizations to maintain a high degree of ethical standards; this is done by incorporating ethics within the organization’s strategic plan so as to foster a positive corporate image for the stakeholders and general public (Min-Dong Paul, 2009).
Making good ethical decisions requires a trained sensitivity to ethical issues and a practiced method for exploring the ethical aspects of a decision and weighing the considerations that should impact our choice of a course of action. Having a method for ethical decision making is absolutely essential. When practiced regularly, the method becomes so familiar that we work through it automatically without consulting the specific steps.
Many managers and organisations make the mistake of assuming that what’s wrong is illegal and what’s legal is right and if it’s legal it must be ethical. Yet many ethical dilemmas present themselves before the decision makers where right and wrong can not be clearly identified. They involve conflict between interactive parts – “the individual against the organisation or the societ...
Business ethics are a set of moral rules that govern how a business operates, how people should be treated within an organization, and how business decisions are made. They are a crucial part of employment and in managing a sustainable business, mainly because of the serious consequences that can result from decisions made with a lack of regard to ethics. Even if you don’t believe that good ethics don’t contribute to profit levels, you should realize those poor ethics have a negative effect on your bottom line in the long-run. Every business in every industry has certain guidelines to which its employees must stick to, and regularly outline such aspects in employee handbooks.
9. Martin, M. W., & Schinzinger, R. (2010). Introduction to engineering ethics (2nd ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.