Creating and Implementing an Agency Policy on Ethic

Introduction 

Ethics from a professional perspective are critical for the protection of the public as well as the profession for which they have been established. An ethics policy is developed to ensure that each member of a professional team or agency always act in a manner that upholds the ideals of that profession. Yet, having an ethics agency can be futile unless the same is both effectively implemented and adhered to by the members of the agency. The road to the success of an agency policy on ethics has to begin right from the conception of the process itself. Everything has to be done right and inclusively. Further, there is a need for proper education on both the ethics and the reasons for them upon each and every person who is supposed to adhere to them. Having a consistent reminder of the ethics is also important. Finally, an ethics policy cannot be merely a suggestion, thus it ought to be enforceable upon the agency members. The success of an agency policy is crucial for the agency and its clientele and its success requires a careful adherence to a well set out creation and implementation procedure. 

Establishment 

An ethics policy must be relevant, comprehensive, comprehensible and inclusive. The relevance part takes research and all expertise on ethical matters and how they relate to a particular profession (Giorgini et al, 2015). The ethical threshold and position expected of an officer in a juvenile court might differ from that expected of an officer in a maximum security prison or a SWAT team in a high crime neighborhood. The ethics policy for the three agencies may differ, based on the professional affiliations and the anticipated outcomes kindred to them. To ensure relevance, comprehensive research must be carried out, both on the nature of the agency as well as the ethical standards kindred to it. 

Comprehensiveness in this context means that the ethical policy is all inclusive and provides for each and every aspect of the agency for which it is created (Giorgini et al, 2015). Most agencies deal with multiple issues a good example being financial issues, human rights issues, adherence to procedure and protection of the innocent all at the same time. A comprehensive ethics policy will be wide enough to cover all the subjects but concise enough and free of verbosity so as to be easily studied and understood. This brings in the issue of comprehensibility. An ethics policy is no good unless it is well understood (Giorgini et al, 2015). It must not be like a piece of law that might require being interpreted by an expert every time it is referred to. Instead, it should be simple and comprehensible enough for each and every person who is supposed to adhere to it to understand it. Further, when it comes to enforceability, an issue will always arise about whether or not the ethical position issues was adhered to or not. To avoid protracted and time-wasting proceedings, it is important for an ethical policy to be devoid of ambiguities (Giorgini et al, 2015). 

Finally, there is the issue of inclusivity that deals with who drafts the ethical policy. Expertise is important for the drafting of an effective ethical policy hence someone with a high level of expertise is necessary (Hartman et al, 2014). This expert can be hired externally to assist with the process. Also, there should be an element of inclusivity that includes all the stakeholders involved. Stakeholders vary from agency to agency and the first step in the process would be to establish who the stakeholders are. The obvious stakeholders in any scenario are management and staff members. This will have the highest level of inclusivity in the entire process. In a court system, stakeholders include a representative of the prosecution, the defense, complainants, and defendants. It is worthy of notice that these outside stakeholders do not need to be involved in the actual drafting but their opinion is necessary for the process (Hartman et al, 2014). Ethics are about doing the right things and absolute inclusivity is part and parcel of right. 

Communication to Ensure Awareness and Adoption 

The principal reason for having an ethics policy is for the same to have a bearing on the conduct of all officers within the agency. The success of an ethics policy, therefore, depends inter alia on the policy being communicated right and also the communication eliciting a desire to comply (Hadsell, 2013) . Proper communication goes beyond content and also includes a background and a premise. It is not just enough to tell staff members what is expected of them. Instead, they should also be told basis for which that is expected of them and also why. These means that they will adhere to the ethics not because they have to but because they want to, based on the motivating factors included in the background and the premise. Further, communication must be made before the members are expected to adhere to the policy (Hadsell, 2013) . Informing them that they have broken an ethical rule that they were unaware of is counterproductive. Finally, communication should be constant and consistent. This can be achieved having the ethics rules places in a place where they can be seen such as a notice board. 

Compliance and Reinforcement 

Proper communication as aforesaid is among the keys to ensure compliance with a code of ethics. Among the most important part of proper communication is a consistent reminder. To ensure compliance, it would be important to place a human face on the ethics policy (Schwartz, 2013). Management and staff members can elect one individual to be the face of ethics in the agency albeit this does not need to be the individual’s job description. This individual would continually champion ethics and be an inspiration towards it. Secondly, Impunity is one of the major encouragers for rule breakers. There should be an effective monitoring, evaluation and supervision process to ensure that ethical standards as per the policy are adhered to. It is important to understand that these monitoring, evaluation, and supervision should not be geared towards catching those who fail but rather encouraging adherence (Schwartz, 2013). However, enforcement is also fundamental to the success of the ethical policy. Members caught flouting the rules should be subjected to fair disciplinary action. Steps such as warnings could suffice for first offenders and punitive measures such as suspension and even termination for repeat offenders depending on the extremity of the flout. 

Conclusion 

Every professional requires a code of ethics to be able to better protect the profession as well as the public at large. Government agencies vary exponentially from one another in scope and intended outcomes but they all need ethical policies. These ethical policies must, however, bear an understanding of the specific contexts of the agencies for which they are created. The drafting process not only requires research, expertise but also inclusivity. It is better for members of staff to be bound by rules and regulations that they feel they had a hand in establishing. Communication is also vital to the process and must be done in a manner that elicits a motivation not compulsion towards adherence. The idea is to have ethical policies followed and not to catch employees flaunting them. Yet, steps must be put in place to ensure that those who do flaunt them are both caught and punitive measures are taken against them since ethical policies are not mere suggestions. 

References 

Giorgini, V., Mecca, J. T., Gibson, C., Medeiros, K., Mumford, M. D., Connelly, S., & Devenport, L. D. (2015). Researcher perceptions of ethical guidelines and codes of conduct.  Accountability in Research ,  22 (3), 123-138 

Hadsell, K. (2013). Streamlining the Handling of Allegations of Ethical Misbehavior.  Science ,  36(2). 64-65. 

Hartman, L. P., DesJardins, J. R., & MacDonald, C. (2014).  Business ethics: Decision making for personal integrity and social responsibility . New York: McGraw-Hill 

Schwartz, M. S. (2013). Developing and sustaining an ethical corporate culture: The core elements.  Business Horizons ,  56 (1), 39-50