Ethics Auditing Essay Example

Ethics Auditing Essay Example Ethics Auditing Paper Ethics Auditing Paper Ethics Auditing: Identify the benefits and limits of ethics auditing. Is there a strategic role that ethics auditing may play in a company? Ethics Auditing By definition, an ethics audit is a â€Å"systematic evaluation of an organization’s ethics program and/or performance to determine its effectiveness. † (1) This concept of ethics auditing is fairly new and few companies have conducted an ethics audit. However, performing such audits will likely become more mainstream as recent legislation encourages greater ethical accountability for companies to demonstrate they are abiding by the law and have established programs to improve their ethical decision making. The U. S. Sentencing Commission (the â€Å"Commission) has amended the Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (â€Å"FSGO†) whereby an effective compliance and ethics program must â€Å"exercise due diligence to prevent, detect, and report criminal conduct and otherwise promote an organizational culture that encourages ethical conduct and a commitment to compliance with all applicable law. (2) The Commission noted there are seven minimum requirements of an effective ethics program: (1) Standards and procedures to prevent and detect criminal conduct; (2) Responsibility at all levels of the program, together with adequate program resources and authority for its managers; (3) Due diligence in hiring and assigning personnel to positions with substantial authority; (4) Communicating standards and procedures, including a specific requirement for training at all levels; (5) Monitoring, auditing, and non-retaliatory internal guidance/reporting systems, including periodic evaluation of program effectiveness; (6) Promotion and enforcement of compliance and ethical conduct; and (7) Taking reasonable steps to respond appropriately and prevent further misconduct upon detecting a violation. These requirements should be addressed through the ethics audit. Framework for an Ethics Audit In addition to the requirements noted by the Commission, there are many different questions that can be addressed by an ethics audit. How broad should the audit be? How often should the audit be performed? How will the company communicate the results with its constituencies? As each company has unique needs, each ethics audit should be unique. An example of a framework for an ethics audit is detailed below(4). Companies can adapt this framework to their own needs and circumstances. Step 1: Secure Commitment of Top Managers and Board of Directors As noted in the class slides, â€Å"a corporation only acts through those who act for it and it is the latter who must assume responsibility for the corporation. † (3) Essentially, management and the board of directors are responsible for the direction of a corporation. If there is no commitment from the top levels of a corporation, it is very unlikely that an audit would be successful. Step 2: Establish a Committee to Oversee the Ethics Audit The committee should consist of members who are knowledgeable about ethics auditing and come from various departments. In most cases, companies may not have internal employees that have the skill set to serve on an ethics audit committee. In such circumstances, external consultants, such as the Ethics Resource Center, can be used to assist with the audit. Step 3: Define the Scope of the Audit Process As mentioned above, each organization is unique and therefore, the scope of an ethics audit will differ from company to company. The committee should establish a scope based on the company’s risks and how those risks will be addressed. The committee should then monitor the progress of the audit based on the scope defined. Step 4: Review Organizational Mission, Values, Goals and Policies and Define Ethical Priorities In this step, the committee should examine and review all of the company’s policies, procedures and practices related to any areas defined in the scope of the audit process. All of these items may or may not be stated in the company’s mission statement. In some cases, the committee may find areas where policies need to be established and procedures updated. An effective ethics audit should review all these areas and assess their strengths and weaknesses. Step 5: Collect and Analyze Relevant Information This step is the where the majority of the audit work will take place. The committee should review internal and external documents