1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Ethics in the generic term, which is driven by a combination of individual and/or family values, moral principles, religious beliefs, cultural norms and best practices. Individual's values are derived from moral principles that define what is right or wrong, whereas an individual's choices are actions taken in doing what is right or wrong. The 2007–2009 global financial crisis was partially caused by a number of ethical lapses by both organizations and individuals involved in the mortgage markets, including mortgage originators, financial intermediaries, investment banks, and mortgage borrowers. These lapses collectively contributed to the 2007–2009 global financial crisis and resulted in the global economic meltdown, and have threatened the sustainability of individuals, businesses and governments. The crisis and related financial scandals have caused policymakers, regulators and ethics advocates to ask the question: To what extent do ethics and corporate culture affect the business process? Another question posed is whether ethics performance should be reflected in overall corporate reporting. This chapter addresses these and other ethics-related questions in the context of the ethical dimension of sustainability performance worldwide and particularly in Asia.

2. INTRODUCTION

Ethics are broadly described in the literature as (1) moral principles about right and wrong and (2) honorable behaviors reflecting values or standards of conduct.¹ Honesty, openness, responsiveness, accountability, due diligence and fairness are core ethical principles. Business ethics is a specialized study of moral righteousness. An appropriate code of ethics that sets the right tone at the top promoting ethical and professional conduct and establishing the moral structure for the entire organization is the backbone of effective corporate governance. Corporate culture and compliance rules should provide incentives and opportunities to maintain honesty. Attributes of an ethical corporate culture or an integrity-based culture refer to employee responsibility, freedom to raise concerns, managers modeling ethical behavior and expressing the importance of integrity. The company's directors and executives should demonstrate through their actions as well as their policies a firm commitment to ethical behavior throughout the company and a culture of trust within the company. Although the “right tone at the top” is very important in promoting an ethical culture, actions often speak louder than words. This chapter presents the ethical dimension of sustainability performance reporting and assurance worldwide and in Asia.

3. BUSINESS ETHICS

Business ethics is a set of moral principles, organization culture and values, best practices and standards that guide business behaviors. Business ethics refers to the collective values of a business organization, which can be used to evaluate whether the behavior of the members of the organization is considered acceptable and appropriate, and whether the business is held accountable in terms of its openness, integrity and behaviors. Organizational ethics is a set of formal and informal standards of conduct that people use to guide their behaviors at work. These standards are partly based on core values such as honesty, mutual respect, openness, fairness, mutual respect and trust but they can also be learned directly from the actions of others including colleagues and superiors.

Ethics is a relatively broad concept that can be viewed from different aspects. The strongest form of defense against business failure comes from an organization's ethical culture and honorable behaviors. The effectiveness of ethics performance depends on employees' moral conscience and begins with the tone that management sets at the top and workplace integrity. The attributes of an ethical corporate culture include the existence of codes of conduct for senior executives and employees. Appropriate ethical policies and procedures in the workplace can affect the integrity and quality of financial reporting and thus the cost of capital.

Business sustainability in the ethical dimension provides information to investors about the relationship between the corporation and employees. Such information is beneficial to both debt-holders and stockholders when they are assessing the expected return on securities issued by the firm. However, the effect of the ethical dimension of business sustainability should be different for debt and equity holders. Bond holders should benefit more from this dimension of business sustainability as they can benefit from the improved employer–employee relationship between the firm and its workers, but do not need to bear the higher cost associated with the improved relationship such as higher salary or cash-profit sharing. Many factors affect an ethical workplace for employees including employee relations and human rights. Some of the good attributes for employees of an ethical workplace are (1) strong union relations (2) no-layoff policy (3) cash-profit sharing (4) employee involvement (5) retirement benefits (6) health and safety (7) other employee relationship strengths (8) indigenous people relationship strengths and (9) other human rights strengths. In relation to employees and the ethical workplace, bad attributes include (1) weak union relation (2) health and safety practices (3) workforce reductions (4) retirement benefits (5) other employee relations concerns (6) labor rights concerns (7) indigenous people relations concerns and (8) other human rights concerns.

