MBA402: Code of Conduct for Stockland - Governance, Ethics

This report provides an analysis of Stockland's Code of Conduct, addressing critical aspects of governance, ethics, and sustainability. The report begins with an introduction to the code of conduct, highlighting its significance in defining social standards and expectations for employees. It then offers an overview of Stockland, a major Australian real estate group, and its commitment to social, economic, and environmental contributions. The core of the report examines specific elements of Stockland's code, including its stance on discrimination, emphasizing the importance of a workplace free from hostility and adhering to relevant legislation. It also addresses exploitation, outlining the company's zero-tolerance policy and measures to ensure a secure working environment. The report further delves into issues of corruption and bribery, detailing the company's commitment to integrity and honesty and providing examples of prohibited behaviors. Dishonest and fraudulent behavior is also discussed, with a focus on preventative measures and the role of employees in maintaining ethical conduct. The report also outlines Stockland's whistle-blower protections, emphasizing the company's commitment to ethical conduct and providing procedures for reporting concerns. Finally, the report discusses the enforcement of the code of conduct, clarifying its applicability to various stakeholders and the availability of the code to employees. The report includes references to relevant literature, including academic journals and textbooks, to support its analysis.

Running head: CODE OF CONDUCT 0
governnace, ethics and sustainability
JANUARY 2, 2019
student details:

CODE OF CONDUCT 1
Introduction
The code of conduct is the set of the rules describing the social standards,
rules related to religious and accountabilities of, and or proper exercises
for the individuals. The code of conduct that is written for the workers of
company, protects the business and renders the information to the
employees regarding the expectations of the workers. In the following
parts, the code of conduct of Stockland is examined. The Stockland is
devoted to rendering the social contribution, economic contribution and
environmental contribution to the society, constant principles regarding
the honesty, equality, fairness and honour. The company’s board had
followed code to provide the set of guiding the principles observed by the
workers of the companies. Employees of Stockland are expected by
company to perform continuously with principles set in the code.
Overview of company
In Australia, Stockland is top expanded real estate group with 18.2 $
billion of real estate assets. Stockland provides the housing solution. This
company handle and establish the retail centre, offices, and logistics
asset. The vision of the company is to be the top real estate entity of the
Australia, which creates the useful and significant support to the
communities and nation. It is founded in year 1952. Now the company
influence theexpanded model to support make prospering communities
with lively civic centres in which individuals reside and do job.
Code of conduct of Stockland-
The code of conduct of the Stockland is examined as follows-

CODE OF CONDUCT 2
Discrimination
The organisation is dedicated towards creating a workplace environment
that is free from isolation, hostility and stands on the principle of the
mutual respect towards each other, cooperation, discipline and dignity.
Thus, the entity complies with the various state and federal legislations
along with the national regulations like Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth).
As per the definition laid down in the various acts, the discrimination
refers to the act of treating an individual favourable or unfavourable
based on the various physical, cultural, and political attributes. The
various characteristics that lead to the initiation of the discriminatory
behaviour and makes the employment against the law are the physical or
mental disability, colour, ethnicity, race, caste, nationality, sexual status,
pregnancy or marital status, origin, religion, sex, gender identity, age and
others.
It is significant to note that the discriminatory behaviour can arise at
various levels of the employment chain. Such as during the hiring process,
conduct of the interviews, distribution of the tasks, initiation of the
promotion or leadership positions, and other such operations within an
organisation (Gaze and Smith, 2016). In addition, the selection of
individuals for training purposes based on the attributes as listed above
also falls in the ambit of the discriminatory behaviour.
Therefore, it is the responsibility of the leaders, employees and every
other member to not to engage in such conversations or acts that make
the work environment hostile and unhealthy for other employees. The

CODE OF CONDUCT 3
senior management of companyensures that the different facets of the
employer employee relationships are free from personal bias based on the
characteristics mentioned above, and are based on individual capabilities,
merit, and reasonability. The individuals, who are found to be guilty of
breaching the discrimination guidelines, would be liable to corrective
actions as per the decision of the management.
Exploitation
The exploitation refers to the communal word, which involves different
unreasonable behaviour and attitude such as physical and psychological
harassment (Reamer, 2013). Stockland never tolerate unlawful views,
worker exploitation repression, trouble, or other invalid conduct.
. The company creates secure working environment by-
1. Assisting and doing work with collaboration
2. Ensure that company does not encourage exploitation against
workers
3. Making sure that company does not persecute the team or others at
workstation
4. Providing secured working condition
5. Making decisions in respect of the employment on the basis of
presentations.
Further, this is required by the workers of Stockland to-
1. Report the problems related to security
2. stand for the procedures related to security

