Ethics as a Business Process

Adam Turteltaub wrote Ethics as a Business Process for the fall 2005 edition of GRC 360.

Forward-looking companies are seeking to evolve business from soft art to hard science as a means to win in the marketplace, improve competitive advantage, achieve higher market valuations, ensure employee retention, foster fruitful partnerships and strengthen customer satisfaction.

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There are three key areas to consider when examining the creation of business processes around ethics:

People: An organization must examine and manage the extent which ethical conduct is embedded into the fabric of business thinking and fully understand the ethical risks employees face.
Process: An organization must set forth an effective business framework that integrates all ethics and compliance-related activities within the enterprise.
Technology: An organization must leverage tools that automate the process to achieve greater efficiency and provide management with the data it needs to assess the health of the effort and respond quickly to problems.