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Unit VIII – Code of Ethics
Student name
Columbia Southern University
MBA 6301 Business Ethics
Dr. Mark Balto
April 03, 2022
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Company Overview
Syngenta AG is one of the biggest agricultural companies in the world, selling seeds and
chemicals. Founded on November 13, 2000, from the agricultural divisions of Novartis and
AstraZeneca. In 2017, Syngenta was bought by ChemChina. The company focuses on 8 major
crops that make up the majority of global food production: cereals, corn, diverse field crops, rice,
soybean, specialty crops, sugar cane and vegetables, plus our Lawn and Garden portfolio. The
company’s experience in crops is unmatched in bioscience, breeding and chemistry, and across
geographies and climate zones worldwide. Syngenta’s headquarter is based in Basel,
Switzerland, with 28,000 people in more than 90 countries in the world and 104 production and
supply sites. According to FY 2018, the total net sale and revenue of years ended December 31,
2018 is 13.523 billion U.S. dollars. (Syngenta, 2019).
Our Mission
Syngenta’s purpose is to bring plant potential to life, while feeding the world safely and
taking care of our planet. We aim to improve the sustainability, quality and safety of agriculture
with world class science and innovative crop solutions. Enabling millions of farmers around the
world to make better use of limited agricultural resources through the use of our technologies.
Our Vision
Our vision is to be one of the world’s leading agriculture companies, helping our
customers, communities and people to prosper and grow.
A code of ethics outlines the ethical principles that govern decisions and behavior at a
company or organization (Betterteam, 2019). In order for the development of the business to
reach a sustainable level and to achieve the vision and mission of the company, we know the
need for great efforts from the board of directors and stakeholders. We believe that building a
code of ethics is necessary to build a reputation and a belief for stakeholders. Ensuring that our
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business is ethical and that all behaviors are controlled according to ethical standards, the code of
ethics is created and includes 10 main contents as follows.
Code of Ethics
According to Cavanagh (as cited in Wheelen et al., 2018), ethical business brings the
satisfaction of stakeholders. Our stakeholders must have confidence in Syngenta for our business
to remain successful. We can only maintain their trust if we act – and are seen to act – in
accordance with the highest standards of ethics and integrity. Our Code of Ethics is a key part of
our compliance framework. It demonstrates our commitment to build and maintain trust in
Syngenta and to integrate our business, social and environmental responsibilities into everything
we do.
1. Responsibilities
We are convinced that value creation – whether in the short-, medium- or long-term –
depends on successfully integrating business, social and environmental performance. Our Good
Growth Plan enables us to measure our progress against the commitments we’ve made to
boosting resource efficiency, rejuvenating ecosystems and strengthening rural communities. We
are also committed to developing our people, reducing our environmental footprint, enhancing
our social engagement, raising supply chain sustainability and doing business responsibly. We
engage actively in global dialogue and work with partners to improve agricultural productivity,
resource efficiency, ecosystem resilience, food safety and the wellbeing of rural communities.
We bring to customers the products suitable for the conditions of cultivation environment,
quality, safety and the most suitable price.
2. Compliance with the Law, Rules and Regulations
We will comply with all national and international laws and industry codes of ethics that
are applicable to our work. We are aware that certain laws apply not only to commercial
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behavior in a particular country or territory, but also to conduct elsewhere, which has a
significant impact on competition in that country or territory.
3. Relations with the Stakeholders
We put integrity and fairness at the center for all relationships to act with integrity and
honesty. We ensure that all decisions are made by authorized persons and in strict compliance
with contractual obligations. We aim to be fiercely competitive and result-oriented, advertising
and marketing activities will rely on real information. Create a fair and transparent working
environment for stakeholders.
4. Limitations on the Offering and Accepting Gifts, Services and Entertainment, Lobbying
We believe that corruption should be eliminated from society and we create the policies
to maintain on the offering and accepting gifts, services and entertainment, lobbying. We will
only provide gifts, entertainment or unpaid services when consistent with customary practice and
when not in contravention of any applicable law. Our employees will only accept gifts,
entertainment or personal favors which might not unduly influence our business decisions.
We will not provide or offer directly, or through third parties, any unlawful payment,
inducement or item of value, to any public official, supplier or anyone else for the purpose of
unduly influencing official action or with the purpose of obtaining a favorable decision.
5. Avoiding Conflicts of Interest
We consider that personal interests will lead to conflicting corporate interests. The
company does not allow employees to receive gifts from partners, open backyard companies to
provide services to the company, or bring family members into bidding activities that affect the
integrity of decisions.
