Fishburn Hedges has set up a business ethics division headed by
former Neill Committee assistant secretary Martin Le Jeune.
The launch coincides with a survey on codes of conduct published this
week by the Institute of Business Ethics and co-authored by Le
Jeune.
The research showed shortcomings among top UK companies in communicating
ethical practices such as codes.
Le Jeune, who joined Fishburn Hedges last January, will offer services
including ethical auditing, identifying areas of ethical risk and
advising on crisis management.
FH will refer existing clients to the new corporate ethics division, but
Le Jeune also plans to sign up new clients.
The Institute of Business Ethics survey polled 178 of the UK’s top 500
companies. While codes are increasingly popular among UK companies, 89
per cent of them fail to involve their staff and only 33 per cent make
any public reference to their code. Only five per cent of companies have
had their ethical behaviour audited while 67 per cent were not
interested in these audits.
Le Jeune said: ’The behaviour of companies is under greater scrutiny
than ever.’
Leader, p9.
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