Ethics

At the heart of every effective corporate governance program is a robust ethical culture.

Our Director, Professor Stephen Cohen, is widely regarded as one of the most experienced consultants in the field of applied business ethics in Australia.

Trading as the Business Ethics Centre, we offer a range of services related to ethics and corporate culture, including:

Ethics Frameworks
We assist with the design of the overall ethical framework by clearly articulating responsibility for establishing and maintaining the corporate culture. We start with ensuring ownership by the Board, its sub-committees and senior management and then develop a framework which identifies responsibility for communication, training, monitoring and reporting.

Codes of Conduct & Ethics
We have extensive experience in drafting codes of ethics and conduct. We also assist in the implementation of codes throughout an organisation through workshops, online and face to face training and case studies.

Ethics Audits
A consultative service where we work with our client to align their values as professed by the board and senior management and values as actually perceived by various stakeholders, such as shareholders, customers and employees. In the process of an ethics audit we develop and implement processes to maintain the agreed corporate values. The objective is to ensure that all stakeholders share a common sense of purpose and beliefs.

Monitoring & Reporting
We can assist with the development of compliance, whisteblowing, complaints handling, employee feedback and breaches of codes of conduct and ethics; and reporting mechanisms for senior management and the board.

Training & Education
The most effective way to promote responsible behaviour is to develop an ongoing education program for all levels throughout an organisation, including the board and senior management. We assist in the design and ongoing conduct of ethics awareness programs.

Investigations
We have assisted a number of organisations following ethical breakdowns by conducting investigations following regulatory breaches, negative publicity and beaches of internal or industry codes.