Corporations should establish an ethical workplace culture of integrity and competency that encourages all employees to follow and exemplify. Some of the core cultural values that are intended to inspire a culture of integrity and competency in the workplace include:

• Upholding the highest ethical standards and integrity along with a culture of accountability in the workplace.
• Promoting the culture of good citizenship by adding value to the organization, protecting employee health and safety and managing and taking responsibility for natural resources.
• Avoiding conflicts of interest by considering what is best for the entire organization when making decisions.
• Focusing on producing safe and good quality products and services by achieving business results and customer success.
• Being fair and treating others with dignity and respect and promoting diversity.
• Promoting excellence by helping others reach their potential.
• Participating in developing objectives and embracing changes.

The growth of the field of business ethics globally is enhanced and accelerated by (1) the existence of an active global business ethics network which promotes business ethics through facilitating reciprocal learning and research (2) the societal demand to stop business scandals (3) regulatory pressure through corporate governance reform and corruption prevention.²

Business ethics is often interpreted as (1) complying with all applicable laws, rules, regulations and standards (2) refraining from breaking the criminal law relevant to all business activities (3) avoiding conflicts of interest that is detrimental to business success (4) avoiding any actions that may result in civil lawsuits against the company and (5) refraining from actions that are bad for the company image and reputation. Businesses are especially concerned with actual and perceived unethical business activities that may cause the loss of money, business damages and reputation. Public companies are required by the US SEC to have business codes of conduct that address these and other ethical issues and existence of such codes of business conduct should be disclosed publicly. Public companies also retain corporate attorneys and public relations experts to monitor employees in their daily activities in observing the established codes of conduct. The audit committee should oversee the establishment and implementation of business ethics programs and processes. Although being moral may prevent a company from some legal and public relations challenges, morality in business is not without cost. A morally responsible company should invest in employee satisfaction, product safety, environmental impact, truthful advertising and scrupulous marketing.

There is always an apparent conflict between the ethical interests of the money-minded business person and the ideal-minded philosopher. A business-oriented individual may argue that there is a symbiotic relationship between ethics and business. This means that ethics naturally emerges from a profit-oriented business. In this context, good ethics result in good business which simply implies that moral business practices are profitable and sustainable. For example, it is profitable to make safe products since this will reduce product liability lawsuits. Similarly, it may be in the best financial interests of businesses to respect employee privacy since this will improve morale and thus improve work efficiency. Some moral business practices may not be economically viable even in the long run. Retaining older workers who are inefficient as opposed to replacing them with younger and more efficient workers may be an example of this. It can also be argued that in a perfectly competitive and free market, an immoral company will be “priced” out in a morally proper environment in the long run. That is, when customers demand safe products or workers demand privacy, then they will buy from or work for only those businesses that meet their expectations. Businesses that do not meet these demands will not be sustainable as far as these employees are concerned.

Another approach to business ethics is that moral obligations require compliance with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. Corporations that assume an obligation beyond mere compliance with law, and regulations, take on responsibilities that are normally considered optional and ethical. Strictly following this legal approach to business ethics may indeed prompt businesses to do the right thing as prescribed by law. However, there are overriding challenges with restricting morality solely to what the law requires. First, even in the best legal context, the appropriate law will lag behind moral condemnation of certain unscrupulous yet legal business practices. For example, drug companies could previously make exaggerated claims about the miraculous curative properties of their products. New government regulations may prohibit exaggerated claims. Prior to the enactment of a law, there will be a period when a business practice can be deemed immoral, yet the practice will still be legal. This will be a continuing problem since innovations in products, technology, and marketing strategies will present new questionable practices that cannot be addressed by existing legislation. A second problem with the law-based approach is that, at best, it applies only to countries whose business-related laws are morally conscientious. The environment may be different for developing countries that lack sophisticated laws and regulatory agencies.

4. PROFESSIONAL CODES OF CONDUCT

Organizations communicate their values, accepted standards for decision-making, and all other rules of behavior to their employees, clients, members and trading partners. Professional organizations such as the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), Institute of Management Accountants (IMA), Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), American Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) and American Accounting Association (AAA) among others have their codes of ethical conduct. All of these organizations have standards of conduct explicitly or implicitly. Some publish some codes of conduct or ethics which help organizations deal with the underlying values, commitment to employees, standards for doing business, and relationship with wider society, while some do not.