CODE OF CONDUCT 4
3. follow the policies related to alcohol
4. Not to smoke at the workstation.
Stockland has zero tolerance policy (ZTP) for illegal ownership of drugs
and their use, and the misuse of directed drug, at workplace whether on
company’s premises, when operating the business on behalf of Stockland
or at company-sponsored role. These approaches are useful for the
workers to not be exploited. As corporation is devoted to the formation of
equalised and healthy working atmosphere, and consequently the actions
including any of the above discussed illegal conduct will be treated as the
violation of the normal conditions of the service that will further lead to
punitive acts in respect of the penalties, relegation, end of service or
others.
Corruption and Bribery
Corruption can include a range of activities such as theft of money,
destruction of the vouchers, bills or other documents, deliberate misuse of
the property of entity, falsification of the information in the information
technology systems, and other such activities and includes bribery
(Vickers, 2014). Thus, the acts include the accepting or offering to accept
the monetary or other benefits for the performance of something that is
against the terms and conditions of the employment.
The entity believe that the acts on the lines of the corruption or bribery
undermine the overall reputation, goodwill and the objectives of the
company. Thus, the entity would not tolerate any such acts where the

CODE OF CONDUCT 5
integrity and honesty of the employees and members are in the question
(Chang, Li and Chen, 2017).
Some of the examples of the acts that fall in the framework of the
corruption and bribery are the advancing benefits to the relatives out of
the property of the enterprise, use of official money for personal purposes,
accepting unreasonable gifts and entertainment form customers,
suppliers or any other stakeholders; and other such activities.
Thus, the employees are suggested to accept such advances and gifts
only after the consultation with the senior management of the company.
In addition, the employees must be aware of their acts all the times. It is
the duty of the employees to not to indulge in activities, when it is
suspected that the proceeds of the same would be used in illegal and
criminal acts (Policy and Policy, 2017). Further to add, it is the duty of the
employees to report on such activities, if they are aware of the same at
the workplace. The breach of the same would be against the terms of the
employment.
Dishonest and fraudulent behaviour
As per the code of conduct of company, Stockland never bear or sustain
the dishonest and fraudulent behaviour. The dishonest and fraudulent
behaviour harms the image of the company. These types of behaviour
may stop the growth of the company and may weaken the financial
constancy, political stability and the protections. This may also convey the
lawful and criminal costs for the persons included and the company itself.

CODE OF CONDUCT 6
The significant approaches and sources to prevent the dishonest and
fraudulent behaviour is for manage substitute and motivate the solid
moral culture at the company and to apply the policy, processes and
separation of the obligations. Examples are following-
 The moral conduct that sets the norms of conducts.
 The procedure related to whistle-blower to motivate dishonest and
fraudulent events reporting
 The interest conflict policy states the dollar inception and prior
permission needed for the gift surpassing proper value
(Vandekerckhove, 2016).
 The policies related to the accounts and the expenditures, which
regulate the claims.
Further, it is defined by the company that workers of the company can
have major role in stopping the dishonest and fraudulent behaviour and
aid to reduce the frauds in the company. The workers of the company are
required to have the knowledge regarding the consequences of the
dishonest and fraudulent conduct (Watson, et. al, 2015). The shareholders
and employees of entity are required to be aware of the liabilities. It is
required by company that they should be transparent in the attitudes in
against of the immoral behaviour and the practices. They should always
perform in interest of the company. They are not required to misuse their
position in the company. The employees must be attentive for the
fraudulent behaviour.

CODE OF CONDUCT 7
Whistle-blower protections
Stockland is devoted to running its business morally and with the honesty.
The company is required to fulfil the expectations of the shareholders of
entity. This company motivates the shareholders and the workers of the
company to put the concern about the improper behaviour. The main
object of the whistle-blower policy is to create the methods and
procedures to put the concern in respect of the intolerable behaviour in
good faith, when also proposing the security from the oppression and
sexual nuisance. This whistleblowing policy is applicable to the Stockland
Group, Trust, Stockland Corporation Limited, other entities, and the
employees of the company. All are required to follow this policy
compulsorily (Grayson-Morison and Ramsay, 2014).
Key Principles to direct the Whistle-blower policy-
Following are the major principles to direct the approaches related to the
whistle-blowers-
1. Improper behaviour- as per this policy, the company will consider
following to be unethical behaviour-
 Unsecure working conditions
 Sexual harassment
 Unlawful behaviour
2. Put concern- in case where shareholders and employees of the
company is aware regarding the inappropriate behaviour, they must
put the concerns to the risk team of company by the mail and to
WPOs by the mail (Linn, Smith-Gander and Barrington, 2015).

