The global business standards codex

8-1 Group Short Paper: Global Business Conduct Introduction Modern multinational industries cannot adapt their ethics rules to the standards and procedures of their local facilities. Adjusting corporate values to comply with the significant regulations of different countries without maintaining the same principles supported in the central offices could prove a detrimental strategy. Although it is easy to move with the flow, the management working in the global facilities must close the gap between the behavior in the subsidiaries and the ethical conduct in the home country. Closing the gap does not mean repeating the primary policies, but reaching higher levels of these standards. The Global Business Standard Codex is a definite but extensive vision of the conduct expected in modern companies around the world (Paine, Deshpandé, Margolis, & Bettcher, 2005). The customization of the codex, to create adequate guidelines for each different enterprise, is the ongoing work of the management. Compliance and Ethics Different countries are adopting stricter legislation that directly affects the performance of multinational companies working on their soils. Organizations are highly adaptive, but the change seems to be too late, too little. Regardless of the firm’s efforts to achieve the elevated levels of ethical standards, both customers and employees think that the enterprise doesn´t live up to those standards. There is a difference between the level of compliance of company to the ethics code and the public´s perception of the observance. An ongoing survey answered by 880 individuals to date shows the difference between the desired adherence to the ethical code and the perceived conduct of the companies. The higher ranked employees in the company exhibited the more positive opinions. The survey asked about the 62 standards described in the Global Business Standard Codex; from the respect for the dignity of the employees to the innovative aspects of the company to the policies against corporate crime (Paine, Deshpandé, & Margolis, 2011). The analysis of the data also demonstrated that the most controversial points included in the Codex were employee-related topics, fundamental issues related to human welfare, and business integrity. Employees are a vital part of the company, and firms must treat them the same way they want the employees to handle their customers. When employees feel that they don´t receive the deserved compensation, the communications with management become complicated. When there are no responses to employees´ concerns, the situation needs a critical and immediate change. Also, the most significant gaps in the standard business integrity were about fair dealing, promise-keeping, and the resolution of interest conflicts. Another challenge to the success of compliance and ethics programs is that most companies focus on the legal side of ethics. This thought process focuses on the binary categories - ethical versus unethical, compliant versus non-compliant, legal versus illegal. These categories leave little room for different levels of performance or gradual improvement over time (Paine, Deshpandé, & Margolis, et al., 2011). Performance Tools and Decision-Making Processes There are numerous policies to implement and tools to use for the improvement of adherence, both real and perceived, to ethical principles. The continuous collection of data and the evaluation of the ethical performance of organizations are some of the duties of management. Setting goals and measuring the achievement of the objectives will help to have an evidence-based knowledge about the ethical behavior of the firm. Also, creating programs that involve the best practices elements and conduct standards and policies can generate better overall performance in moral assessments.