Ten Things You Can Do To Avoid Being The Next Enron
Ten Things You Can Do to Avoid Being the Next Enron
May 29, 2009
Document
Ten things your company can do to avoid being the next Enron:
1. Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place.
Corporations are composed of cultures. Take a good close look at your culture. What are the norms of behavior? What is valued? Are employees rewarded for succeeding at any cost or are they urged to be shepherds of the corporation's reputation as well as its assets? What pressures do they face to commit misconduct? What systemic problems exist that could encourage good people to make bad decisions?
Consider conducting a formal assessment of your corporate culture from the perspective of attitudes, perceptions, values, standards of conduct, pressures …show more content…
Implement simple systems to measure the effectiveness of this ethics initiative. Determine if employees are living the pledge and measure the differences it makes to your employees, your customers and your bottom line.
Reward those employees who choose to live the promises and remove those who don't.
8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the organization focused on the seven main provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind.
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines that became effective on November 1, 1991 require that "(2) Specific individuals within high level personnel of the organization have been assigned overall responsibility to oversee compliance with (the organization's) standards and procedures." We believe that oversight process involves seven main functions to be addressed by an organization's ethics committee: * Function One
Review the definitions of standards and procedures. Starting with your organization's areas of operation, what are the activities that require a formal set of ethical standards and procedures? Begin by reviewing those which apply to each department. Are existing internal guidelines complete? Are they clear and useful to those who must carry them
May 29, 2009
Document
Ten things your company can do to avoid being the next Enron:
1. Examine your ethical climate and put safeguards in place.
Corporations are composed of cultures. Take a good close look at your culture. What are the norms of behavior? What is valued? Are employees rewarded for succeeding at any cost or are they urged to be shepherds of the corporation's reputation as well as its assets? What pressures do they face to commit misconduct? What systemic problems exist that could encourage good people to make bad decisions?
Consider conducting a formal assessment of your corporate culture from the perspective of attitudes, perceptions, values, standards of conduct, pressures …show more content…
Implement simple systems to measure the effectiveness of this ethics initiative. Determine if employees are living the pledge and measure the differences it makes to your employees, your customers and your bottom line.
Reward those employees who choose to live the promises and remove those who don't.
8. Establish an Ethics Committee to constantly keep the organization focused on the seven main provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines of 1991 in mind.
The Federal Sentencing Guidelines that became effective on November 1, 1991 require that "(2) Specific individuals within high level personnel of the organization have been assigned overall responsibility to oversee compliance with (the organization's) standards and procedures." We believe that oversight process involves seven main functions to be addressed by an organization's ethics committee: * Function One
Review the definitions of standards and procedures. Starting with your organization's areas of operation, what are the activities that require a formal set of ethical standards and procedures? Begin by reviewing those which apply to each department. Are existing internal guidelines complete? Are they clear and useful to those who must carry them