and more importantly, gather employee, customer and stakeholder feedback through surveys. As employees are the key to carrying out an effective ethics program and to successful business operations, gathering and understanding their feedback is crucial. Customer and stakeholder perception of the company is also critical, so collecting their thoughts and opinions will help to create and maintain customer satisfaction and uphold stakeholder expectations. Step 6: Verify the Results The results collected in Step 5 should then be verified by an independent source. The independent assessment will verify the quality, accuracy and completeness of the audit. Having a third party verify this information will also offer an extra layer of assurance to external constituents. Step 7: Report the Findings The final step of the process is to report the findings to management and the board of directors through an ethics audit report. The report should outline all six steps discussed above and identify what the committee discovered throughout the process. In some cases, the findings may be more meaningful if combined with some benchmarking of similar companies in the industry. Such benchmarking is available through the OCEG Benchmarking Study that discusses best practices across industries. Benefits of Ethics Audits There are many reasons companies go through the process detailed above and perform an ethics audit. In some cases, management may simply want to comply with the FSGO or the board of directors may encourage compliance with these guidelines. From a business perspective, the auditing process can highlight trends, improve organizational learning and facilitate communication and working relationships (5). Internally, companies are able to assess their current policies and possibly find ways to increase efficiency in its operations. Additionally, the buzz word in the business world today is â€Å"transparency†. An ethics audit is one way to provide employees, customers and stakeholders with greater transparency. Many constituents have become wary of verbal assurances from companies. An ethics audit is verified by a third party and thus, seems to carry more weight than internal communication from management. Limits of Ethics Audits While the benefits of performing an ethics audit may be many, there are also some limitations. Many people interchange the words â€Å"ethics† and â€Å"integrity†. How do you measure the integrity or ethics of an organization? It is certainly not as easy to measure integrity as it is to measure financial performance. Financial performance can be quantified while integrity and ethics are the subjective aspects of a company’s culture. Models such as Six Sigma, the Balanced Scorecard and the Triple Bottom Line have been developed to capture structural and behavioral organizational ethical performance (6). However, these models likely will involve external consultants, which can prove to be costly to an organization. Additionally, ethics audits could uncover an issue that, when reported, could hurt employee, customer or stakeholder relations. This could also lead to public scrutiny. Strategic Role of Ethics Auditing Ethics auditing can be an important piece of the strategic direction of a company. The ethics audit can prove to be a useful management tool in helping a company to identify important initiatives and improvements. By identifying such initiatives, companies can prioritize its resources to focus on such ideas. The ethics audit can also help companies to fulfill their mission statements and identify areas where improvement of operating practices may be needed. In summary, and perhaps most importantly, the auditing process can demonstrate the positive impact of ethical conduct and convince constituents of the value of adapting more ethical and socially responsible business practices (7). Reference Page Cited Materials: (1) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, Eighth Edition, p. 243 (2) Ethics Resource Center, FSGO, Part 2 Article: thics. org/resource/fsgo-series-part-2 (3) Corporate Governance Social Responsibility Class Slides, 9/26/2011 (4) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, Eighth Edition, p. 252 (5) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, Eighth Edition, p. 245 (6) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, Eighth Edition, p. 248 (7) Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases, Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, Eighth Edition, p. 265

