Ethical Policies Analysis

Every organization ought to have ethical standards that are effective in guiding the ethical conduct of internal stakeholders. Importantly, internal stakeholders should understand and follow the standards. An organization that has an effective ethical policy for guiding the conduct of stakeholders is perceived as being socially responsible.

Time Warner Inc.’s ethical policy is quite elaborate. Firstly, the company has a code of ethics that is meant to guide the conduct of workers. Secondly, the firm has ethical standards meant to guide directors’ conduct. As well, the company has a code of ethics that guides the way internal stakeholders undertake transactions (Time Warner Inc, 2014). Similarly, Mattel has an elaborate ethical policy that defines ethical responsibilities of all internal stakeholders (Mattel, 2011). However, the ethical policies of General Electric and Merck are not comprehensive. The two organizations have brief codes of conduct that do not offer direct definitions of ethical responsibilities of the internal stakeholders (General Electric, 2015; Merck, 2015).

A sales representative working for Time Warner Inc or Mattel is likely to behave in the same way since his or her ethical conduct is guided by the firms’ comprehensive and effective ethical policies. However, a sales representative working for Time Warner Inc or Mattel is likely to behave differently from a sales representative working for General Electric or Merck. This is due to the fact that there are no comprehensive and effective ethical policies to guide workers for General Electric and Merck. Although the ethical policies for Time Warner Inc and Mattel effective, the ethical policy for Time Warner Inc is more admirable since it is more comprehensive than the ethical policy for Mattel (Time Warner Inc, 2014). General Electric and Merck should improve their ethical policies to make them effective in guiding the conduct of their internal stakeholders.

References

General Electric (2015). Working Environment. Retrieved from

http://www.ge.com/careers/culture/life-at-ge/working-environment

Mattel (2011). Code of Conduct. Retrieved from https://corporate.mattel.com/about

us/code_of_conduct.aspx

Merck (2015). Code of Conduct: Our Values and Standards. Retrieved from

http://www.merck.com/about/how-we-operate/code-of-conduct/home.html

Time Warner Inc. (2014). Codes of Conduct. Retrieved from

http://www.timewarner.com/company/corporate-governance/codes-of-conduct