Assignment: Mission Statement and Ethics Policy
Imagine you and a partner have joined together in a newly formed business venture that has the potential to be successful in providing a needed service or pleasurable activity. This new business venture also has the potential to earn you and your partner a good return on your investment. As a part of your partnership, you agree that writing a mission and purpose statement or credo will be helpful for public relations. You also want to develop an ethics policy to guide the actions of employees of your new business.
An example of a new business venture might be one of the following: a specialty retail store (such as food, cigars, ice cream or others), a service of some type (package delivery, home repair/remodel, or others), or any other type of business.
Mission Statement
Your business's mission statement or credo should contain the following responsibilities:
• Ethical responsibility to your customers
• Ethical responsibility to your employees
• Ethical responsibility to your community
• Ethical responsibility to investors
• Ethical responsibility to other identified stakeholders
What would your mission statement say? What values would you include?
Ethics Policy
The ethics policy should reflect the possible circumstances where ethics might be breached. Depending upon the type of business, certain protocols should be followed to ensure that best ethics and best practices are followed. This could involve things like the following:
• Cutting corners to increase production
• Employee theft
• Customer relations
The ethics policy should reflect management of potential ethical risks associated with the business. This could involve things like the following:
• Violation of employment laws
• Violation of environmental laws
• Violation of health and safety laws
The ethics policy should reflect ways to instill a strong ethical sense of ethics in both owner and employees. This could involve things like the following:
• Communication of employee expectations
• Rewarding employees who report possible ethical issues that may affect business reputation
• Rewarding employees who demonstrate behaviors that align with company expectations
• Business owner/management who serve as role models for ethical behavior
Write a 3- to 5-page paper in which you do the following:
• Describe your new business.
• Create a mission statement and ethics policy for the business that reflect values and compliance with existing laws and good business practice.
• Explain how the mission statement and ethics policy serve guidelines for evaluating potential ethical issues, managing ethical risk, and instilling a strong sense of ethics in both owners and employees.
Use information from the readings, outside research, or other valid sources to support your views and ideas. Note: You may wish to review the mission statement and ethics policies of your workplace or a business familiar to you.
Watch the "Moment of Truth - Business and Better Decision Making" video [3:22].- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7chfmZ469lE&feature=youtu.b
Required Course Materials
Read Ch. 2, "Stakeholder Relationships, Social Responsibility, and Corporate Governance" of Business Ethics.
Read the following sections of Conscious Capitalism:
• Ch. 3, "Purpose: The Corporation's Search for Meaning"
• Ch. 4, "Discovering the Growing Purpose"
Title: Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases
Edition: 11th
Authors: Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L.
ISBN-13: 9781305500846
Title: Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business
Authors: MacKay, J., & Sisodia, R.
ISBN-13: 9781422144206.