Dennise Williams, Staff Reporter
ORANE
GRACEKENNEDY (GK) LAST week unveiled its 'Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Business Conduct'.
Although many companies in Jamaica have written policies that seek to guide the behaviour of employees, GK has made a policy decision to make its guidelines a major force of its business model.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Douglas Orane said the guidelines aim to give GraceKennedy staff a beacon to navigate by.
"Since our founding in 1922, our values have been passed down by word of mouth, and it worked. But as the world becomes more globalised, the family and the village are not as strong as it once was," said Mr. Orane.
The guideline is not GK's first attempt at cataloguing standards of behaviour. "Raf Diaz, our former chairman, took the first step to document GK's philosophies and policies in the 1990s," Mr. Orane said. "We are just moving ahead with that foundation."
The book covers such topics as responsibilities to customers, management's responsibilities to staff and unethical behaviour in relationships with competitors.
It states that "Unfair competitive practices should not be engaged in and if a competitor or third party proposes to discuss unfair collusion ... your responsibility is to terminate the discussion and seek the advice of the company's attorneys"
Mr. Orane believes that unethical actions against competitors are simply not necessary.
"The GK strategy is very simple. We will meet the needs of Caribbean people wherever they may be. Once we do that, we will do well."
EMPLOYMENT ACTIVITIES
The guidelines state specifically that employees are expected to be fully engaged in their employment activities in keeping with their contract of employment.
But Mr. Orane also said: "We are sympathetic to the need of staff members, to be with their families. We employ the whole person. As far as we can accommodate staff members, we will. One way we do this is to have different shifts at our offices. However, in some ways the opposite occurs. People love their jobs and stay here long hours. I have to tell them to go home."
On the subject of whistle-blowing, Mr. Orane said: "We provide a clearly defined process of identifying wrongdoing."
Mr. Orane also noted that the long-held dream of listing on one of the United States stock exchanges also drives the desire to define and raise the ethical standards of the company.
"Well, part of being world-class is to raise money on the international capital markets. If we decide to list on the U.S stock exchange, this document is essential to doing business there."
The chairman insists that the guideline will not sit on a shelf: "We introduced this Guideline to 400 of our key managers in June, and it is now being rolled out to staff," he said. "We are making sure that people are fully engaged. All 1800 GK staff have to read and agree in writing each year that they will abide it."
Taken from the Daily Gleaner, Wednesday September 14, 2005