6. Customers
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We always put Customers in a central position to achieve sustainable development in
business. We offer our customers good products, high quality, reasonable prices. Product
information is publicly available and consulted clearly. We have a 24-hour Customer Complaint
Center to ensure all Customer complaints will be heard, recorded and responded to within 24
hours. Customer information will be kept confidential. All aspects of the crop protection industry
are regulated – production, manufacturing, distribution and usage instructions. Products are
comprehensively tested and evaluated before being approved for registration and sale.
7. Employees & Human rights
We place our employees as the foundation for our achievements in business. We treat all
employees fairly and we aim at internationally recognized standards of fairness, honesty and
integrity. We will not tolerate discrimination based on race, sex, religion, creed, national origin,
disability, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, family status, political views or
any other characteristics protected by law. We prohibit harassment in any form, including verbal,
physical, mental and visual harassment. Every employee must respect the rights of colleagues to
work free from any form of discrimination or harassment in the workplace.
The FLA is a collaborative effort of universities, civil society organizations and socially
responsible companies dedicated to protecting workers’ rights around the world. We joined in
2008 as the FLA’s first agricultural affiliate. We’d already been working with the FLA since
2004, initially to address child labor in India. Today our fair labor program in India has received
FLA accreditation and we are implementing the program in all our seed production countries.
Find out more about our “Look after every worker” commitment.
8. Confidentiality and Asset Protection
We respect the property rights of others and vigorously defends its own property rights.
We will protect all company assets, property and resources securely and will only apply and use
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them for the purpose of the company business and activities and not for our own personal gain.
We will keep confidential and protect trade secrets belonging to Syngenta or other companies
and not make any non-business use of them.
Information generated within Syngenta, including information relating to research and
development, manufacturing data, costs, prices, sales, profits, markets, customers and methods of
doing business is the property of Syngenta and will not, unless legally required, be disclosed
outside Syngenta without proper authority.
9. Quality Assurance
Our Product Safety organization supports the entire research and development process at
Syngenta and is committed to the responsible and ethical management of our products
throughout their life-cycle. We influence the design and selection of optimal new chemistry,
traits and formulations for full development in the early-stage innovation pipeline. We then use
sound scientific evidence to ensure our products and technologies are safe for both humans and
the environment. We will carefully identify hazards, assess risks associated with the use and alert
users of consequences from misuse of a product on the product package, leaflet and label.
Products carry clear and user instructions concerning safe storage, use and disposal.
10. Community and Environment
We believe it’s in our interests to listen to local communities and share knowledge,
protect our common environment, promote health and improve their quality of life. We take all
reasonable steps to preserve the quality and quantity of natural resources including water, land
and air through responsible scientific, environmental, agricultural, economic, social and
commercial practices. We aim to minimize the environmental impact of our operations by
complying with all applicable laws, international guidelines and industry standards. We actively
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support the efforts of our customers and other partners in the safe and environmentally sound
handling of the products they receive from us.
Reducing emissions in our own operations. Reducing the amount of energy consumed
across our operations is critical to helping us cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and costs. Our
environmental management system monitors our performance in energy efficiency and carbon
emissions and helps us identify opportunities to reduce our impacts.
We are also committed to long-term CO2 intensity reduction for all our land, sea and air
distribution logistics. We are currently implementing a global program with partners who
integrate and co-ordinate all logistics operations across supply chains to optimize processes and
gain economies of scale. This will improve energy and cost efficiency, compliance and CO2
emissions.
The Necessity of 10 Elements in Code of Ethics In The Organization
Our Code of Conduct is the cornerstone of Syngenta’s commitment to ethical behavior. It
outlines our business, social and environmental responsibilities and the standards by which
Syngenta leaders and employees operate. We can only meet these standards by taking personal
responsibility for acting in an ethical and responsible way.
We put these 10 articles into Code of Ethics because we find it necessary to eliminate
potential risks that may occur in the future. We need consistency and clarity in management from
the beginning, it will easily handle dilemmas related to ethics. Our company is a global
company, so the 10 articles of the above code of ethics are very important to create a global
standard.
For sustainable business and building a strong organizational culture, we need to have
three layers of moral culture. First layer, the core value is at the center of the process, which is a
framework for everyone in the organization to act consistently under the same goal to achieve
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common goals and match the period expectations of stakeholders such as employees, partners,
customers and investors. The second layer is the implementation of defined missions, visions and
rules to help us implement the ethical business strategy that we are committed to providing to
society and the environment wherever business is conducted. The third layers includes
adherence, management and maintenance and enhancement of moral culture in daily work to
drive ethical compliance as voluntary and become a sustainable culture in the company.
