Ethics And Public Administration Progress: Implementing Code Of Conduct Essay.

Decision on policies and Regulations

Discuss about the Ethics and Public Administration Progress.

The task of managing and maturing code of conduct at the workplace is referred to as “Implementation of code of conduct”. Implementing code of conduct requires collaborating each guideline and policy of the workplace to all the staff members of the organization and also providing proper training to make sure code of conduct has been delivered successfully (Ashkanasy, Falkus and Callan, 2015). Before leading the staff for the essential training related to code of conduct, it must be practiced thoroughly by the management leads. There are certain pre-requisites which must be checked before implementing code of conduct such as: which method should be used for implementing the codes, what strategies will you hold to publicize the code of conduct amongst staff and other external members who are in any case related to the university, what steps must be taken to ensure that values in the code are reflected in every policy and guideline of the university (Ashkanasy, Falkus and Callan, 2015).

The answers to the above question will result in effectively managing the code of conduct at the UTS. Communicating effectively with every single individual related to organization is the most significant factor while managing code. One must clearly explain university’s policy to clients and solve their queries about anything related to the university effectively to make sure that the goal is achieved (Webley, 2013).

To successfully deliver the code to staff members and students, methods that will be implemented are:

• Induction Package: This package consists of all the policies, rules and regulations that directors expects to be obeyed by university’s staff members and students, even newly employed member could review it and understand anticipations and necessities. Not only code of conduct, but work safety and health information, mission statement and similar other information can be induced in this package (Dando & Raven, 2006).
• Online Training: A compulsory online training for every member of the university whether student or staff which will hold all details on code of conduct and an individual can work through it at their own pace but without missing the deadline and to confirm the training, a competency certificate will be issued to all who completed the training on time (Lawton, 2008).

Also this code will be accessible anytime on the company’s intranet, so that if any person wants to review any policy or guideline, it can be done.

Code of conduct must be reviewed periodically by the team responsible for it to make sure that there is no breach of any policy or guideline. Especially, the workplace area related to finances and information system as these contains all the vital data regarding university. Any breach of policy within these departments can result in significant loss which may not overcome till long (Dando & Raven, 2006). One similar issue rose related to breach of IT system policies in which it was clearly mentioned that any staff member or student is not allowed to use any social media or personal application on university’s system but people are still using it violating the company’s policy. In order to ensure security, company decided to block all social media sites and other such applications (Fisher, 2014).

Code of conduct influence in real sense

Code of conduct does influence real work place behavior. When UTS hires an intern, professional behavior and conduct is expected out of him/her, irrespective of whether it is paid internship or unpaid or intern is receiving or not receiving any credit for the work done . All rules, regulations and policies related to internship are discussed and decided in a board meeting which includes all the directors and other important personnel of the university.

The UTS has a certain approach for the conduct to be maintained in the university and amongst all interns. An orientation and training is provided to every intern before the commencement of training period in which they are made aware of all the rules and procedures of the university. Also a handbook is given, in case any intern wants to review something. Interns are expected to arrive on time and work for agreed number of hours on every working day. In case, any intern wants to leave early, he must take permission for the same from the authorized person. Interns must come dressed in formals (Bowman, 2015).

This code of conducts helps an individual to learn how he must behave in his workplace area so that his behavior is ethically correct and are preparing him to work in an environment which he might have to work in for his whole life (Fisher, 2014). In absence of conduct, interns would not care to come in time and may leave early without informing anyone, which is not ethical for both university and intern as it will disturb the environment of the university and other employees might get disturbed. For interns it is not correct because, this will avert them from getting habitual of how to behave in a workplace. Also, according to a policy, an intern is only allowed in restricted premises of the university. Intern can only go to other areas if there is some work, for that he must take permission first. This helps in managing risks as only limited information is accessible to interns, which is necessary for them and as the interns are not permanent employees of the university, they cannot be trusted for everything (Robert and Richard, 2014).

Ensuing professional behavior which is a part of conduct for the university can be very achieving sometimes and may provide beneficial at other times. Paying careful attention to each information imparted and abiding by it, answering emails professionally using formal language and proofreading them before sending, behaving politely with every staff member irrespective of his status and job are some examples which shows professional behavior of an employee and each one them has its own benefits (Hart, 2012). For example, if one maintains good relations and understanding with maintenance staff, he could help you in checking with the mood of your senior before you are going to present something to him. Each and every behavior of an intern is carefully watched and monitored by their superiors and ensuing professional behavior throughout internship course can result in a full time employment with the organization.

