Code of Ethics: Governance, Ethics and Sustainability

This report discusses the importance of code of ethics in organisations and how it helps in solving various ethical issues such as enforcement, discrimination, whistleblower protection, corruption, exploitation and dishonest or fraudulent behaviour in the organisation. The report focuses on Dominos as an example and how they follow their code of ethics to avoid malpractices or misbehaviour in the organisation.

Governance, Ethics
and Sustainability

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................2

INTRODUCTION
The Ethics, Governance and Sustainability are considered to be very important and basically
aims in providing the deeper knowledge and understanding of the business in context to social
responsibility and also results in affecting the general business conduct, management decision
making and business strategy. In the present report, the organisation chosen is Dominos. The
organisation is an American Multinational pizza restaurant chain which was founded in the year
1960 and offers a wide range of pizzas and other items. In reference to Code of Ethics, it
basically sets out a company’s best practices and ethical guidelines for the purpose to follow the
professionalism, honesty and integrity. In context to Dominos, the organisation is committed
towards maintaining healthy and safe environment and working conditions in all their services. It
is very important that the employees of the company enjoy a environment of surroundings which
is free from any kind of discrimination or harassment and also the company do not tolerate any
kind of harassment or discrimination (Crowther, Seifi and Wond, 2019). Governance, Ethics and
Sustainability
MAIN BODY
Discrimination : In context to Discrimination, it is basically a prejudicial treatment or unfair
practice of the groups or the people based on the characteristics which basically comprises of
sexual orientation, race, age and gender. In context to organisations, discrimination can be done
mainly due to gender, caste or race. For the purpose to deal with discrimination, it is very
important to find out healthy ways for the purpose to cure the mental well being and physical
health. In context to Dominos, the members in the practice of their duties or profession should
not discriminated on the base of sex, color, race, sexual orientation, marital status, political
affiliation and much more. It is very important that members should strive for the purpose to
maintain a professional work place which is free from all type of intimidation, harassment and
exploitation. In context to organisation, the members should not follow personal relationships for
the purpose to compromise the execution of the duties and responsibilities (Moon, Walmsley,
and Apostolopoulos, 2018).
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Exploitation: In context to exploitation, it is basically described as the act of taking advantage of
group of people or someone for the purpose to get benefit or any kind of profit. In context to
organisation, the exploitation is basically taking the unfair advantage of other people. In context
to Dominos, the organisation need to take into account that no member or staff is exploited by
some other person in any manner and should not take any kind of undue advantage. In context to
dealing with exploitation, there are various ways of protecting oneself from any kind of
exploitation which involves listening to the gut instincts, not trusting someone even if they seem
really friendly, not believing to what other people say even if it seems to very true and start
saying no if you don’t want to do something (Rezaee, Tsui, Cheng and Zhou, 2019).
Corruption: It is basically a form of criminal or dishonesty which is basically undertaken by an
organisation or a person which is entrusted with the authority or the position for the purpose to
acquire the abuse power or illicit benefits for one’s personal gain. In context to organisations it
basically comprises of the misuse of the power, trust or position for the personal advantage or
benefits rather than the objective for which the power or trust was conferre (Cancela, Neves,.,
Rodrigues and Dias, 2020). In context to organisation, it is very important to reduce the risks of
corruption and it could be done only with the getting the tone right from the top, updating about
the anticorruption policies and updating antibribery, looking out for the corruption red flags,
watching out for bribery, ensuring hospitality meet key criteria or ensuring gift and also focusing
to conduct due diligence on all the third parties. In context to Dominos, it is very important to
overcome corruption with the help of constantly reviewing the policies of the company, focusing
on the culture of the organisation, offering anti bribery training, holding third parties accountable
and checking financial transactions on a regular basis( Benites-Lazaro, Giatti and Giarolla,
2018).