These codes of conduct not only demand maximization of social welfare and transparency but also increased focus on ethics, corporate governance, and corporate responsibility. These codes may be required by laws and regulations in some countries. Some codes are prompted by market mechanisms such as movements in share price or a combination of market forces and regulations while some codes are published by psychological organizations or other organizations. Below are some examples of professional codes of conduct:

1. The American Psychological Association (APA) has the APA Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct.³
2. The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) articulates ethical principles, values, and standards to guide all members of the CPA whether scientists, practitioners, or scientist practitioners or whether acting in the role of research, direct service, teaching, student, trainee, administration, management, employer, employee, supervisory, consultative, peer review, editorial, expert witness, social policy or any other role related to the discipline of psychology.⁴
3. The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) provides ethical standards for research with children.⁵
4. The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct is a professional code of conduct which is expected by every member (voting members, associate members and student members) of the ACM.⁶

By implementing codes of conduct effectively and consistently, organizational performance and control can be improved. This would result in fewer irregularities and corporate scandals. Trust would be built up gradually between organizations and their stakeholders.

5. WORKPLACE ETHICS

Workplace ethics is receiving a considerable amount of attention as the emerging corporate governance reforms require the setting of an appropriate tone at the top to promote ethical conduct throughout organizations. A review of reported financial scandals suggests that most ethical dilemmas have financial consequences. Establishment of formal ethics programs is becoming increasingly common in organizations across the non-profit, for-profit, and government sectors. The 2009 National Business Ethics Survey (NBES) provides valuable information about ethics in the workplace in the aftermath of the 2007–2009 Global Financial Crisis.⁷ The 2009 NBES indicates that (1) employees reporting that they observed ethical misconduct in workplace went down to about 49 percent in 2009 compared to 56 percent in 2007 (2) whistle-blowing reporting was up to more than 63 percent in 2009 compared with 58 percent in 2007 (3) improvements in key measures (integrity, openness, responsibility and accountability) of ethical culture in the workplace reported by employees (62 percent in 2009 compared with 53 percent in 2007) and (4) perceived pressure to commit unethical actions, cut corners or violate ethical standards declined from 10 percent in 2007 to less than 8 percent in 2009.⁸ Nonetheless, about 22 percent of surveyed employees agreed that the Financial Crisis and related economic meltdown had negatively affected the ethical culture in their company (with more than 10 percent reporting that their company had lowered its ethical standards in the post-2007 recession era) and that retaliations against employee whistle-blowers had increased.⁹ Furthermore, about 80 percent of surveyed employees believed that they work in a company that holds them accountable for their ethical conduct and more than 70 percent reported that their corporate leaders are transparent regarding their ethical decisions and wellbeing of employees.¹⁰ The results suggest that many executives perceive value in actively promoting ethics within their organizations.

Organizations of all types and sizes can benefit significantly from the establishment and enforcement of effective workplace ethics standards. The list of potential benefits linked to an effective ethics program includes the following:¹¹

• Demonstrating commitment to ethical principles and values throughout the organization.
• Ability to hire the most ethical senior executives including chief executive officer (CEO) and chief financial officer (CFO).
• Recruiting and retaining ethical and top-quality employees.
• Promoting a satisfying, rewarding and productive working environment.
• Establishing and maintaining a good reputation within the community.
• Securing the trust of all stakeholders to ensure continued self-regulation and prevent intervention by regulators.
• Reducing incidents of unethical behavior.
• Promoting fairness, mutual respect and integrity throughout the organization.
• Aligning the work efforts of employees with the organization's mission and vision and enabling employees to work toward the organization's goals.

Established workplace ethics programs are intended to guide and influence how employees tackle and resolve work-related ethical issues. Some actions toward the establishment and enforcement of effective workplace ethics standards include:¹²

• Encouraging moral principles, ethical values and integrity.
• Promoting an open and candid discussion of ethical issues.
• Presenting ethical guidance and resources for employees to make appropriate ethical decisions.
• Establishing incentives and opportunities for employees in the workplace to do the right thing and behave ethically.
• Providing fair mechanisms to promptly resolve potential internal conflicts of interest.

Ethics programs cannot prevent all misconducts from occurring but surely can reduce they incidences. Even in the most efficient and ethical organizations, there are always employees who willfully disregard the organization codes of conduct and the rules. In such cases, there is no substitute for clear procedures and sanctions. A good ethics program promotes employees to do the right thing. Employees need to be aware, sensitive and responsive to workplace ethical issues and willing to work within their organization to address them internally rather than resort externally to resolve them. External disposition and exposure of workplace unethical issues is generally neither in the best interest of the organization nor its employees.

