Discussion Questions (Business Ethics for Leaders class) Assignment

Discussion Questions (Business Ethics for Leaders class) - Assignment Example Leaders help to establish a culture of an organization and they set example others follow. Employees take their lead from their leaders and if leaders do not behave in ethical manner, employees might not as well. It is not what leaders say that matters, but what they do. Leaders should lead from the front and make sure not to isolate people who voice their moral concerns on business issues. Leaders in business must give life and meaning to these words by acting on them. This means to use every opportunity to stress importance of business ethics and key business decisions that are not only economically viable but make good ethical sense. To further ethical behavior there is a need to build an organization culture that values ethical behavior. The business must unambiguously coherent values that emphasize ethical behavior. One way of doing this is to draft a code of ethics which is a prescribed statement of ethical priorities a business adheres to. Few follow documents such as UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is grounded in right based theories of moral philosophy. Few incorporate ethical statements that express values or missions of employees. Charles Hills (2002) notes that multinational Unilever has code of ethics that includes following points â€Å"Employees: Unilever is committed to diversity in working environment where there is mutual respect and trust and where everyone feels responsible for performance and reputation of company†¦we are committed to safe and healthy working conditions to all employees... we will not use any form of forced, compulsory or child labor†¦we respect dignity of individual and their right to freedom of association.. It is evident that Unilever principles send a very clear message about appropriate ethics to leaders and employees. Few companies employ independent auditors to make sure that company is behaving consistent with its ethical codes. Finally, building an organization culture that places high