CODE OF CONDUCT 8
3. Put concern secretly- the workers and shareholders of the
company who will desire to put the concern in respect of the
unproven unethical behaviour may secretly contact WPOs of the
Stockland by the intranet of the company or the website of company
(Liu, Jubb and Abhayawansa, 2018).
4. Security to the whistle-blowers- as per the policies, WPOs would
be accountable to secure the interest of whistle-blowers. Stockland
is devoted to take the essentials actions and secures the interest of
the whist blowers (Garland-McLellan, 2015).
5. Procedure related to enquiry- WPOs are liable to ensure the
whistle-blower of the company is notified of how grievance is
ensuing and continuing. The company is devoted to make the
changes internally in inner process and making steps regarding the
workers who have conducted improper behaviour.
6. Untrue claims- as per the code of conduct of company, the
company can take the proper actions for the misconduct and untrue
claims and improper conduct of the workers or the shareholders.
7. Secrecy- the complaints of the unethical behaviour aroused and
examined as per the policy would be treated as secret. The
company is not required to disclose the data to any person not
related to the enquiry without the approval of people putting the
concerns (Baumeister and Gutsche, 2017).
Enforcement
The Code of conduct of Stockland is applicable on the person who is
employed to work in the Stockland Group. The Code of conduct of

CODE OF CONDUCT 9
company is applicable to the people while that individual is recognised
as the company’s agent. In some circumstance, this will involve the
duration while the worker is outside of the corporation and working
hours .The agents, contractors, consultants and the experts are also
anticipated to recognise and monitor the principles described in the
code and should be made attentive of the code or the relevant
business unit’s code at what time corporation hire them to act with
them. The copy of code can see at the website of the Stockland. The
copy of code and the relevant business unit’s code will be provided to
all new employees (Leipziger, 2017).
The code of conduct of the company is applicable to the company,
Stockland group, Trust, other connected entities, workers of the
company and shareholders. The shareholders include the security
holders of the company, clients, dealers, outer partners related to
business and the communities (Gao and Brink, 2017). The relevant
principles are also applicable to the workers and the shareholders who
claim untruly. Moreover, on the violation of Code, workers may face
corrective actions, including closure of services. Stockland levies the
penalties or fines to that employees and shareholders, who breach the
rules, regulations and principles (Dakhelalla, 2014). The employees
may face disciplinary action up to and involving removal from
company. Hence, this is the duty to report the violation of code by the
co-employees to the direct management or executive. They are also
required to report conduct in which there is no guarantee whether the
violation of the code has occurred (Jayanti, 2018).

CODE OF CONDUCT 10
References
Baumeister, S., and Gutsche, R. (2017) The impact of CSR reporting
quality on analyst forecast accuracy. Oxford: Oxford University press
Chang, A.S., Li, Z.Y. and Chen, Y.L. (2017) Environmental Performance
Disclosure in the CSR Reports of Construction Companies. International
Journal of Trade, Economics and Finance, 8(3).

CODE OF CONDUCT 11
Dakhelalla, R.F. (2014) The impact of corporate governance principles
on board characteristics: an Australian study. USA: Springer
Garland-McLellan, J. (2015) Ethical practices: Governing without
boundaries. Company Director, 31(9), p.60.
Gaze, B., and Smith, B. (2016) Equality and Discrimination Law in
Australia: An Introduction. Australia: Cambridge University Press.
Grayson-Morison, R., and Ramsay, I. (2014) Responsibilities of the
Board of Directors. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Jayanti, R.K. (2018) SUSTAINABILITY BASED CORPORATE IDENTITY: A
STUDY OF CORPORATE WEBSITES. Academy of Marketing Studies
Journal, 22(3), pp.1-16.
Leipziger, D. (2017) The corporate responsibility code book. New York:
Routledge.
Linn, B., Smith-Gander, D., and Barrington, J. (2015) The debate: The
year ahead. Company Director, 31(11), p.18.
Liu, Z., Jubb, C. and Abhayawansa, S. (2018) Analysing and evaluating
integrated reporting: Insights from applying a normative
benchmark. Journal of Intellectual Capital, 23(4), pp. 116-134.
Policy, A. B. and Policy, P. (2017) Code of conduct. Part One of ‘Keeping
Children Safe in. Oxford: Oxford University press
Reamer, F. G. (2013) Social work values and ethics. United States:
Columbia University Press.

CODE OF CONDUCT 12
Vandekerckhove, W. (2016) Whistleblowing and organizational social
responsibility: A global assessment. New York: Routledge.
Vickers, M. H. (2014) Towards reducing the harm: Workplace bullying
as workplace corruption—A critical review. Employee Responsibilities
and Rights Journal, 26(2), pp. 95-113.
Watson, G.J., Murray, J.M., Schaefer, M. and Bonner, A. (2015)
Successful local marine conservation requires appropriate educational
methods and adequate enforcement. Marine Policy, 52, pp. 59-67.
Whistleblowing studies in accounting research: A review of
experimental studies on the determinants of whistleblowing. Journal of
Accounting Literature, 38, pp.1-13.