A Study on Accenture and an Analysis of its Ethical Culture Essay

The current paper intends to make an in-depth investigation and analysis of the ethical culture and performance of a large organization which can be a prospective employer to the members of the workforce. This paper will discuss on Accenture, as a competitive international company, and how it promotes ethical culture with its operations. Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company. Dedicated to delivering innovation, it works in partnership with its clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. Accenture can muster the right people, skills and technologies to help clients improve their performance with deep industry and business process expertise, broad global resources and a proven track record,. Their â€Å"high performance business† strategy builds on their proficiency in consulting, technology and outsourcing to help clients perform at the highest levels so they can create sustainable value for their customers and shareholders. They discover new business and technology trends and develop solutions to help their clients using the industry’s knowledge, service-offering skill and technology capabilities. Accenture is known for their strengths that distinguishes them in the marketplace. They are known for their extensive industry expertise, broad and continuously evolving service offerings, expertise in transforming business outsourcing, history of innovation and implementation, including their research and development capabilities, on which they spend about $250 million a year, and the commitment of their employee to long-term development and their distinctive management team with such proven experiences. As professionals, we intend to pursue a career in an organization which will not only promise financial stability, but an organization which will guarantee professional and personal growth. An organization which will open us a world of opportunities, where we can harness our skills and discover more of our potentials and where we can find self-worth as being valuable assets for them. Most importantly, we should look for an organization which gives high regard to its environment and looks after the welfare of its people. Moving further along our career paths, one of our priorities is to have a clear layout of what we envision our future to be, one of the biggest concerns are the organizations that we might have the chance to work with, and Accenture has always been one of the top choices of professionals today. Many believe that Accenture works beyond the scope of their nature, with their excellent business performance and their involvement in ethical culture, Accenture is indeed a socially responsible organization. Body: Grounded in a set of founded values, Accenture have long embraced and consistently strived to apply these in their daily work, these core values have served as a range to guide their decision-making at a company and individual level. Together, they have put these values into practice and have constructed a deeply skilled, world-class and globally competitive company. Their steadfast dedication to these values is essential to ensure that they will operate with the highest ethical standards and achieve their vision, which is to become one of the world’s leading companies, bringing constant advancements to improve the world works and lives. These core values are as follows: First is â€Å"stewardship†, wherein they are geared to build a heritage of generations, acting with an owner mentality, developing people in everywhere they go and meeting their commitments to all their stakeholders, both internal and external. Second value is â€Å"best people†, in which they are dedicated to attracting and developing the best talents for the business, stretching their people and harnessing them to develop a â€Å"cam do† attitude. Client value creation† is their third value, in which they are focused in improving their clients’ business performance, creating long-term, win-win relationships and focusing on execution excellence. The next value is â€Å"one global network† which involves the mustering the power of teaming to deliver constantly exceptional service to their clients around the world. Another value is â€Å"respect for individual† in which they are geared to valuing diversity, ensuring an inclusive and interesting environment, and treating people the way they would like to be treated. Lastly but definitely not the least is â€Å"integrity† wherein they are engaged in inspiring trust by taking responsibility, acting ethically, and encouraging honest and open debates. An essential part of their identity is being a good corporate citizen. They support their people’s passion in bringing positive and lasting change to their communities, and they bring their efforts of corporate citizenship to the same principles of high performance that they apply to work with their clients. As a global organization, Accenture believes that they have a role; they have the responsibility to proactively engage with the communities they live and work. Corporate citizenship fosters motivation, employee pride and communal awareness through a methodical framework which, anchored by a strong set of core values and Code of Business Ethics, drives stability and precision across their businesses and workforces. One of Accenture’s policies is flexible working, which allows staff to spend more time at home and allows the company to retain key employees who may otherwise decided against working for Accenture. Accenture continually reviews how the employees are experiencing their flexible working arrangements to guarantee that changeover is as smooth and successful as possible for everyone involved. In line with the Core Value of Best People, Accenture identifies the priceless contribution of all its employees in attaining business objectives and be set to provide an environment which is both conducive and supportive to combining parenthood with a career in the organization. (http://www. wherewomenwanttowork. com) Since the paper intends to discuss Accenture as an organization who adopts ethical culture. We will be discussing what ethical culture in a generalized level is and how it can be achieved by an organization. What is generally referred to as â€Å"ethical culture† is actually a conception that puts together two distinct systems—ethical culture and ethical climate. It is of the essence to take a thoroughly look at both systems in order to fully comprehend â€Å"ethical culture. † Ethical culture looks at how an organization displays and teaches the extent to which it regards its values. Explicitly, the ethical culture of an organization: teaches employees whether doing the right thing matters; makes doing what is right expected; and includes formal ethics program elements, reward and punishment systems, and organizational myths. (ethical culture – executive summary. pdf). Ethical culture takes in the rules, roles, and values that inform ethical conduct. It is the circumstance of conformity behavior, risk managing, business strategy and growth. (http://www. itapintl. com/ethicalculturepractice. htm) An organization has to gauge and assess that culture in a manner that can then lead to realistic steps to closing gaps and reducing risks of unethical, if not criminal conduct, if it needs to manage its corporate culture to sustain ethical standards. The ethics of an organization are the composite of the ethics of its employees and managers. An organization needs to know whether its people embrace the values necessary to move the organization towards its ethical goals. An organization is only as ethical as its leaders. Leaders must not only demonstrate a high degree of personal uprightness, but must also represent