The Importance Of Ethical Rules

”Ethical rules should be defined as more directive and specific guidelines.” (Brian Kurbjeweit 2011) Unlike those ethical principles with complex theories or law with ambiguous words, ethical rules should be easy to understand and follow. It enables what the people should be aware of the moral reason and act mindfully in business ethics. It also empowers them to make a quick decision from ethical conflicts even when they are under time pressure. When the ethical rules are applied in contract models, the rule makers need to provide clear and specific guidelines such as defining a specific list of expectation in ethical behaviors. Those rules can demand companies ethical actions such as equal right opportunities in employment without any discrimination

The clear ethical codes of conduct can avoid the mistake on ethical decisions with confusion from their different moral understanding across different locations. Business actors can make an efficient decision based on specific rules without considering all aspects. The code applying to those officers of public companies as required by section 406 of Sarbanes-Oxley has demonstrated the need to address the specific issues like the following example. “Honest and ethical conduct, including the ethical handling of actual or parent conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships; Full, fair, accurate, timely, and understandable disclosure in the periodic reports required to be filed by the issuer; andCompliance with applicable governmental rules and regulations.“ (Sarbanes-Oxley act 2002)“In the view of many, making and acting on an ethical decision involves 1) Recognizing an ethical issue; 2) Make the ethical judgment; 3) resolving it ethically 4) actual act with ethical behavior.” (Michael L. Michael 2006). Any good individual ethical behavior will consider the ecology with harmony among individuals, other stakeholders and the overall industry and environment as one of the key criteria to sustain the continuous growth and stability of our society and economy. Any corporation activities with unethical practices may make some

The timely monitoring by related parties (ie., NGO, Stock exchange authority and other specific professional groups) can play a major role to promote ethics continuously. They can partner with business community to develop practical guidelines on corporate ethics management. They can arrange ethics programs and training packages in collaboration with professional bodies. These can provide good reference for corporate management to develop their own guide books to advise codes of conduct, systems control and staff training programs.Ethical governance like arranging training programs on codes of conducts can play a major role in influencing ethical values of fairness which may not exist under legislation. For example, the implementation of the code of ethics in a company need to involve different departments or committees in different processes, ie, drafting, communication, training, revision, updating and enforcement. (Ch 26: Ethical Governance pp 662) In general, it involves the Human Resources departments primarily for staff training, preparing the staff handbook and other staff related ethical conduct issues. The audit committee, internal audit department and/ or compliance department can review and monitor how to strengthen a company’s or even government internal controls and risk management system.The concept of corp governance is