Out of curiosity, I went to one of the popular search engines on the Internet and I searched the phrase “Standards of Conduct”. I got back 11,800,000 possible references. Wow! Just scanning through several pages, I found that companies, federal agencies and associations throughout the United States are very publicly publishing their Standards of Conduct. Now, while much of this interest in publishing Standards of Conduct has been brought on by events over the past couple of years with large companies like Enron and WorldCom, the fact is that the majority of companies have always been ethical in their business transactions.
At MESA, I created a formal Standards of Conduct in 2003. I didn’t do this because of any historical problems with conduct or by publicity brought on by unethical corporate behaviors. I did it because of communication.
Throughout our company’s 26 year history, we have always operated our business to the highest standards of ethics – we don’t lie, cheat, steal or “buy” business. We provide a quality service at a fair price. With so many long-term employees at MESA, I thought everyone clearly understood the expectations about how MESA does business. As our company has grown and added new employees, I began to realize that I could not expect new employees to understand my expectations without defining them. I once read, “Ethics in a corporation is like water – it flows downhill.” MESA had grown to a point where I wanted to insure employees knew where I stood on ethical behavior.
Our Standards of Conduct is nothing new, no major revelations, and no major changes. It simply documents the expectations of how MESA will do business. This Standards of Conduct document allows me to more effectively communicate with new employees and reinforce to existing employees my expectations of ethical conduct.
Since developing the MESA Standards of Conduct, we have extended these expectations of business conduct to our customers and suppliers. We did this because our standards touch on all our internal dealings – how we relate to our peers; how we communicate with people; how we relate to customers and suppliers.
A couple of months ago, I reviewed our Standards of Conduct. It is a three-page document available to all employees and I realized that the document is pretty unwieldy. So, I created a shortened Code of Conduct. This Code is only four sentences long and essentially encapsulates the longer Standards of Conduct document. All employees now carry a wallet card with the four Codes of Conduct as a continual reminder of how we will operate our business:
Create a safe and enjoyable workplace, producing and installing safe products.
Obey laws and support and protect our community and environment.
Deal respectfully with people, just as we would like to be treated.
Ethical and honest relationships with our stakeholders; neither asking, accepting nor offering anything more than quality products and services for a fair price.
Because of these communication tools , I no longer have to depend
on employees to read my mind about whether this is OK or that is OK.
We now have a defined statement of our conduct.
Sincerely,
Terry May