In the last few years, business ethics and company core values are among the most critical discussions I facilitate during strategic planning and business coaching endeavors. This is partly due to he tremendous negative reaction to corporate ethics scandals. My encouragement to clients is to go “public” with their core values and ethical standards so it becomes known what the company stands for and how the leaders will conduct business.

Many businesses also will use the core values and ethical standards for guidance in making critical decisions, to create an ethical corporate culture, to attract high quality employees and to differentiate themselves from competitors. I applaud those businesses that establish and declare their core values and ethical standards in some written form and/or posting them on their web site and other company materials.

So, you may ask how would a business go about establishing and emphasizing a set of core values and ethical standards? Based upon my personal and professional experiences and research, I would recommend making the following nine commitments:

Commitment #1: Verify a strong commitment from company management to establish core values for the business.

Commitment #2: Develop a forum to gather information from employees and company stakeholders.

Commitment #3: Use an experienced professional outside facilitator to conduct the developed forum and facilitate the discussion to gather input.

Commitment #4: Obtain and verify management and employee commitment to the selected company core values and their consideration in everyday decision making.

Commitment #5: Establish a set of ethical standards as an integral part of the company core values and make them “public.”

Commitment #6: Keep the ethical standards and company core values current. Amend them as warranted to reflect reality.

Commitment #7: Monitor the company’s commitment and performance regarding its ethical standards and core values. Survey employees and stakeholders to find out how they feel about the company living up to its own standards and values.

Commitment #8: Develop a process and/or procedure to deal with violations of ethical standards and company core values.

Commitment #9: Recognize and reward ethical behavior.

If you would like to discuss the value of business core values and ethics and learn more about fostering that type of ethical environment within your organization, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at http://www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com

Nine Commitments That Emphasize Business Ethics & Company Core Values Are Extremely Crucial By: J. Glenn Ebersole, Jr., Chief Executive of J. G. Ebersole Associates and The Renaissance Group ™

Glenn Ebersole, Jr. is a multi-faceted professional, who is recognized as a visionary, guide and facilitator in the fields of business coaching, marketing, public relations, management, strategic planning and engineering. Glenn is the Founder and Chief Executive of two Lancaster, PA based consulting practices: The Renaissance Group, a creative marketing, public relations, strategic planning and business development consulting firm and J. G. Ebersole Associates, an independent professional engineering, marketing, and management consulting firm. He is a Certified Facilitator and serves as a business coach and a strategic planning facilitator and consultant to a diverse list of clients. Glenn is also the author of a monthly newsletter, “Glenn’s Guiding Lines – Thoughts From Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach” and has published more than 225 articles on business.

Source: www.a1articles.com