Ethical Climate of Knoll Furniture Company

Knoll company is an American based furniture company, which over time has ventured into international markets. The company majors in design, installing and marketing room furniture. The main area of their specialization being in chairs and tables, thus making them more suited for office and restaurants furniture (Floré, 2015). The company has been in existence since the 1920s and since then, it has always progressed on well. Each year the company comes up with new furniture designs all suited to the customer’s specifications.

The success of the company can be attributed to many issues but key among them is their good record of accomplishment on ethical issues. With thousands of employees worldwide, the company has been able to maintain good reputation in the public. Historically, the company has no major issues in their ethics as the company has put strict measures to ensure that all its employees comply with company ethical issues (Floré, 2015). In areas where one of its associates is not aware of what is required of them, one is required to seek legal advice from their qualified legal team. Since the 1920s, the company has been updating its code of ethics to ensure that they comply with the laws of the country they operate in, and to ensure that the codes are relevant to the company’s business environment and its associates.

Formal Ethical and Legal Compliance Structures and Processes

The company has fifteen codes of ethics, which are readily available to all the employees of the company. Each employee is provided with the code of ethics during their employment and is expected to sign once that person has read it. Once signed, any violation of the ethical issues invites penalty and can lead to the termination of the employment contract of the person involved. The code of ethics covers a range of issues, among them includes: compliance with the government laws, keeping the environment clean, insider trading, antitrust compliance, business accounting practices, preventing fraud, conflicts of interest, protection of company assets, fair employment practices, good supplier relations, fair transactions with the government, international business policy, involvement in politics, confidential information, and copyrights (Kolk, 2016).

With all the above codes of ethics, the key part is ensuring that all the associates of the company comply with the set ethics. To do this, it is the collective responsibility of every employee to ensure that their colleagues adhere to the codes. Those found not practicing are required to be reported to their immediate bosses where the issue is applicable. Those found to conceal the ethics breakers are also punished accordingly. The company has also established a strong legal team that ensures all the above is adhered to. The team advises the management on the way forward on those found not adhering to the company ethics policies. The vice president of the company together with the human resource managers and the governing council are charged with the mandates of ensuring that the company ethics are complied with, as they are the ethics officers. It is from this practice that the company has been able to keep a clean record of the image of the company in the public eye. Violators are punished severely and fairly, in a way that they act as a warning to the rest.

Current Ethical Climate

The current ethical climate can be described as good. Most of the associates have read the code of ethics and understood them. For those who do not understand, the human resource department and the legal team helps them understand what is required of them. In areas where one is not sure of the ethical issues, one can seek clarity from the relevant bodies. It is, for this reason, that majority of the associates do not find it difficult to comply. The ethics are also created in a way that they ensure the common good of the employees and the company. Due to this, the associates have taken the policies positively, thus compliance becomes easy (Kolk, 2016). One of the codes of ethic is fair employment practice. It requires fair treatment of employees by their managers and fellow workers. With such a requirement, the employees feel that they are cared for, and so they work hard to ensure they comply with other company policies which protect the company. Due to the fair treatment of the violators, the ethical climate is, therefore, a good one.

Discussion

From the above points, it can be seen that the Knoll has good ethics. Ranging from respecting and obeying the laws of the country, they operate in, to ensuring that they keep the environment safe, and ensuring that they practice their business fairly recognizing that they have different competitors. The company strives to keep a good image in the public by ensuring that those found practicing fraud are taken care of. From all the ethics of the company, it can be said that the company has been successful in creating and implementation of their ethics. It is for this reason that the company is able to expand its customer base due to their policies, which ensure customer satisfaction (Kolk, 2016). The management has also done a lot to create such objective ethics, which ensure prosperity not only for the company but also that of its employees too.

Recommendation

The company has good ethical practices, which have been tested and proved, and are working, however there some areas where the company needs to improve on. One of the areas is on fair treatment of employees. It is here where the company barns managers from falling in love with their juniors in that they might favor them. Such a policy ought to be changed since even the founders of the company fell in love and that did not affect the company.  Another issue is on disclosing insider information. The company ought to come up with proper policies on this to ensure that they do not accuse someone wrongly for allegedly sharing that information. Lastly is in the conflict of interests. The company should elaborate more on what conflict of interests entails. Failure to this would bar some of its workers from business opportunities, which arises within the company which would be an extra source of income to the employees. Therefore, such ethical issues should be addressed in aid to raise the living standards of its employees.

Appendix

Southwest airline is a low-cost carrier airline based in Dallas Texas. The company’s code of ethics statement is available online as a pdf. According to this statement, all the employees are required to adhere to it (Hoppe, 2016). Key among the issues addressed include complying with the laws of their state and country, keeping confidential/insider information safe, allowing competition and fair dealing corruption and payment of bribes policies, safeguarding company property, conflicts of interests, and proper record keeping.

From the above codes, it is my opinion that the codes are relevant. The reason behind this is the fact that such policies are human-centered. They ensure that the company remains competitive in the market and that its employees serve the customers in a satisfactory way.

 It is due to such policies that the company has been able to serve the customers well. Many people are pleased with their services if only the employees of the company comply with the code of ethics. In areas where the employees have gone against the written codes, like when one of their pilots was recorded using abusive language against fellow employees, or when the crew assaulted a passenger, the public was outraged. In these incidents, the employees failed to follow and practice the company policies, and they had to apologize to the public. Thus, it shows that compliance or non-compliance with the code of ethics has adverse effects on the stakeholders and their business environment.

The weak points of their ethics are in compliance. The company has good policies, but they have not pressured their employees to comply by constantly reminding them of what is required of them. The strengths of the same are there in that the written documents present an ideal situation for any airline (Hoppe, 2016). All that is required of them is the proper practice of the same. Comparatively, the policies of this airline have many similarities with those of Knoll, especially protecting company property, accounting, obeying the laws and keeping insider information safe.

References

Floré, F. (2015). Interior Design and Postwar Diplomacy. Furniture Company De Coene as Partner in the Negotiation of American and Belgian Identities.

Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23-34.

Hoppe, E. (Ed.). (2016). Ethical issues in aviation. Routledge.