Employees typically have high ethical expectations and expect their organizations to do what is right and fair, not just what is profitable. Most executives realize that the success of any ethics program requires a right tone at the top by directors and executives and the active support of and participation by employees. Employees who consider their workplace ethical as exemplified by their leaders and supervisors modeling ethical behavior and the promotion of honesty, mutual respect, fairness and trust generally report positive experiences regarding a range of outcomes. Some of these outcomes include more ethical workplace culture, fairness, integrity and mutual respect, less observed misconduct at work, less pressure on employees to compromise ethics standards, more incentives and opportunity to do the right thing, along with more reasons for “feeling valued” by the organization. These outcomes also include a greater willingness to report misconduct, greater satisfaction with the organization's response to reported misconduct, greater overall satisfaction with the workplace and greater loyalty to the organization.

Directors and executives should set an appropriate tone at the top promoting ethical culture of integrity, fairness, mutual respect and competency throughout the organization with a keen focus on ethics programs and adherence to ethical principles and codes of conduct by leaders, supervisors and employees. A good workplace reputation maintained by a company toward its employees, customers, suppliers and key stakeholders is an immeasurable asset that executives naturally should protect. Executives generally recognize that employees through hard work, dedication and ethical conduct can influence the company's reputation through their daily decisions and interactions but often fail to appreciate how an ethics program can give employees the tools to enhance that reputation.

Enron, in 2001, had gone from being considered one of the most innovative companies of the late-20th century to being considered the most corrupted and unethical workplace. Its investors lost billions of dollars, executives were indicted and subsequently convicted, employees lost their jobs and pension investments, and the auditor was derided. Enron is a classic example of a failure of ethics in the workplace. The primary failure of Enron's directors and executives was self-dealing and the violation of their fiduciary duty to protect the interests of its stakeholders (investors, employees, suppliers, creditors, customers, government and society). The main objective of Enron's directors and officers was to manage earnings and be leader in the industry rather than to do the right thing and conduct their business ethically. Enron was the seventh-largest public company in the US at the beginning of 2001 and in 2002 it was the largest company to declare bankruptcy in US history. The consequences of compromising ethical code and maintaining an unethical workplace can be the demise of the company and loss of reputation and investment by all stakeholders.

6. CORPORATE CULTURE

The delegation of authority, the assignment of responsibilities, and the process of accountability influence corporate culture. It is the responsibility of directors and executives to set a right tone at the top of promoting a corporate culture of integrity and competency. Proper communication of corporate culture such as codes of conduct and job descriptions throughout the company are essential in promoting and enforcing ethical behaviors. Corporate culture and compliance rules should provide incentives and opportunities for ethical individuals to be honest and to act with integrity, and provide measures for monitoring, penalizing and correcting unethical individuals, the minority, for such unethical behaviors. Companies should promote a spirit of integrity that goes beyond compliance with the established code of business ethics or compliance with the letter of the law by creating a business culture of doing what is right.¹³

Three factors may be the most important in affecting people's behaviors: incentives, opportunities, and choices.¹⁴ Incentives pressure are perhaps the most essential factor of business ethics. Individuals within the company (managers and employees) tend to act according to incentives provided to them in terms of rewards arising from the performance evaluation process. Corporate culture and incentives can encourage individuals to behave in the desired ethical manner. However, individuals who have the incentives to do the wrong thing, if opportunities exist, wrongdoers will take advantage and behave in an opportunistic manner. Thus, effective corporate governance, internal controls and enterprise risk management can reduce the opportunities for unethical conduct.

In general, individuals are rational and often are given the freedom to make choices and usually choose those that will maximize their wellbeing. Managers and employees make decisions, take actions, and exercise their choices in compliance with the applicable codes of conduct.. on behalf of the company as agents of their company. A corporate culture promoting ethical and competent behaviors throughout the organization along with strengthening incentives for doing the right thing and reducing opportunities for unethical actions can improve the ethics performance in the workplace.

