Ethics (practical!): Create an ethics committee.

by Ana Maria Chagas

When I finished my graduation course in Business Administration at Celso Lisboa University in 1999, I have chosen a subject as a final work that was one of the most difficult and exciting about human behavior at companies: Ethics in Enterprises.
At that time topics about Ethics and Social Responsibility were still very shy. Internet research sites gave just two or three items as a result of research and few books had enough material to create methods or procedures to implement ethics in enterprises.
Ethics is based on freedom, that is, on the voluntary option for good, conscious of the possibility for preferring evil and applicable to person’s behavior in many levels that make him or her act correctly towards him/herself or others. The term “ethos” comes from Greek and means customs and must be understood as a set of basic principles that aim to regulate and discipline customs, morality and behavior of the people. This is the general concept of the word.
In a restrict sense, ethics is used to give duties and establish one’s behavior rules in the performance of the professional activities and in the relationship with others.
How to make ethical decisions and have ethical attitudes in the companies? How to standardize justice and honesty in all the moral conflicts lived by employees and employers? So, ethics codes appear. They offer the necessary guidelines to be followed by anyone in order to keep a decent level of professional attitude.
Taking advantage of researches and studies about this subject, I have developed a project to orientate the enterprises in the first steps for formalizing ethics with the summary as follows. The enterprise should start with two actions:


I – Create an Ethics Committee

A group of Ethics can be formed, for example, by a Human Resources professional, a Marketing one, one from the Legal area and another from the area that is the work force of the company. This Committee interacts to the responsible for each section of the company and tells doubts concerning ethical questions. Then, they should discuss in their work group giving opportunity for everyone participates.
The difficulty with Ethics in the companies is to establish what it is good and bad, right and wrong. It is better for the companies start with what is considered bad, that is, what is not allowed to happen in the relationships among employees, suppliers, clients and so on.
Remember: as much democratic and participative it is as much effective can be.
The Human Resources should be responsible for organizing lectures about ethics, making public the intention of the company and the creation of an Ethics Code.


The Ethics Committee will be responsible for:

Ø Making the Ethics Code.
Ø Making public behavior standards inside and outside the company.
Ø Evaluating and solving doubts concerning ethical questions.
Ø Judging cases that are not in the Ethics Code.



II – Creating the Ethics Code

The information collected from each area will be summarized and make the basis of the Ethical Code (some people call it Behavior Code, Values Code or Principles Letter).
The Ethics Code should have:

Ø Objective
Ø Definitions (of the terms used)
Ø General Principles (giving the most important values for the company)
Ø Wideness
Ø Acceptable and non-acceptable behaviors


Inside each item above there are many steps to be followed that vary according to culture and activity of each organization and it will be necessary a deep analysis for the Ethics Code not be tiring or repetitive. It is essential not transform it in a procedures rule or manual.
Nowadays there is plenty of material in internet sites where many examples of Ethics Code can be found. It is valuable to see the “Principles Letter” of Johnson & Johnson, written in 1943 in the following address: http://www.jnjbrasil.com.br/noticia_full.asp?noticia=156&item=5