NEWSLETTERS AND MAGAZINES

These materials can be print based or web based. They may include the mission statement, stories about corporate ‘‘heroes’’— employees who illustrate the corporate values—and features that describe ethical dilemmas and include comments from employees and managers about how they would deal with the problems. Some companies regularly publish lists of the types of ethical or legal violations they have addressed and how they addressed them. For example, the communication may say that, in the last six months, the company dealt with a particular number of reports of Internet pornography, bribery, time reporting, travel charge reporting, lying to customers, or abusive supervision. They may say how many of these resulted in a variety of actions ranging from warnings to terminations. Such communication helps keep the ethical culture alive and lets employees know that the company means what it says about the importance of ethics. These kinds of regular communications can also be targeted to specific groups of employees with specific needs.

BOOKLETS These materials can vary given employees’ need for information in particular areas of the business. The brief brochures can also be easily updated or added to, thus making the program adaptable to the dynamic business environment.

Mission or Values Statements

In recent years, many corporations have developed mission or values statements. A mission statement, values statement, or credo is a succinct description of ‘‘how we do business’’—the corporate principles and values that guide how business is to be conducted in an organization. A mission statement is a short description of the organization’s reason for existence—a sort of ‘‘here’s what we do.’’ Values statements are the next step in the process of explaining an organization to the world—‘‘and here’s how we do it’’—a codification of essential corporate behavior. It’s a sort of ‘‘Ten Commandments’’ for an organization. If it’s to be effective, it should be short, memorable, and in plain language so that everyone can be clear about its message. It’s also essential that the organization’s own employees have input because a mission statement and values statement must accurately reflect the organizational culture. Something scribed by outsiders just won’t ring true and is likely to end up as the subject of a Dilbert cartoon. But statements that develop out of the firm’s true values and history can be mainstays of the corporate culture. Merck posts its values statement prominently on its website

Policy—the ‘‘rules of the organization’’—is critical to any company, and most organizations create a policy manual or an intranet site to house all relevant company rules. Generally, policy manuals and websites describe not only laws and regulations pertaining to the company and its industry but also all company policy, including human resources policy. Although it’s critical for a corporation to define its policies and communicate them—it’s a stipulation of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines—most employees don’t read every page of a manual or website. Employees consider policy manuals and websites to be for reference purposes only. As a result, employees consult policy manuals in the same way they use a dictionary—periodically and on a need-to-know basis. Many managers never consult a policy manual, however—it’s much easier to ask someone than to look up the rules in a voluminous book or website—and, depending on whom they ask, they may or may not get the right answer. The very nature of policy—it’s usually voluminous and written in legalese— makes it a poor way to communicate important rules. Also, since all policy is detailed, all policy may be viewed as having the same importance. Obviously, some policies are much more important than others and should receive special emphasis. When you’re designing policy communication, first analyze the audience. Who needs to know all the policy? Does some corporate policy apply only to certain employees? What do employees really need to know, and what’s nice for them to know? Here are some guidelines to follow.