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(D) Dishonest and fraudulent behaviour
Dishonest and fraudulent behaviour is a deliberate act or failure act conduct by
organisation with intention of obtaining unauthorized benefits, organisation claims something
and not providing that exact thing to the customers is dishonesty and any financial fraud comes
under this code. In reference to Domino's the dishonest and fraudulent behaviour related to safety
of food, quality of the products they are offering, full discloser of contents of the products they
are inducing in the product, providing fresh products not an expiry products and treatment of
animals- unethical treatments to animals, as they are providing meat based products also, so
Domino's should undertake all this statements under this code and Domino's are offering full
discloser of the contents they are inducing to make the food and. In recent events Domino's faced
such problem, “a well documented report with the U.S securities and exchange
commission( SEC) against domino's- pizza, there top-level officers and various staff members
with the complaint states serious allegations against the franchise related to the circumstances
company's misconduct with the list of all the allegations - “fraudulent investment scheme,
general trading practise , manipulation of the security, insider trading and many more” ”(Insider
Files Whistleblower Report Against Domino's Pizza, 2019) in response to the the allegations the
company should look after all the problems and make a plan or framework to resolve all the
actions taken place in the organisation and in which work this codes were violated and take
necessary actions against that person or the franchise where this happen and take serious actions
and measurement so in future no such cause will happen again. Domino's should come with there
own codes to protect the people working and related to the company will be protected and take
appropriate action and measurement so the company will be protected from act. Domino's is
following dishonesty and fraudulent code of ethics to prevent any future circumstances from
happening and protecting people and all franchise around the worldwide and letting them to
follow the code of ethics properly.
(E) Whistle-blower protection
Whistle-blower protection is a act that focus attention to any misconduct occurring within
the organisation, any errors or misconduct with an auditor investigation happen in the
organisation appropriate official actions will be taken against that person or organisation. In a
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possible whistle-blower protection situation officials ensure to take all necessary transparency
and fairness in the whole procedure. In reference to Domino's , any unfair treatment or wrongful
conduct to there employee in the workplace, they are protected with whistle-blower protection
act which is a 'qualifying discloser'. Qualifying disclosure to the Food Standard Agency (FSA) ,
affecting health of any customer consuming the food and not informing any allegation contained
in the product are sustained true, this can cause problems to the company. And domino's should
undertake all this appropriate actions to protect the act(Allen and Mair, 2019).Importance of
whistle-blowing protection in domino's is to protect the safety and integrity of the food supply,
since domino's is worldwide and there are many franchise of the brand the whistle-blower
protection is more important for the company to follow, with the international trade in food and
the globalisation of the food market, these events and broad dimension, the consequences will be
far reaching and devastating . In past events domino's has faced with whistle-blower case, they
manipulated the reports to approve higher advertising and promotion fees scheme to boost stocks
and dividends for insider , in response the whistle-blower said that the officers, broad members
and other enjoyed the higher stock prices and other benefits,(Insider Makes Whistleblower Claim
Against Domino's Pizza, 2019) in response to this taken back the allegation but there was a
serious investigation so in future the no such scheme will happen again, to response to all this
domino's take serious actions and take consideration the codes form happening again. Domino's
is considering whistle blower protection for all the franchise in worldwide by following the code
of ethics and lead them all following the codes properly to prevent any future consequences from
happening.
