What is an Ethical code?
This is a set of principles governing morality and acceptable behaviour
which we suggest will be acceptable and followed by all preferred partners willing to participate in TuneMalta.
Briefly it covers :
- Personal behaviour e.g. when dealing with customers and suppliers
- Corporate behaviour e.g. when negotiating deals
- Behaviour towards society e.g. when recruiting
- Behaviour in relations to mergers and takeovers
- Ethical issues concerning directors and managers
- Issues relating to maintain fairness in international business
Suggestions for Good Practice
Preferred partners are encouraged to maintain the best relationships with third parties such as :-
- Relations with customers
- Relations with shareholders and other investors
- Relations with employees
- Relations with suppliers
- Relations with the government and the local community
- The environment
- Relations with competitors
Ethics and the supply chain
It would be hypocritical to claim to be an ethical preferred partner if he/she turns a blind eye to unethical practices by its chosen suppliers in the supply chain. An ethical producer has to be concerned with what is practiced by all firms (upstream and downstream) in the supply chain.
Bribery and Corrupt practices
This is a key ethical issue in business relationships:-
- It first needs to be stated that bribery and or use of corrupt practices to secure a contract (especially a contract with a public sector body) is against the law and severe penalties can result
- From a moral or ethical perspective it should be approached not in terms of “can we get away” with it but is it right to offer a bribe to secure a contract
- Maintaining and improving core competencies
What are Core competences ?
Operational skills are the “core competences” that a preferred partner in business has which can provide for a growth strategy. For example¸ the business may have strong competencies in customer service; distribution¸ technology. Core competencies are those capabilities that are critical to a business achieving competitive advantage. The starting point for analysing core competencies is recognising that competition between businesses is as much a race for competence mastery as it is for market position and market power. So ideally the goal is for preferred partners is to focus attention on competencies that really affect competitive advantage.