Evolving Codes for better adaptations

However, the policies and regulations of the university related to the selection criteria of an intern possess evidential gaps and should evolve with different perspective. There are certain barriers to full time employment or internship in UTS based on socio-economic background, ethnicity and gender which is not feasible. In fact, evidences are there that person with low ethnicity has greater chances of achieving heights in professional career as these have a will and attitude to do and achieve something big. Technical skills and Academic results are the main criteria of UTS while recruiting any intern or full time employee while the most vital skill to look for, should be person’s communication skills and his willingness to learn. Apart from it problem solving skills and adaptability to circumstances are the next level to look for. A person can achieve academic results by cramming one night before exams but other skills discussed are not artificial and they come from within and last forever.

Intern supervision is another area where conduct should change and improve. As the internship program’s motive is to learn and experience, supervision by some senior person is necessary. At present supervisor is only responsible for checking intern’s performances and activities. The responsibilities of supervisor should not only be restricted to be a critic or boss but he must also serve as a teacher and mentor to an intern, especially in the case of fresher and person with very low experience. This could be understand better with the help of an example, the interns who are responsible for the development tasks such as designing a website, are doing work on their own through a defined criteria and their progress is getting checked on monthly basis and they are not even corrected for their mistakes but scolded for the same and are expected to correct it without even knowing what the mistake is. This is generating a very negative attitude amongst all interns and they are afraid to ask for any supervision from their supervisor.

To handle this issue the supervisor must conduct a one-to-one meeting with every intern either weekly or bi-weekly and discuss about the ongoing progress in projects, any difficulty they are facing and must provide a feedback to the work done since last meeting held. This will help an intern to learn better and will generate a positive attitude towards the organization and he will try to give his best in everything as he will desire for a full time employment in the organization. This will also help the supervisor to understand each of their interns well and they can even decide on whom to recommend for further employment that can prove more beneficial to the organization (Kernaghan, 2010).

As per the policy of the university, no member of the UTS are allowed to access social media in organization’s premises as a preventive measures to the security of data and other valued items stored in the company’s system but the ignorant and bossy behavior of supervisor has resulted in loss of interest in work leading in interns to compromise with company’s rules and they are secretly accessing their social media accounts. This breach of conduct is not limited to intern’s working area but has gone much beyond and few employees from almost every department are accessing their social media inside university premises on organization’s system. The reason that breach is successful is because university is ignorant in this context and even after knowing that people are misusing their systems, they left the issue just by announcing a penalty warning (Driscoll and Hoffman, 2010).

The issue is not this small and can create bigger problems in future if not handled properly. For instance, if a manager posts about his experience with certain software on social media and bad people around the corner were in search of a mistake to make a back door entry into the university’s system, this will clear there way and no one knows what harm they may cause to the database. Hence some improvement metrics must be implied to this code in order to prevent risk issues of system being mishandled. Organization must appoint a team to look for the breach and block all the social media sites inside the campus. Also, these sites are accessible through lacks of proxy sites and can even damage the system if user attempts to use it. Appointed team must very carefully review network data on daily basis and block the site and user immediately after the issue is identified. The university must take appropriate action towards that user so that others also maintain the conduct and do not try to breach it (Schwartz, 2013).

Merely deciding on code of conduct and implementing it do not ensure long term stability of the conduct in any organization. To ensure that code stays up-to-date, university must review the code regularly, either quarterly or half-yearly. Every section of the code must be reviewed to make sure that it is still representing the value for the business (Doig and Wilson, 2012). Also, code of conduct must be measured against present guidelines and standard and is there any need to add a new policy in order to ensure valuable business transactions. In case, business has grown up in certain new area such as providing distant education to the students from all over the world may require adding new section to the code of conduct which could be related to online selling behavior of the employees and online buying behavior of students. A survey regarding company’s new code of conduct can be conducted based on questionnaires and anonymous online form filling which will ensure honest reviews from the staff as the staff name will not be revealed and a follow up on the survey to understand the understanding of staff related to new policies and guidelines (Doig and Wilson, 2012).

References

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