(F) Enforcement
Enforcement is a law that complies of all rule and regulation for people for them to obey
and follow them. It is a law for people and organisation and certain industry to enforce on them
to follow those laws. Enforcement is the process of ensuring compliance with laws, regulation
rules, standards and social norms for people to obey them and follow them any break in any law
enforce by the government leads to drastic measure taken by the government (Ibiricu and van der
Made, 2020)
In reference to Domino's the company is a worldwide food industry which leads them to
follow different countries law of enforcement, as different countries has different set of laws for
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organisation for them to follow those , it is important for domino's to follow all those laws for
better and smooth operation. In food industry there is a Food Standards Agency(FSA) which
oversees local council enforcement such as food production, manufacturing, distribution and
retail process. Domino's has to look for there production and trading and manufacturing
happening in all places for there operation goes without any disturbance by the FSA, as there so
many franchise of the domino's the company is considering every law enforced by every
countries on trading and providing there products in those countries. There are laws for food
industry which domino's is taken in consideration in there manufacturing and trading process for
going with the law helps them for succeeding. In recent events that was faced by domino's
related to enforcement was there case filled five tears ago and the decision was taken now, was
“domino's had violated Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by having a
website that was not fully accessible by blind people” (Court finds Domino’s Pizza Violated the
ADA by Having an Inaccessible Website and Orders WCAG Compliance, 2021) in respond of
this case domino's should undertake this case seriously and consider requirements needed and
take action accordingly, domino's should update and make changes in there website by providing
a different website for blind people that will easily accessible by blind people so that they can
also enjoy there products. Domino's is following enforcement from preventing.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that code of ethics plays a very important role
in running a organisation in a successful manner. The Ethics, Sustainability and Governance, all
these concepts plays a very important role and helps in deeper understanding of what is wrong
and what is right. Moreover, the report helps in better understanding of code of ethics which
further involves various ethical issues such as enforcement, discrimination, whistleblower
protection, corruption, exploitation and dishonest or fraudulent behaviour in the organisation.
Moreover, it helps in deep understanding of how organisation such as Dominos follow their code
of ethics for the purpose to solve various ethical issues and avoiding any kind of malpractices or
mis behaviour in the organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allen, C.R. and Mair, D.N., 2019. Disclosure of Noncompliance with Laws and Regulations:
What Whistleblower Protections Exist for CPAs?. The CPA Journal, 89(3), pp.30-35.
Ibiricu, B. and van der Made, M.L., 2020. Ethics by design: a code of ethics for the digital
age. Records Management Journal.
Online
Insider Files Whistleblower Report Against Domino's Pizza, 2019 [Online] Available through:
<https://www.forbes.com/sites/janetsparks/2019/02/15/insider-files-whistleblower-report-
against-dominos-pizza/?sh=6f504afb21b3>
Insider Makes Whistleblower Claim Against Domino's Pizza, 2019 [Online] Available through:
<https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/in-house/insider-makes-whistleblower-claim-against-
dominos-pizza/>
Court finds Domino’s Pizza Violated the ADA by Having an Inaccessible Website and Orders
WCAG Compliance, 2021 [Online] Available through:
<https://www.adatitleiii.com/2021/06/court-finds-dominos-pizza-violated-the-ada-by-having-an-
inaccessible-website-and-orders-wcag-compliance/>
Moon, C., Walmsley, A. and Apostolopoulos, N., 2018, October. Leadership, management and
governance implications of the UN higher education sustainability initiative. In European
Conference on Management, Leadership & Governance (pp. 171-XIV). Academic Conferences
International Limited.
Rezaee, Z., Tsui, J., Cheng, P. and Zhou, G., 2019. Business sustainability in Asia: Compliance,
performance, and integrated reporting and assurance. John Wiley & Sons.
Cancela, B.L., Neves, M.E.D., Rodrigues, L.L. and Dias, A.C.G., 2020. The influence of
corporate governance on corporate sustainability: new evidence using panel data in the Iberian
macroeconomic environment. International Journal of Accounting & Information Management.
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Benites-Lazaro, L.L., Giatti, L. and Giarolla, A., 2018. Sustainability and governance of
sugarcane ethanol companies in Brazil: Topic modeling analysis of CSR reporting. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 197, pp.583-591.
Crowther, D., Seifi, S. and Wond, T., 2019. Responsibility and governance: the twin pillars of
sustainability. In Responsibility and Governance (pp. 1-13). Springer, Singapore.
Correa-Garcia, J.A., Garcia-Benau, M.A. and Garcia-Meca, E., 2020. Corporate governance and
its implications for sustainability reporting quality in Latin American business groups. Journal of
Cleaner Production, 260, p.121142.
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