The Case for Professional Business Ethics

The recent corporate scandals that have rocked Wall Street have shaken the public's trust in the way companies do business. In the midst of these changes, increased connectivity now enables greater access to information that was once private. The only way for companies to thrive in this new transparent world is to put professional business ethics at the core of how they conduct business, demonstrating that they have nothing to hide.

LRN believes that companies now need to "do what's right" by engaging employees in corporate values through a code of business conduct. Companies can begin institutionalizing ethical leadership with the help of training programs beginning with a code of professional business ethics. Over time, business ethics training programs will instill corporate values and ensure employees, their co-workers, customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders conduct business under the same high standards outlined in the company's code of conduct.

Proven Approaches to Implement a Professional Business Ethics Program

Any formal ethics training program of corporate value needs to implement these approaches to create a culture that self-governs around the company's code of professional business ethics:

• Have senior executives and board members set the tone by following the company-wide standard of professional business ethics.
• Educate on corporate values and professional business ethics, not just law and rules, to inspire principled behavior.
• Make business ethics education entertaining, interesting and engaging.
• Reinforce business ethics education and professional business ethics by applying learnings on the job.

LRN, the business ethics training and corporate compliance leader, works with some of the most admired companies in the world. We help organizations develop and implement training programs that foster a culture of professional business ethics and address compliance training needs. You can choose from our extensive library of online courseware or we can create a custom course or program for your company, including communications tools such as emails, posters, videos and interactive activities to promote your program within your company and bring your code of conduct to life.

Since 1993, we've partnered with nearly 300 companies to help make professional business ethics a fundamental part of how they conduct business, locally and around the world. LRN's team of 350 professionals brings a vast knowledge base ranging from academia to business, law to philosophy, high tech to software – with the goal to help you create and promote a code of business conduct that your company can live by. Visit LRN.com and see how we can help you inspire principled performance at your organization.