7. BUSINESS ETHICS IN ASIA

Modern business ethics was initiated in the Western region and spread through the discourse of the free market to other parts of the world. Each historical period had its norms about business ethics and as time evolved, acceptable behaviors became objective. For example, South Korea's racing authority has legitimized horse racing by promoting it as a leisure service. Business ethics in Asian countries has evolved from the Chinese Confucian virtues. Asian values place emphasis on hierarchical relationships and social harmony while European values emphasize freedom and human rights.¹⁵ Although Koehn (2013) is of the opinion that business ethics can be drawn from different cultures, religions or thought processes, they still converge at a common practice without imposition of hegemony by either party especially in global business practices.¹⁶

There has been a growing interest in business ethics in Mainland China and in the other parts of Asia, because of the following three key factors:

• Increasing expectations from Western companies for organizations to operate in a more ethical manner in line with Western standards. This comes as a result of the need for Western firms to be consistent in meeting the expectations of government, media and other stakeholders in their home countries.
• The interest of Asian countries in deploying capital abroad by forming partnerships or purchasing European and American companies, which leads to pressure on Asian firms from business partners and governments to exhibit Western ethical practices.¹⁷
• Business ethics is also influenced by the religion of the people in a particular group as different religious teachings may promote or frown at some attitude or behavior of its people based on its values and norms, as moral content differs from one religion to another.

An academic study suggests that regions which practiced Christianity were found to have higher ethical standards while the traditional Chinese religion had more room for the acceptability of unethical behaviors.¹⁸ This implies that as Mainland China and other transition economies reviewed in the study open up to the Western capitalist market, they are also exposed to the religious influences of Western countries (Christianity), which may instill more orderly and ethical development of their economies.¹⁹ A 2017 academic study argues that business ethics has certainly become a universal concept in most jurisdictions including those in East Asia like Mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea and Japan. Even though capitalist business ethics now includes both socialist and traditional ethical values, there is significant transition from one particular mode to another.²⁰

Japan was the first non-Western Asian country to adopt and practice the concept of Western business ethics, in the 1920s, which aided its rapid economic development and Westernization at that time.²¹ The establishment of a Code of Ethics by Japanese companies started actively in 1993 as a result of the publication of the Charter of Corporate Behavior in 1991 by Nippon Keidanren (the Federation of Economic Organizations in Japan). Shortly afterwards, the Japan Society for Business Ethics Study (JABES) was established to promote the research and practice of business ethics.²²

Mainland China, on the other hand, has been considered deficient in terms of the practice of business ethics. Until recently the practice of business ethics in Mainland China was influenced by respect for the chain of command, avoiding loss of face (mianzi) and a reluctance to whistle-blow on colleagues.²³ In combating corruption rooted in the culture of mianzi, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), an internal control institution of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has further encouraged whistle-blowing by providing various channels including mail, email and hotlines after the anti-corruption campaign initiated by President Xi Jinping in 2012. Rossouw (2011) has classified global business ethics prevalence according to three categories where the West (North America and Europe) was placed at high level; Sub-Saharan Africa, South and South East Asia, East Asia and the Oceania region at medium; while Latin America and Central Asia are in the low category. Given that this is a general estimate, there exists some variability in individual countries. For example, there are differences in South and South East Asia, where India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Malaysia are leading the development of the field, while business ethics as a field of training is more prevalent in countries such as Singapore.²⁴

The region still experiences a high level of corruption, which is the backbone that supports unethical behaviors at different levels of organizations in each country.²⁵ Transparency International, in its 2017 Corruption Perception Index, gave the Asia-Pacific Region an average score of 44 out of 100 marks with Singapore scoring the highest with 84 points and North Korea with the lowest at 17 points. Cases of corruption in the region are quite common in developmental infrastructure projects, with government officials taking part in land sale deals with large multinational and local companies while displacing local residents without a fair and equitably structured resettlement plan. To mitigate and combat corruption, companies and stakeholders must include business ethics codes and integrate the right perspectives on handling ethical issues in educating executives in the region.

Organizational and cultural challenges affect firms in the region, as seen in Japan where large firms such as Olympus, Toyota and Toshiba still battle with business ethics issues with respect to diversity and gender regardless of the fact that Japan was one of the pioneers of business ethics in the region.²⁶ Tackling business issues might work if addressed from the underlying factor of poor personal ethics because unethical conduct breeds from this aspect and then spreads rapidly in an organization.

