MGMT969 Ethics

• 1. Business in the community (BitC) - UK org offering a rich set of programs for involving business in the social responsibility ethic. 
• 2. Global Reporting Initiative - UN supported program designed to encourage economic, social and environmental outcomes from organisations around the world. Emphasis is on developme of engaged stakeholders and has a rigorous framework of performance indicators particularly in human rights and labour practices and decent work.

• is an exercise in self assessment by an organisation or its consultants, usually in response to a series of prepared questions dealing with major aspects of ethical behaviour and operations within the organisation.
• eithics audits can involve a general analysis of mission, goals and policy, the analysis of systems and standards and the procedures for recording and evauating performance. In a business community used to accounting audits, SWOT analyses in strategicplanning and communications audits, an audit of a firms ethic position is also common.

• Direct economic impacts (Customers, suppliers, employees, providers of capital, public sector)
• Environmental (materials, energy, water, biodiversity, emissions, effluents and waste, suppliers, products and services, compliance, transport, overall)
• (Social) Labour Practices and Decent work (Employment, Labour/management relations, Health and Safety, Training and education, diversity and opportunity).
• (Social) Human rights - Strategy and management, non-discriminiation, freedom of association and collective bargaining, child labour, forced and compulsory labour, disciplinary practices, security practices, indigenious rights.
• (Social) Society - community, bribery and corruptions, political contributions, competiton and pricing
• (social) product responsibility - customer health and safety, products and services, advertising, respect for privacy.

Ethics audit checklist as the pasis for establishing the firms 'ethics quotient'.

a code of ethics is an organisation's statement of its crucial values while the code of conduct is about the ground rules that activate those values.

• 1. ensure stakeholder participation and input by appointing a representative group to oversee development of the code. 
• 2. ennsure integrity of the content of the code so that the practical aspects of the firms operations are taken into account.
• 3. Develop the content of the code by including message of senior management support, discussions of the nature of business ethics, and the organisational values and principles that will underpin conduct. then specify the behviour that the organisation wants to promote.
• 4. Ensure that the code is integrated into the organisation's business systems and is clearly modelled by senior management behaviour. From an HR perspective, recruitment, reward and recognition systems should be closely aligned with the code.
• 5. Communication of the code to all stakeholders is essential. Employees should have thier own copies - in multiple languages if necessary. Copies should alsobe given to key stakeholders, such as contractors and partners.
• 6. Regularly review the working of the code, train staff in ethical conduct, appoint a designated manager and/or committee to oversee ethical maters and give recognition to outstanding ethical conduct.

• it is the public's agency for translating morality into explicit social guidelines and practices and for stipulating punishment for practices. 
• A law abiding person is not necessarily morally sensitive or virtuous, and the fact that something is legally acceptable does not imply that it is morally acceptable.

• 1. the law stiupulates rules of conduct that, if broken, will have consequences reaching beyond moral or ethical disapproval from those who learn of our actions. 
• 2. Those consequences can include the requirement that rule-breakers rectify the damage they cause (eg paying more damages in a civil action for breach of contract) and/or receive punishment because their conduct infrinces social norms (prison for burglary).
• 3. Rectification and punishment are enforced by state institutions such as the police, prosecutors and the courts. 
• 4. In defined conditions, the institutions have access to a range of enforcement tools not available to ordinary citizens in ethical situations. These include powers of arrest, seizure of property, interference with privacy, imprisonment, the use of physical restraint and, in particular circumstances, the right to kill a person.

• statute law - are acts of the parliaments of the states, territories and the commonwealth.
• Common law- is derived from the decisions of judges in the superior courts of the states, territories and the commonwealth.
• two areas of law referred to in the job network case are based on common law principles. Statue law can override common law when they are in conflict.

• civil laws are rules dealing with the way we treat others. Breaking a contract or defamin another person. Civil laws are based on common law princibles while some are drawn from statues. The right to sue for compensation after an unfair dismissal or for losses due to unfair discrimination are examples based on statue law.Most civil claims are for money damages, but courst usually have the power to require rule-breakers to stop wrongful conduct (an injunction) or to complete a contract.
• The criminal law sets rules about bad conduct in which society as a whole has an interest. Crimes such as murder and rape are based on common law. Newer crimes such as selling drugs or interfering with computer data are more likely to be based on statues. statues in some areas (EG OHS) might provide for civil claims for money damages and also for the payment of fines.

Under our federal constitution, state and federal governments have concurrent powers in many areas. Each can pass statutes about the same matter (eg. employement relations). In case of direct conflict federal law will prevail. The states often base their laws on the same model, either following the lead of another state or drawing on the same piece of overseas experience. In some areas, such as OHS there are coordinating bodies at the federal level.

• While law affecting HRM may have strong ethical foundations, the fields of law and ethics do not overlap exactly.
• the law of HRM is derived from both statute law and common law.
• HRM law could involve both criminal and civil perspectives
• HRM law could be affected by state, territorial and federal jurisdiction.

• the legal relationship of employer and employee
• the formation of a valid labour contract
• performance of the contract
• suspension, standing down and termination
• legal remedies for breach of contract
• unfair dismissals
• industrial torts
• unfair work contracts
• discrimination laws

one of the most commonly used tests for an employeestatus is used by courts to distinguish employees from contractors by assuming that employees would be subject to direction as to how the employee would perform their work.

is now used in courts to distinguish enmployees from contractors by using a range of tests and rejecting a single factor as sufficient.