Amputations During the Civil War

Amputations During the Civil War Amputations became widespread during the Civil War  and the removal of a limb was the most common surgical procedure in battlefield hospitals. Its often assumed that amputations were performed so often  because surgeons at the time were unskilled and simply resorted to procedures bordering on butchery. Yet most Civil War surgeons were fairly well-trained, and the medical books of the era detail precisely how amputations could be performed and when it was appropriate. So its not as if the surgeons were removing limbs out of ignorance. Surgeons had to resort to such a drastic measure because a new type of bullet came into widespread use in the war. In many cases, the only way to try to save a wounded soldiers life was to amputate a shattered limb. The poet Walt Whitman, who had been working as a journalist in New York City, traveled from his home in Brooklyn to the battlefront in Virginia in December 1862, following the Battle of Fredericksburg. He was shocked by a gruesome sight he recorded in his diary: â€Å"Spent a good part of the day in a large brick mansion on the banks of the Rappahannock, used as a hospital since the battle – seems to have received only the worst cases. Outdoors, at the foot of a tree, I notice a heap of amputated feet, legs, arms, hands, c., a full load for a one-horse cart.† What Whitman saw in Virginia was a common sight at Civil War hospitals. If a soldier had been struck in the arm or leg, the bullet tended to shatter the bone, creating horrendous wounds. The wounds were certain to become infected, and often the only way to save the patients life was to amputate the limb. Destructive New Technology: The Minià © Ball In the 1840s an officer in the French Army, Claude-Etienne Minià ©, invented a new bullet. It was different than the traditional round musket ball as it had a conical shape. Minià ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s new bullet had a hollow base at the bottom, which would be forced to expand by gases released by the igniting gunpowder when the rifle was fired. While expanding, the lead bullet fit snugly into the rifled grooves in the gun’s barrel, and would thus be much more accurate than earlier musket balls. The bullet would be rotating when it came from the barrel of the rifle, and the spinning action gave it increased accuracy. The new bullet, which was commonly called the Minià © ball by the time of the Civil War, was extremely destructive. The version which was commonly used throughout the Civil War was cast in lead and was .58 caliber, which was larger than most bullets used today. The Minià © Ball Was Feared When the Minià © ball struck a human body, it did enormous damage. Doctors treating wounded soldiers were often perplexed by the damage caused. A medical textbook published a decade after the Civil War, A System of Surgery by William Todd Helmuth, went into considerable detail describing the effects of Minià © balls: The effects are truly terrible; bones are ground almost to powder, muscles, ligaments, and tendons torn away, and the parts otherwise so mutilated, that loss of life, certainly of limb, is almost an inevitable consequence. None but those who have had occasion to witness the effects produced upon the body by these missiles, projected from the appropriate gun, can have any idea of the horrible laceration that ensues. The wound is often from four to eight times as large as the diameter of the base of the ball, and the laceration so terrible that mortification [gangrene] almost inevitably results. Civil War Surgery Was Performed Under Crude Conditions Civil War amputations were performed with medical knives and saws, on operating tables which were often simply wooden planks or doors which had been taken off their hinges. And while the operations may seem crude by today’s standards, the surgeons tended to follow accepted procedures spelled out in the medical textbooks of the day. Surgeons generally used anesthesia, which would be applied by holding a sponge soaked in chloroform over the patient’s face. Many soldiers who underwent amputations did eventually die due to infections. Doctors at the time had little understanding of bacteria and how it is transmitted. The same surgical tools might be used on many patients without being cleaned. And the improvised hospitals were commonly set up in barns or stables. There are numerous stories of wounded Civil War soldiers begging doctors not to amputate arms or legs. As doctors had a reputation for being quick to resort to amputation, soldiers often referred to the Army surgeons as butchers. In fairness to the doctors, when they were dealing with dozens or even hundreds of patients, and when faced with the gruesome damage of the Minià © ball, amputation often seemed like the only practical option.

Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities Essay

Social Exclusion and the Future of Cities - Essay Example Dalton et al. (2007) argues that in a society that practices social inclusion, the members have a sense of value and self-worth. Their lives are full of dignity and satisfaction, and they are incorporated in the community systems that define its membership. For example, all people are involved in the community’s social and economic activities, they have an equal right of participating in community politics among other activities. Social inclusion is a significant factor in the mental health of a community. This paper examines the relevance of the concept of â€Å"social inclusion† for social work practice with adults experiencing mental health difficulties. It presents a narrative of the background and origin of social inclusion, the theories of social inclusion as well as policies that enhance the practice. Social inclusion emerged in the background of value based interventions towards maintaining clear goals regarding improvements of public welfare. Denissen et al. (2008) argues that it is a practical human development approach to facilitate social welfare that is focused on elimination of risks and barriers to social inclusion. The foundation of the strategies for social inclusion remain inclined towards recognizing and appreciating diversity as well as recognizing the shared experiences and ambitions for different people.

