West Pokot County Government Ethics Policy

The assignment proposes an ethics policy framework for the West Pokot County Government. It emphasizes the importance of upholding ethical standards through a code of conduct, clear grievance procedures for employees, and comprehensive staff training programs. The policy aims to promote integrity, transparency, and accountability within the county government.

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Contents
Code of Ethics..................................................................................................................................2
Feedback form.................................................................................................................................3
Feedback procedure and implementation plan................................................................................4
Schedule of compliance checks.......................................................................................................5
Grievance policy..............................................................................................................................5
Rollout process and staff training plan............................................................................................6
Reference.........................................................................................................................................6

Code of Ethics
Code of ethics in ICT refers to positive ways in which technology is used to bring about positive
impact to social developments in different organizations (Pivec, 2011). They provide guidance
on how staff of given organization should use resources in a manner that protects the well-being
of each employee in an organization as well the organization at large. Formulated organizational
rules/guidelines are used for obtaining quality and productive results of the organizations
(Reenen, 2010). Having worked at one of the county government offices I therefore recommend
the following code of ethics as explained by Rogerson (Rogerson, 2011).
a) Avoid misuse of organization ICT resources such as internet.
Misuse refers to the use of organizational resources for functions other than those intended for by
the organization. Employees should not use organizational resources on their own personal
activities other than that stipulated by the organization. Therefore every employee should avoid
any action that might result to misuse of county resources.
b) Privacy and Confidentiality
This moral principle enhances proper use of the organizational and personal information by
observing privacy and confidentiality of the involved parties. Every information of the County
government should be treated with high level of privacy and confidentiality.
c) Respect relevant laws set by organizations.
Every organization has laws that govern every function performed by every employee in an
organization. Therefore ethical employees should observe these laws and adhere to them as they
conduct their County duties.
d) Avoid harming others
Harm in an organization refers to any signs of dangers that might lead to personal/social damage.
In an organizational set up such as the county government where I worked people engaged in an
ethical behavior such as leaking of other people’s payroll details or health information that could
raise disputes or even tarnish other employee’s image. Therefore a proper guideline that governs
how people use other people’s information within or outside the organization would promote
quality and ethical habits between all the staffs within the organization.
These ethical behaviors are very important in governing employee’s behaviors and provide moral
guidelines that help employees to observe organizational professional code of conduct (Council,
2010).

Feedback form
West Pokot County Government Employee Feedback Form
Kindly fill the details below by providing accurate information as per your experience at this
organization.
Employee Name: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Post: ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….
Department: ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Tick where appropriate
Are you aware of Code of Ethics?
Yes No
If yes how does code of ethic affect your behavior at work place?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..
Does code of ethics affect your moral at work place?
Yes No
Does code of ethics interfere with your freedom?
Yes No
What would you like changed on the policies laid down to govern how you conduct
yourself at work place?
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Feedback procedure and implementation plan
The implementation of this code of ethics should be done by observing the following steps with
respect to the feedback provided by all staffs in an organization, in this case the County offices
(Artinian, 2010).
 Define the responsibilities of all county government members unit and promote/support
acceptance of these responsibilities.
 The County government should introduce procedures and attitudes that promote quality
and welfare of public/ society which will reduce harmful behaviors to the society in
accordance to the stipulated code of ethics. This will be achieved by encouraging
participation of staffs in meeting their social duties in providing quality performance as
required.
 Personnel and resources management to design and build information/communication
systems that promote quality working environment.
 When implementing this code of ethics, the county government should put into
consideration the employee’s personal and professional development, safety, and human
rights. Appropriate standards should be considered in governing the use of organization
resources such as ICT at workplace.
 Provide proper support and organization's computing and information resources
authorization in promoting code of ethics at work place.
 Computer network or ICT can be used to harm others or benefits an organization;
therefore, respective teams should provide clearly defined appropriate and inappropriate
uses of organizational resources.
 Based on the employee’s feedback on the implementation of the code of ethics, all
employees’ needs should be clearly addressed and assessed in order to ensure that they
are incorporated in the requirements statements and the county infrastructure should
validate these requirements.
 Formulate policies that protect the well-being of employees and all the stake holders in
the county government for proper implementation of this code of ethics. Organizations
should not implement systems that demean employee’s dignity since this would be
unethical.
.Schedule of compliance checks
A regular checkup should be carried out in order to ensure that the county government
employee’s adhere to the stipulated rules or code of ethics. This can be on a weekly or monthly
basis by monitoring every activity carried out by the employee’s and making comparison with
the stipulated ethical standards for compliancy. The supervisor should be able to view or monitor

every activity carried out via the county network by the employee’s and ensure that it is within
the County government laws. This will enhance integrity of the employee’s and support ethical
behaviors within the organization. These regular checks will ensure that:
a) The employees uphold the principles of the code of ethics defined and promote it.
b) Adhere to the defined ethical habits in order to avoid violation of these principles which
might lead to defined penalties.
Therefore the organization should enhance periodic employee’s system check up to promote
existence of this code of ethics. In case of any infringement penalties such as dismissal will be
applied for misuse of county resources and thereof one will pay for the misused resource.
Grievance policy
This policy will provide a clear channel of dealing with the county employees grievances. It will
consider employee’s concerns raised about a given action by fellow employees or management
at large (Hospital, 2012). In case of a grievance raised by West Pokot County Government
Employee’s, this shall be addressed with consideration of the County Government policies
outlined and laws that govern the code of ethics. Therefore the organization shall follow these
principles when addressing the grievances.
 Find out why the employ is aggrieved.
 Find facts that surround the employee’s concerns.
 Formulate solutions that address the employee’s grievances without causing harm to
others or the organization at large.
 Communicate to the employee on the possible and impossible solutions.
 Do a thorough follow up to ensure that the employee issues are addressed.
This will promote proper channel of communication within the county government as well as
proper problem solving mechanisms to address concerns of the employees (acas, 2009).
Rollout process and staff training plan
Once all the laid down procedures are formulated and the County Government is ready to
implement the desired set of standards, a proper documentation of the same should be provided
to all the staffs or departments in order to promote availability and accessibility. Then training of
the staffs should commence. This should be done starting with staffs holding high offices with
more responsibilities downwards. This will create a more organized way of establishing the
standards from high level to the lower levels. Thus it will be easier for lower level employee’s to
embrace the standards since their superiors already did the same. Also supervisors will be able to
lead by example and be able to monitor their juniors effectively.

Reference
acas, 2009. Disciplinary and grievance procedures. In acas, ed. Code of Practise 1. Ireland 16
Arthur Street: TSO(The Stationery Office). pp.5-16.
Artinian, C.J., 2010. CODE OF ETHICS. Chicago: 325 N. LaSalle Street MORTON'S
RESTAURANT GROUP, INC.
Council, A., 2010. ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct. [Online] Available at:
https://www.acm.org/about-acm/acm-code-of-ethics-and-professional-conduct [Accessed 8
August 2017].
Hospital, A., 2012. Policies. [Online] Available at:
http://www.adkhospital.mv/en/page/policies/employee-grievance-policy [Accessed 12 August
2017].
Pivec, F., 2011. Codes of Ethics and Codes of Conduct for Using ICT in Education. Research
papers. Slovenia: Prešernova ulica 17 IZUM.
Reenen, V., 2010. The economic impact of ICT. Final report. London: Enterprise LSE.
Rogerson, P.S., 2011. ICT Codes of Ethics. De Montfort University: CEPSIS Centre for
Computing and Social Responsibility.