The separation of business ethics and CSR as two distinct fields in some regions (like Europe and South and East Asia) also poses some challenges as business ethics are usually considered on an individual level while CSR is perceived as a managerial field involving the external responsibility of firms to their stakeholders and the community. However, the two concepts are intertwined and cannot be narrowed down to certain fields as both CSR and business ethics concepts involve duties within and outside an organization. They may be considered as tools allowing each other to succeed, that is, a firm can maximize the benefits of both practices.²⁷

There is an opinion that what the Chinese consider to be ethical may differ from the thoughts of the West. There is said to exist some form of flexibility in the region when corruption involves relationships such as superiors, parents, husbands/wives, elders and friends, relationships which lie at the center of Confucianism. For example, in Mainland China tax evasion may not necessarily be perceived as unethical as it is very common. The justification for this is dependent on the distance of the relationship and the utility of the process.²⁸

8. ETHICS REPORTING AND ASSURANCE

Ethics reporting is an emerging undertaking. It is about disclosure of an organization's ethics performance and related assurance. Section 406 of SOX requires public companies to disclose in their annual financial statements the establishment (or lack) of a corporate code of conduct and the SEC related implementation rules require disclosure of the corporate codes of conduct. Nevertheless, public companies may choose to disclose their business ethics performance as a separate report to their shareholders or as part of their regular filings with the SEC. Ethics reporting is usually a component of corporate reporting and thus, standalone ethics reporting and assurance has yet to receive common acceptance in corporate reporting. The process of external ethics reporting has to be standardized and guidelines need to be established for the reporting process. The existing ethics reporting guidance, such as the AA1000 Accountability Principles, can be adapted to determine the structure and content of ethics reporting.⁹⁸ The three Principles are the foundation principle of inclusivity, the principle of materiality and the principle of responsiveness. The principle of inclusivity is the starting point for determining materiality. The materiality process determines the most relevant and significant issues for an organization and its stakeholders. Responsiveness refers to the decisions, actions and performance related to those material issues. All three principles can be used for guidance and reference in preparing ethics reporting.

The establishment and implementation of ethics key performance indicators (KPIs) enable an organization to measure its success in reaching its ethical goals or objectives.⁹⁹ The KPIs can be useful as a means of assessing an organization's compliance with its internal established codes of ethical conduct and with external applicable laws, rules, regulations and standards as well as best practices and norms. Proper use of KPIs enables an organization to define its ethical culture and goals, and to establish metrics to measure its ethical performance and to effectively report its ethics performance. The ethics KPIs are classified into corporate culture of integrity and competency and ethical values, ethics code of conduct and its enforcement, ethics performance and the process of promoting ethical behaviors.

In the absence of commonly accepted and standardized authoritative standards for ethics reporting, an ethics report can contain the following information:

1. Formation of ethics-related board committee or chief ethics executive position (chief ethics and compliance officer) to oversee the organization's code of ethical conduct and its effective implementation.
2. Establishment, maintenance and enforcement of the code of ethical conduct, including an ethics training program and ethics policies and procedures.
3. Establishment of positive incentives and right opportunities for ethical leadership and ethical behavior throughout the organization.
4. Communication, implementation and certification of compliance with the established codes of conduct and related ethics policies and procedures.
5. Adoption of internal mechanisms for resolution of ethical dilemmas to minimize their existence.
6. Integration of ethics management with other managerial functions.
7. Development of grievance policies and procedures to internally resolve disagreements and disputes with supervisors and staff including the integration of whistle-blowing policies into ethics programs and practices to institutionalize ethics in the workplace.
8. Establishment of an ethics hotline or anonymous suggestion box in which personnel are enabled to report internally suspected unethical activities.
9. Statement of policy for anti-discrimination based on race, color, ethnic, gender and religion.
10. Design and implementation of mechanisms for minimizing pressure, incentives and opportunities for employees to compromise their professional responsibilities and ethical standards.
11. Strengthening of customer relations to enhance the company's reputation.
12. Implementation of a control structure which eliminates opportunities for individuals to engage in unethical activities.

