Accenture's Code of Business Ethics

ACCENTURE'S CODE OF BUSINESS ETHICS CASE STUDY
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Accenture's Code of Business Ethics Case Study
Introduction
The HBS case study Accenture's Code of Business Ethics focuses on a company whose leaders are trying to find a new approach in terms of the business ethics and compliance programs that would apply to its global workforce consisting of over 400,000 personnel. Accenture is a firm that deals with a wide array of solutions and services in technology, digital, operations, consulting, and strategy. The diverse nature of the activities means the company deals with different markets and customers. Accenture is a reliable company that helps customers improve their efficiency and minimize costs, and it also provides outsourcing services. The personnel work in different industries in critical business areas, including outsourcing, business strategy, supply chain management, and customer relationship management. This case focuses on the decision-making process adopted during the design process and the final decision about the updated ethics code.
Case Background
Historically, Accenture was initially a technology and business consulting branch of Arthur Andersen, and it was later renamed in 1989 to Anderson Consulting. The name was later changed to Accenture in 2001 after the firm cut all ties with Arthur Andersen. The previous owner had to give up ownership after the 2000 Enron scandal. Accenture grew tremendously to become a profitable publicly-traded company with operations in over 120 countries (Soltes, 2019). The company has an organizational culture based on legal and ethical practices based on the firm's code of ethics. The code of ethics is also derived from six core values: Best People, Stewardship and Integrity, One Global Network, Client Value Creation, and Respect for the Individual (Soltes, 2019). The code was comprehensive even though it faces criticism for being too detailed that it could be hard to determine what it contains.
Issues Discussion
Even though Accenture had adopted the evolving nature of its regulatory and business exposure, the leadership team tasked with ethics and compliance found out that the firm's code of ethics was a printed document that reflected the expectations and values of employees' conduct. Still, it did not go through updates regularly (Grojean et al. 2004). The code did not align with the policies and programs that the firm has established over the years. Several issues existed with the current code (Key, 1999). One such issue was government policy where the firm was operational in different countries with different regulations and auditing standards, yet the code of ethics did not reflect that.
Another problem was that decision-making did not apply in the previous code of conduct, so that document lacked acceptance among many personnel. It also makes it harder to implement it since very few people support the code of conduct and its requirements (Kolstad, 2007). Various programs have also emerged and evolved around the code. For instance, the chatbot's data privacy was a new development that still applied some of the principles in the previous code. The chatbox also relies on artificial intelligence rather than human. The code was centered around marketing, which did not apply to the current employees who had a different view of businesses' nature (Soltes, 2019). A majority of the personnel were engineers who were not very focused on issues concerning marketing. Even though the code was very comprehensive, it failed to account for all employment and division levels (Welsh and  Ordóñez, 2014). The code was also too detailed that made it harder to find information.
The company's leaders also compared the firm's code of ethics with other industry leaders such as Microsoft and G.E., and they realized that Accenture's document failed to include information about the steps taken when employees encounter ethical issues. A code of ethics has to outline the steps necessary to deal with an ethical issue (Grojean et al. 2004). However, the firm's document lacked necessary details that would empower employees to make quick decisions. The issue forced Accenture to consider coming up with a mobile application that was intuitive with numerous features. The outcome was that they created the COBE (Code of Business Ethics) chatbot, which allowed employees to get the answer to ethical issues that they are facing in the workplace (Soltes, 2019). Instead of responding with simple "no" or "yes" answers, the chatbot could encourage conversations to get specific details about the issue the employee is facing. The chatbot was an efficient tool that made it easier to locate information in the code of ethics (Morgan, 1993). The chatbot worked by searching for answers in a database of the company's code of ethics. An updated code was released in 2017, and new core areas were: behave like a reliable corporate citizen, delivery for customers, ensure your behavior counts, be responsible in business activities, comply with regulations, and protect the information, people, and our company. During the first year when the chatbot was deployed, over 400 queries were received from personnel per day, amounting to over 100,000 first year (Soltes, 2019). The chatbot was also very accurate, providing answers 90% of the time. The tool also used employees to review their usage data while providing feedback on improving the chatbot so that it can be used by all employees from different levels worldwide.
Objectives
1. Come up with a code that supports the daily decision-making process.
2. Organize the code of ethics based on topics
3. Make the code of ethics brief and friendly
4. Create a new document that aligns with the organization's culture and changes.
5. Add a search function
6. Create a more straightforward document that is brief and easier to understand
7. Create a code that focuses on the company's practical aspects rather than overemphasizes marketing (Brown and Treviño, 2006).
Analysis
Based on the SWOT analysis, some of the internal strengths include the direct answer. The code of ethics contains comprehensive information about various issues and direct answers about the expectations or responses. The code of ethics is also very organized and easy to review and find information, making it appealing to employees (Badaracco, 1992). It is also manageable and straightforward. A new user can quickly determine where to find specific information that applies to their workplace roles. Another strength is that the code of ethics creates accountability. It outlines the employ...