Setting Up Ethics Code Pays Off, Advisers Say : Workplace: They can help companies avoid countless lawsuits, avoid bad publicity and a tarnished reputation, experts say.

Unflattering portraits of the business world abound.

The headlines tell of venal plunderers laying waste to the savings and loan industry and to venerable Wall Street institutions. On any given day, it seems, a major defense contractor is on the hook for falsifying product claims or passing bribes. The generic pharmaceuticals industry is weathering a drug-switching scandal that has even tainted the Food and Drug Administration. Before Eastern Airlines stopped flying, the government accused it of cutting corners on safety.

What’s going on here?

In reality, the overwhelming majority of business dealings are noncontroversial and totally above board. But negative perceptions have a way of being lasting ones, so it is little wonder that many companies are implementing codes of ethics.

Such documents allow companies to specify what is expected of workers in their dealings inside and outside the company. They also provide companies a good defense, says Ronald E. Berenbeim, a Manhattan expert on business ethics.

“I don’t suppose an ethics code is going to make you a lot of money, but it could save you a lot of money,” he says. “It could help you avoid countless lawsuits, avoid bad publicity and a tarnished reputation.”

Establishing a code of ethics is simple, according to Berenbeim, whose organization surveyed 300 U.S. and international companies three years ago on the topic of corporate ethics.

“If our survey is to be believed, you probably need to involve top management and perhaps the general counsel as you formulate your code,” he says. “What you do not do is involve a consultant very often. Something like 5% of the companies did involve them.

“It’s really easy, you can do it in about a half an hour. What you need is a situation where people talk about what the company stands for and arrive at this code through a process of discussion and debate,” says Berenbeim, a senior research associate with the Conference Board, an organization that aids networking among top executives.

Based on the responses from the Conference Board poll, the six most important ethical issues facing business are: environmental protection, product safety, employee health screening, security of company records, shareholder interests and workplace safety.

Lori Tansey, with the Ethics Resource Center, said a company creating an ethics program can usually break the process into four components:

“The first thing they need to do is a brief assessment of their organization,” says Tansey, whose nonprofit organization is located in Washington and assists corporations with ethical matters. “They need to find out what are some of the problems or issues that their employees or organization is facing.

“That can be done, depending on the size of the organization, through interviews--individually or in focus groups--and, or, with a written survey instrument. Smaller companies probably aren’t going to need a survey; mid-size companies might find that more helpful,” she said.

“The second step is training,” Tansey says. “Given that the business owner should have a pretty good idea of what some of the issues are, ideally the training should start at the top and cascade down.”

Step three: writing the code.

As a final step, companies should create a monitoring system, she said.

“Depending on the company and depending on what the needs are, that can include anything from an ethics ombudsman to an ethics steering committee.”