You’re a management consultant who has been asked by Green Company to help design an ethics communication and training program for all Green Company employees. Your meetings to date have been with the head of human resources, and your contract with the company has been negotiated with him. Once the papers have been signed, you begin your research and are quickly stymied by Green’s corporate counsel. He says you will not be allowed to ask employees about ethical dilemmas that have occurred at Green. He specifically asks you to get your information from other sources such as press accounts of problems in the industry, or from other organizations you’ve worked with. In addition, the head of human resources has told you that you’ll be unable to meet the three most senior executives because they’re busy negotiating a large acquisition. You will have access to other high?level managers who can tell you what they think the seniors want. You’re instructed to write a code of conduct for the company and a mission statement, and to prepare presentations for the senior managers to give to employees sometime next month on corporate expectations and values.

Case Questions

1. Based on what you know about developing ethical cultures and programs, identify the problems presented by this case.

2. Why do you think the corporate counsel has responded in this way? What will be your response to him, if any?

3. As a consultant, what are your ethical obligations, if any?

4. How will you proceed?

Answer:

1. Ethical culture aims at betterment of the human life by accepting what is good for all so that everyone will live peacefully by putting moral principles at the center (Ethics is moral principles which are accepted universally). Culture is nothing but the behaviour of the person which is guided by vision, mission, policies, rules and regulations, perception, attitude and every person around; these factors determine the culture at workplace. Ethical values adapted by an organisation become the characteristic of that organisation like supporting each other, maintaining transparency, considering human begin as a human begin instead of only a resource.

In this case the following problems can be seen

• Top management people (senior executives) extending support very rarely as they were providing excuse.
• Less transparency in the process as no people begin asked about the opinion on ethics only senior members will share their views.
• This documentation is only to fulfil the legal obligation and the use of document aims to inform its employee about the expectation to be fulfilled by them.

2. It seems Corporate counsel just need to complete the work assigned and follow the instructions as given by the company as it is. The consultant must remember the aim of corporate council and do the research carefully so that the employees of that an organisation will support the idea of ethics.
3. As a counsellor it is his duty to counsel his client on the things which are morally correct. But as third person he has limited rights to look into the matter. He is expected to abide the policies and follow the professional ethics.
4. The consultant may have followed steps mentioned below

• Careful observation of all the vision, mission, polices, rules and regulations of the company.
• Careful recording and analysis of the opinion of the employees and senior members so that expectations from both sides can be considered
• Design of training programmes which will create awareness about the ethical issues, handling of ethical issues at workplace.
• Suggesting for proper mechanism for handling ethical issues at workplace.