Professional code of ethics

What Are The 12 Principles of Ethics?

Here are the 12 fundamental principles of ethics:
1. Honesty
Honesty is an essential value required to conduct business in an ethical
manner. Honesty requires you to be candid with your consumers, business
partners and co-workers. An honest company avoids dishonest business
practices like under-measurement, over-invoicing, pushing substandard
products and making misleading statements. To effectively put the principle of
honesty into practice, a company is required to be honest with its employees
first. That sends a strong indication to the employees that the company really
wants them to be honest.
2. Integrity
Integrity refers to moral soundness as reflected by your thoughts and actions.
Maintaining integrity requires you to be principled and scrupulous even if you
lose an opportunity to make quick money. It may also require inner strength
and courage to side with what you think is right despite great pressure from
others. Possessing integrity helps you gain the trust and respect of others. A
company that focuses on developing integrity in its employees and
management often finds it easy to incorporate other ethical principles in its
operations.
3. Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness mainly comes from the quality of keeping your promise. You
become trustable when you make sincere efforts to fulfil your commitments
and promises. This also implies that a trustworthy person tries to comply with
an agreement as understood by the parties instead of looking for loopholes to
escape its compliance. Trustworthiness helps build a healthy relationship with
your customers, vendors and other stakeholders. It can also help a company
gain more business over time.
4. Loyalty
It is common for a company to expect its employees to be loyal to it. But,
companies may also integrate this principle into their code of ethics with an
intention of being loyal to their employees and customers. For example, a
company that is loyal to its employees may consider layoffs and job cuts as the
last option after exploring all other methods of cost-cutting. Similarly,
employees can be loyal to their organisation by avoiding conflict of interest
and maintaining the confidentiality of sensitive business information.
5. Fairness
Another essential principle of ethics is to be fair in your dealings. It prevents
one from gaining undue advantage from others' unfavourable situations.
Fairness also requires that you treat others equally, irrespective of their caste,
class, creed, gender, religion or belief. An ethical company treats its employees
fairly and provides them with equal opportunities for advancement. Similarly,
the company is also required to treat its customers fairly.
6. Empathy
Empathy is the quality of understanding others' feelings. In a business context,
it includes caring about employees, customers and other stakeholders. Ethical
businesses consider the impact of their decisions on all the stakeholders
concerned. They try to achieve their business objectives with minimal negative
consequences on others, especially in terms of emotions, health and finance.
For example, if a company discovers that one of its products is potentially
harmful, it would put the customers' well-being over its profitability and recall
the product from the market.
7. Respect
Ethical businesses and professionals treat others with respect and dignity. They
are courteous in their behaviour irrespective of who they are dealing with.
They strive to treat others the way they would expect others to treat them.
8. Compliance
Ethical businesses comply with the law of the land. For example, an ethical
company would avoid making unscrupulous adjustments in the sales figures to
reduce its Goods and Services Tax (GST) liability. Compliance with the ethical
codes may also prevent employees from taking shortcuts to make quick profits
through unethical actions.
9. Pursuit of excellence
Ethical companies are committed to excellence in whatever they do. They try
to add value through their product or service instead of simply focusing on
profits. For example, an ethical company trying to develop a Covid-19 vaccine
would be more concerned about the efficacy of the vaccine rather than looking
at it as yet another opportunity to make money.
10. Leadership
Ethical businesses and executives strive to be positive role models for others.
They exemplify honour and accept personal accountability for their decisions.
They try to create an environment of healthy growth and principled reasoning
by helping, guiding and inspiring others.
11. Reputation
Ethical companies value their reputation. They may want their employees to
conduct in a manner that builds and protects their reputation. While they may
be careful about the management's words and actions, they may also take
affirmative steps to improve their employees' morale and conduct.
12. Responsibility
All businesses have certain obligations towards their employees, customers,
partners and society. An ethical business understands its responsibilities well.
They would want their employees to meet the expectations others have from
the business. The principle of responsibility pervades all aspects of the
company's operations. For example, it is the responsibility of the company to
protect the visitors to its website. Similarly, the business also needs to ensure
that the customers making advance payments get timely delivery of goods. As
a responsible employee, you are required to think about how your actions can
affect others associated with your company.