The Case for Corporate Ethics

The media coverage of corporate scandals over the past decade has eroded the trust of key constituents and stakeholders around the world. In addition, increased transparency and connectivity has lead to greater access to sensitive information. The only way to thrive in an era of public scrutiny is to place corporate ethics at the forefront of how your company does business, demonstrating through its actions that the organization has nothing to hide.

LRN believes that "doing what's right" in business signals a return to capitalism's original philosophy to live by a sense of corporate ethics and responsibility. Ethical capitalism – the belief that operating ethically yields greater business returns – requires institutionalizing global business ethics throughout the organization by instating formal corporate ethics training programs. Creating a corporate culture that encourages ethical behavior will attract and retain the best talent. Once employees learn about corporate values and how to work through ethical dilemmas using what they have learned in a formal business ethics training program, they will thrive in an environment that rewards corporate ethics by allowing them to self-govern themselves and their colleagues to live to the company's code of conduct.

Proven Approaches to Bring a Code of Corporate Ethics to Life

A successful ethics training program should incorporate the following key actions to build an organization that lives by a code of corporate ethics:

• Emphasize values, supported by rules, in creating your code of corporate ethics
• Educate employees about the corporate ethics code to make it relevant and real
• Reinforce the code within and beyond the organization, such as for compliance corporate email
• Encourage employees to become active participants in upholding the corporate ethics code and its values
• Gather feedback, measure effectiveness and continually improve the code of conduct

LRN, the global leader in business ethics training and corporate compliance, works with all types of organizations to create and implement corporate ethics courses based on your core values, including a full range of compliance training topics, including sexual harassment training. LRN communications and interactive activities are designed to articulate and promote your code of conduct within your organization.

Since 1993, LRN has worked with nearly 300 clients to make corporate ethics an integral part of their culture. LRN's team of 350 business professionals brings a wealth of expertise – ranging from academia and philosophy to law and technology – to help you build and promote a viable code of business conduct that strengthens your core corporate ethics foundation. Visit LRN.com today and find out how you can inspire principled performance through ethical leadership at your company.