Ethics reporting should promote not only the practice of complying with applicable laws, rules and regulations but also committing to doing the right thing and observing ethical principles of professional conduct in avoiding potential conflicts of interest. More specifically, the ethics report should provide relevant, timely, useful, transparent and reliable information pertaining to all established, practiced and enforced ethics KPIs discussed above including the following:

• The existence of corporate codes of conduct.
• Policies and procedures for resolution of conflicts of interest.
• Contemporary issues in business ethics
• Stakeholders and corporate responsibility
• Corporate governance and compliance
• Ethics and the environment
• Healthcare ethics
• Ethics and information technology
• Strategic planning and corporate culture
• Ethics and financial reporting
• Establishing a code of ethics and ethical guidelines
• Evaluating corporate ethics
• Integrity
• Objectivity
• Professional competence and due care
• Confidentiality
• Fairness and mutual respect
• Promoting diversity.
• Professional behavior
• Ethics aspirations of trust, openness, mutual respect and accountability.

To improve reliability and strengthen the credibility of the ethics report, assurance should be obtained on the report. The assurance process should gather sufficient and appropriate evidence pertaining to the organization's code of ethics, implementation, enforcement and compliance with established ethics policies and procedures and other elements of reported ethics performance. The ethics assurance provider should gather evidence and provide assurance related to at least the following questions:

1. Does the company have an ethics committee at board level or Chief executive ethics and compliance position?
2. Does the company establish and maintain effective codes of conduct and ethics standards?
3. Does the company establish and maintain effective whistle-blowing policies and procedures?
4. Do employees' actions comply with the spirit and letter of all applicable laws, rules, regulations and standards?
5. Is personnel behavior and action consistent with the company's core values and ethical standards?
6. Are there mechanisms for providing incentives and opportunities to behave ethically and do the right thing?
7. Are there policies and procedures for hiring the most competent and ethical personnel?
8. Are there whistle blowing policies and procedures for anemones reporting of unethical behavior and actions.
9. Are there proper mechanisms for effective resolution of conflicts of interest?

9. CONCLUSIONS

Amid the wave of financial scandals and crises, demand for and interest in ethics and compliance training programs have been galvanized. Ethics is broadly described in the literature as moral principles ethical values about right and wrong, honorable behavior reflecting values or standards of conduct. Honesty, openness, responsiveness, accountability, due diligence mutual respect, diversity, inclusiveness and fairness are the core ethical principles. Business ethics is a specialized study of moral rights and wrongs, using appropriate professional judgement and being accountable for ethical decisions and actions. An appropriate code of ethics that sets the right tone at the top for promoting ethical integrity, competency, and professional conduct and establishing the moral structure for the entire organization is the backbone of effective corporate governance.

Corporate culture and compliance rules should provide incentives and opportunities for personnel to maintain their honesty and integrity and should provide mechanisms whereby unethical individuals may be monitored, punished and corrected for their unethical conduct. Attributes of an ethical corporate culture or an integrity-based culture refer to a sense of employee responsibility, freedom to raise concerns, managers modeling ethical behavior and expressing the importance of integrity. The company's directors and executives should demonstrate, through their actions as well as their policies, a firm commitment to ethical behaviors throughout the company and a culture of trust within the company. Although the “right tone at the top” is very important in promoting an ethical culture, actions often speak louder than words. Ethics reporting is the effective way to communicate the organization's ethics aspirations and values of trust, integrity, openness, fairness, mutual respect and professional responsibility and accountability.

The ethical dimension of sustainability performance in Asia is shaped by Asia's cultural, political, legal and business environments. In addition, business ethics in the region has been influenced by MNCs from the West which have invested in these countries. These expect companies they work with in the region to meet the expectations of governments and other stakeholders in the West. However, it will take time for this to influence and overcome the deep-rooted cultural and religious characteristics, and the “ways of doing business” that exist in different Asian jurisdictions. In general, corruption seems to still be prevalent in business enterprises in Asian jurisdictions although governments are trying hard to varying degrees to establish codes of ethical conduct to guide behavior.

10. CHAPTER TAKEAWAY

1. Encourage the organization to set a tone at the top encouraging “do the right thing”.
2. Establish on a corporate culture of promoting ethical values, moral principles, integrity and competency.
3. Create a business culture of integrity and competency.
4. Inform stakeholders about dedication and commitment to ethical values and an ethical workplace.
5. Do not cross ethical boundaries.
6. Be aware of the influence of culture, politics and legal and business environments on ethical choices and actions.