the values necessary to create an ethical environment within the organization. Being respected encourages a sense of engagement and willingness to participate in building an ethical culture. Business leaders have thus a heavy accountability, but one for which they are more than ever well suited. Leaders have the command to contour the culture of their organizations. What is needed in the business world is a better perceptive of what ethical culture means and how business leaders can make the most impact. Leaders should work to create a values-based ethics program that also encourages compliance with the law. In addition, they ought to demonstrate their apprehension for the interests of internal and external stakeholders and commit to making the needs of others a business precedence (Trevino, et al. , 1999). Finally, they must remember that ethical leadership requires modeling, coaching, and careful communication. A dynamic ethical culture gives organizations a high degree of comfort that it can bear up challenges to its integrity. Best practices have shown that key attributes such as these point toward a healthy ethical culture: Employees feel a sense of responsibility and accountability for their actions and for the actions of others, employees freely heave issues and concerns without fear of retribution, managers sculpt the behaviors they demand of others, managers correspond the importance of integrity when making complex decisions, leadership understands the pressure points that coerce unethical performance, leadership develops processes to identify and remedy those areas where pressure points occur. h Employees and managers understand why doing the right thing is important for the organization’s long-term feasibility, and they have the strength of mind, audacity and independence to see that the right thing gets done in an ethical culture. An ethical culture supports self-governing thinking employees and managers who make decisions unfailing with the organization’s values. The challenge is shaping how to get to this state, and whether the tools in place to gauge and examine performance of the ethics program are adequate to gauge whether ample advancement is being made. Many organizations have set expectations for ethical behavior and are working towards maintaining a strong â€Å"tone from the top. † However, many of these same organizations really don’t know whether their employees and managers will demonstrate integrity in their actions when they are under pressure, and immediate business objectives loom large in front of them. As the former director of accounting at WorldCom, Buford Yates, Jr. said as he was sentenced to a year in prison for his role in the fraud, that when faced with a decision that required moral courage, he takes the easy way out. Corporate culture is made up of collective values of employees and managers that are reflected in their collective actions. Companies must therefore be conscious of the variety of values held by its employees if it is to be able to shape and guide its culture towards supporting the kinds of ethical behaviors needed to reduce the risk of ethics indignities and criminal prosecution. (http://www. workingvalues. com/Risk_WhitePaper. pdf) Culture is different, and is measured differently. An organization’s culture is not something that is created by senior leadership and then rolled out. A culture is an objective depiction of the organization, for better or worse. Culture is the sum total of all of the collective values and behaviors of all of its employees, managers, and leaders. By characterization it can only be calculated by criteria that mirror the individual values of all employees. Therefore, understanding cultural susceptibilities that can lead to ethics issues requires comprehension of what encourages all of the employees and how the innumerable of human behaviors and interactions fit together like puzzle pieces to create a whole picture of the organization. An organization moves towards an ethical culture only if it understands the full range of values and behaviors needed to meet its ethical goals. The â€Å"full-spectrum† organization is one that creates a positive sense of engagement and purpose which drives ethical behavior. A dynamic ethical culture gives organizations a high degree of comfort that it can endure challenges to its integrity. (http://www. workingvalues. com/Risk_WhitePaper. pdf) Most of the organizations have a policy that proscribes retaliation against those who bring forward apprehensions or claims. On the other hand, creating a culture where employees feel secure enough to admit inaccuracies and to raise uncomfortable issues requires more than a policy (Legal Risk Management) and â€Å"code training† (Integrity Risk Management). To truly build up an ethical culture, the organization must be aware of how their managers deal with these issues up and down the line, and how the values they exhibit impact preferred behaviors. The organization must understand the demands its people are under and how they act in response to those pressures. The organization must know how its managers correspond and whether employees have a sense of responsibility and purpose. Determining whether an organization has the capabilities to put in place such a culture requires cautious assessment. Like do employees and managers demonstrate values such as respect? Or do employees feel accountable for their actions and feel that they have a stake in the success of the organization? These factors may well determine the success of â€Å"code training† on fear of retribution. Visibility sets in motion on with corporate executives. Everyone is in a unique position to demonstrate leadership on ethical issues, showing investors and the organization’s employees that ethics and values are inherent in the business. To create a culture of ethics, talk explicitly about ethics and values. Demonstrate values through every decision being made. Make certain that employees know that they can ask for explanation of policies or report possible wrongdoing or transgression without fear of retaliation. Through being an example, managers and employees will be better able to be aware of ethical issues and understand the company’s serious commitment to ethical choices. Good leadership is more than rousing speeches or motivating statements printed at the front of a company’s code of conduct. The employees may listen to what the management says but they will remember what they do. Ethical attitudes can’t be bonded onto the foundation of the organization—they have to be woven in. The management’s example and leadership will help to permeate the corporate culture with good ethical values. Upholding a strong ethical culture is indispensable for acting in accordance with with the laws and regulations, but this alone cannot be the stimulus for ethical culture building. Further than the large impact an organization’s culture has on the bottom line, the development of programs to cultivate ethical conduct must sustain a focal point on fairness, encouragement, and communication at all employee levels. Along these lines, employees must be given the suitable tools and representations to align their behavior with company culture and employ in ethical decision-making. The attitudes, choices, and actions of business leaders take part in a most important role in the creation of an organization’s ethical culture and environment; expectations for employees’ ethical behavior can only be set as high as the organization’s leadership is willing to meet. A leader’s capacity to consistently encourage ethical conduct in an organization is critical to making certain that employees understand how to make â€Å"doing what is right† a priority. (ethical culture – executive summary. pdf).