Essay on Implementation of Business Ethics in the Company

Essay on Implementation of Business Ethics in the Company Essay on Implementation of Business Ethics in the Company Essay on Implementation of Business Ethics in the CompanyAn active component of organizational ethics strategy is ethical audit. It is the procedure of systematic evaluation of the companys ethical performance and programs aimed at determining the effectiveness of ethics policies. The purpose of this paper is to choose a company, to check whether this company uses ethical audit, to examine the components of ethical audit if the company does use it and to draft a new plan for establishing ethical audits if the company does not use it.The chosen company is Walmart, a worldwide known retailer operating in 27 countries (Walmart, 2014). Walmart pays significant attention to ethics and has a special Global Ethics Office responsible for promoting Walmarts integrity. Furthermore, Walmart has own code of ethics, offers ethical training and uses ethical committees responsible for resolving ethical issues and enhancing ethical decision-making in the company.There is no information pointing out at the presence of a separate ethics audit procedure at Walmart. However, there are elements of ethics audit integrated in the companys culture. First of all, Walmart has an Audit Committee which is responsible for monitoring financial performance and integrity as well as the quality of independent audit (Walmart, 2014). The Audit Committee, in particular, reviews the compliance of corporate procedures and activities with the companys Statement of Ethics (code of ethics) (Walmart, 2014). Furthermore, ethics committees also ensure that ethical standards are maintained within the company and introduce measures for improving ethical climate. In addition, Walmart has a separate responsible sourcing audit process for suppliers; in this process, Walmart ensures that supplier practices meet or exceed Walmarts ethical requirements (Walmart, 2014).Therefore, using the criteria set by Parraga (2013), it is possible to see that Walmart has all important elements of ethical audit verification of the code of ethics and its implementation in the organization, ethical orientation of groups and individuals, ethical training, use of helplines and hotlines. Walmart even manages to expand its ethical standards to its supply chain. However, it would be better for Walmart to have a separate ethics audit including the above-mentioned elements.