Different types of camps that the Nazi used and their purposes Essay

Different types of camps that the Nazi used and their purposes - Essay Example Thus, the Nazi’s established concentration camps in 1933 for terrorizing the Jewish communities1. During the period of 1933 and 1945, nearly 20,000 camps were built for the purpose of serving various functions. In order to effectively identify them, different names were given, such as labor camps or Arbeitslager, prison-of-war camps or Kriegsgefangenlager, transit camps or Durchgangslager, concentration camps or Konzentrationslager along with killing and death camps often referred as extermination or Vernichutungslager2. Initially the camps were built to hold political prisoners but following the World War II, the concentration camps were expanded and transformed with the intention to capture nonpolitical prisoners who were exploited by the Nazi’s through forced labor. The prisoners were literally ill treated and left to die because of the terrible living conditions. The use of concentration camps can be distinctly divided into three different periods, namely, 1933-1936 , 1936-1942 and 1942-1945. The first period saw the emergence of Adolf Hitler when the camps were primarily used for detaining political adversaries who opposed the Nazi government. Within a span of few months approximately 27,000 people were detained citing the reason of ‘protective custody’. The second period marked the emergence of World War II and the Nazi’s used these camps for forced labor. Throughout the entire period the inmates were treated as labors and were forcefully made to work for the Nazi’s. The last period i.e. during the late period of 1941 these camps were transformed into death camps where innumerable people belonging to the Soviet Union were tortured and murdered brutally3. Different Types and Purposes of the Camps Forced Labor Camps In September 1939, German’s invaded Poland following which numerous prisoners of war were confined and detained in these camps. The extreme living conditions forced these prisoners to die out of exh austion, starvation and torturous treatment. The prisoners were provided with improper facilities and during the winters they were compelled to stay without any clothes, proper nourishment and food. In these tough conditions the prisoners were forcefully required to perform various labor related works for the government agencies. The sophisticated males of Jewish were forced to live in ‘Ghetos’ and work in the plants that manufactured weapons used in wars. The Jews had no other choice than to work as it was the only possible way to survive in the shackles of the Nazi’s. The physically unfit Jews who were unable to work were shot and killed. In addition, the Nazis introduced a policy named ‘annihilation’ in which few types of prisoners were made to work, till death. They were purposely assigned works, the circumstances of which were bound to make them sick and die due to illness. For instance, at the Mauthausen concentration camp, the prisoners were a sked to carry boulders and run 186 steps which were made up of stone extracts every day until they fell sick and died4. In the year 1941, the Germans invaded Soviet Union and captured millions of people generally termed as Prisoners of War (POWs). These POWs were intentionally left to die by denying them the basic

Smiths Outlook on Life in Sillitoes The Loneliness of the Long Distan

There are two basic facts in Smith’s life: one, that he’s in a war with the â€Å"In-laws,† and two, that he’s going to fight it until the day he dies, or die fighting. From Smith’s perspective, there is an impassable line between him and the In-laws, who are out to get him, and his best method of success is beating them down. In taking revenge on the governor of Borstal, Smith thinks he has succeeded. What Smith doesn’t realize is that he, not the governor, truly loses when he loses the race. Smith needs to revise his world view to realize that there is a better way of getting what he wants, and the revenge he seeks is only a sign of his weakness and unhappiness with his own life. By focusing his energy on getting revenge, Smith compromises his opportunities and ability to succeed. Ultimately, his actions are a loss for Smith more than for the people he is fighting. Smith sees the authority figures around him as a threat to his happiness. To Smith, the cops and the governor of Borstal block his success. This is such a strong reality for him that the idea of them being on his side is impossible: â€Å"If only ‘them’ and ‘us’ had the same ideas we’d get [along]†¦but they don’t see eye to eye with us and we don’t see eye to eye with them, so that’s how it stands and how it will always stand† (7-8). The â€Å"them† he refers to are people like the governor of Borstal and the cops, the â€Å"In-law blokes† who, according to him, are â€Å"all on the watch for Out-law blokes like [Smith]†¦waiting to ‘phone for the coppers as soon as [he makes] a false move† (10). Furthermore, his strongest truth is that he is alone: â€Å"I knew what the loneliness of the long-distance runner running across country felt like, realizing that as far as I was concerned this feeling was... ...ke Smith, they become ever more revengeful towards those who end up punishing them for not being something they have no real incentive to be. Ultimately, criminals such as Smith end up wasting society’s resources (cops’ time and citizens’ money), wasting their own energy which could be better used to make them economically productive and contributing members of society, and making society less safe by reducing the mutual trust of society’s members due to thefts. The society does not seem to have a good way of dealing with criminals—Smith is not rectified in any manner by Borstal, and merely punished. Perhaps society needs to focus on increasing financial opportunities for the poor rather than trying to change values that are really an outcome of the society in which they grow up. The core problem is the society; once that is fixed, values will change automatically.

