Ethics of inclusion

As corporate governance becomes a hotter topic in Poland, more and more businesses are drawing up their own codes of ethics. Though fashionable, simply having a code of ethics isn't enough. Business leaders and experts in the field recently met to discuss their experiences in creating such codes, as well as their views on how to implement a code of ethics successfully and how to avoid common pitfalls when introducing them.

Participants at the conference, organized by the Responsible Business Forum (Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu) agreed that the keys to creating a successful code of ethics for a company lies in a few simple elements. Firstly, the code must be applied equally to top managers and ordinary employees. Secondly, it should reflect a balance between the expectations of the employer and those of the employees. "Owing to this, [the code] becomes not theirs, but ours," said Ewa Bielicka-Piesyk from PKN Orlen. Finally, the importance of a company's code of ethics should be emphasized at every level.

"Scandals in Enron happened because the awareness was being built only at the bottom, not on top," said Dominik Lisiewski from DNV Polska.

Despite the current fashion for focusing on corporate governance, the participants lamented that all the talk leads to little action, and thus is often not implemented. "There is a lot of talk about codes of ethics - which is very important - but there is still a problem with execution," said Andrzej Brzozowski, an independent consultant.

The experts agreed that creating a code of ethics is easy, but creating one which will be accepted and followed by everyone in a firm is much more difficult.