Factors Affecting Academic Performance of La English Students

â€Å"FACTORS AFFECTING ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF THE L. A. ENGLISH STUDENTS† Research Objectives  ·To determine the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents;  ·To know how the Liberal Arts students perform based on the factors enumerated; and  ·To know the factors that affects the academic performance of Liberal Arts Major in English students. Introduction Operational Definition of Terms Academic performance Academic performance refers to how students deal with their studies and how they cope with or accomplish different tasks given to them by their teachers.Academic performance is the ability to study and remember facts and being able to communicate your knowledge verbally or down on paper. It is the ability to test your knowledge and how you handle such performance. Some factors that affects the academic performance of L. A English students are family, friends, everyday or environmental influence, personal influence, social influence, social media, absentism , habits, extracurricular activities, etc. Family Family refers to the basic unit of the community. It is the foundation in which the student grows in.The family is responsible for teaching the student good manners, right conduct, etiquette and etc. Family is composed of father, mother, brothers and/or sisters. It is a group of people related to each other. Everyday/Environmental Influence Environmental influence is the influence on the student by his or her environment, whether people are treating him well or not, whether the environment is healthy and good for the growth of a student. Environmental influence concerns the behavior of the students in dealing ith the society or with the community he or she is living in. Factors Factors are the things which has to be taken into account or which affects the course of events in the said study. Southern Baptist College Southern Baptist College refers to the Christian institution located at Bialong, Mlang, Cotabato, Philippines that offer s basic, secondary, tertiary and graduate courses. Liberal Arts Liberal Arts refer to a department in Southern Baptist College that includes students taking up major courses such as: English, Public Administration and Social Science.Students Students refers to one who attends a school and one who studies. An undergraduate or graduate studying for a degree at a university or college. English English is the universal language. It is one of the major courses offered in the department of Liberal Arts in Southern Baptist College. Study Habits Study habits refers to the way or technique of a student on how he or she will deal with his or her studies. Peer pressure Peer pressure refers to the influence of youth, particularly the student’s circle of friends to the student that

What Are The Basic Traits Of Liberal Feminism Essay

1. What are the basic traits of â€Å"liberal feminism†? The basic traits of liberal feminism are most easily defined as â€Å"just plain† feminism. Liberal feminists are the people involved in society who are attempting to â€Å"level the playing field,† â€Å"break the glass ceiling,† or â€Å"make room for women at the table of power.† Liberal feminism is present in the idea that gender does not, and should not play a role in a person’s â€Å"education, employment, [or] housing.† Therefore, liberal feminism is based off of the ideals and philosophies that all humans are created equally, and deserve to be treated as so. People who partake in these ideals are partaking in the movement of feminism, more specifically, liberal feminism, often times without even realizing it. 2. How does Lorber explain that gender is a social construct? In her essay, â€Å"The Social Construction of Gender†, Judith Lorber explains that in society we often â€Å"assume gender is bred into our genes† (112), meaning that as a society we often times relate a person’s gender (behaviors, traits, and identity) with their sex (biological makeup), thus labeling a person’s gender as something grouped together with their genetic makeup. The reality of this is that gender is created, and â€Å"done† by every individual person. Lorber states that gender, â€Å"like culture, is a human production† (112), and â€Å"doing† gender can appear as small as how a parent chooses to dress their child, resulting in how the child looks. This thenShow MoreRelatedAnalysis of Gender Inequality with a Focus on Feminist Ideas Essay804 Words   |  4 Pagesfeminist ideas. I will start with a basic overview of the entire feminist movement, and will then analyze feminism more specifically. In this analysis I will fo cus on the different types of feminism. 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