The Important Of Code of Ethics for Employer Standpoint
Ethics defines the attitude, obligations and responsibilities of each person for daily work
for the company as well as for others and society. Therefore code of ethics is a template and
standard to build ethical behavior of businesses.
For employers, Code of Ethics in the enterprise is a control system to control the behavior
of all activities related to stakeholders. It includes compliance with law, competition law,
business integrity, business product development goals, human rights regulations, and ethical
work environment regulations and controls, etc… The company has good business ethics will
bring confidence to customers, create loyal customers. Enterprises with sustainable ethical
culture attract talents and employees will do long-term efforts. Finally, transparency in the
organization will bring trust to investors and partners, this is an important point to create profits
for the company and create a reputation for the company in the market. When the code of ethics
are applied in the
When ethical rules are consistently applied within the organization, the company can
achieve the following benefits: Satisfying customer expectations, indestructible quality,
respecting privacy and avoiding conflicts of interest, honest, traceability, reducing the chances of
waste and fraud, anti-discrimination, required by law but inserted to complete code, accurate
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report, and finally empowering through freedom of organization, responsibility and authority
(Velasquez, 2014)
The Important Of Code of Ethics for Employee Standpoint
The company has a Code of Ethics is important to give clear guideline for employees. It
creates a transparent working environment, helps employees make easy decisions at all levels,
and reduces ambiguity by following ethical principles. This increases employee productivity and
increases confidence when working with partners and customers. The working environment has
no discrimination, it encourages building peer relationships. It creates a fair and equitable
environment for all employees, which encourages employees to contribute their best to the
organization because they feel respected. Employees also feel proud to offer a good moral
organization so they work in excitement and have good motivation.
The Pressures That Influence Ethical Decision Making within the Organization
During the implementation steps of the code of ethics within the organization, there will
have a lot of pressure related to finance and costs that affect decision making. It may affect the
company's financial results in the short term. In addition, ethical performance also affects the
company's revenue. For example, Gramoxone is a kind of Non-selective herbicides product with
glyphosate, this product brings high sale value to Syngenta. According to FY 2016, the total net
sale and revenue of years ended December 31, 2015 is 2.6 billion U.S. dollars for this product
(Syngenta, 2019). However, there is no first aid or emergency medicine for people of this
product. In early of 2017, Syngenta decided to stop providing this product to the market. With
this ethical decision making, it has affected the immediate sales of the company.
In some case, the board of directors of the company more focuses on profitability.
Therefore, people who ethical decision making within the organization are under pressure, it is
necessary to prove how Code of Ethics will benefit in the future and how it affects company
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reputation. In addition, other pressures may occur when there may be some individuals who can
perform some unethical activities for their personal benefit, and pressure from family / friend
relationships, etc. In this case, any effort by the company's Code of Ethics protection decision
maker may affect the interests of people who violate ethical standards. The implementation of
ethical standards may push colleagues to be disciplined or lose their jobs. However, the benefits
of the company and stakeholders are the most important, so the ethical decision in the
organization is the primary goal of sustainable development for businesses.
The Way of Code of Ethics Implementation within The Organization
Ethical rules must be implemented in a consistent manner throughout the company and
senior leaders shared values, shared beliefs to the entire organization. (Standwich & Stanwich,
2016). Ethical culture is promoted and implemented at each level and to each department to
ensure that all employees understand and comply properly. Specifically through activities such
as communication, policy education, reward and punishment.
Set the Tone
Code of Ethics should be officially adopted by a CEO letter of recommendation to set the
tone. The rule set should be guided from top management and transmitted down to employee.
Senior managers are responsible for communicating the code of conduct and providing resources
to study for members of the business. In addition, everyone in company should have a code of
conduct and new employees are also trained in the rules of the training process. And need to
provide information about the rules on the website, email for all the stakeholders.
Training Program
Training program is one of the methods to help every employee to understand the rules of
code of ethics. Each training course should assess the student's output. Training is required to
ensure 100% of employees understand the rules. Because code of ethics contributes to helping
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businesses achieve strategic goals, company’s mission and vision. Therefore, re-testing is
necessary to ensure that all employees are fully aware of the moral philosophy and terms of the
code.
Building the Whistle-Blower Process
We established an independent committee to monitor ethical behavior in the business to
ensure ethical issues are followed. We provide an anonymous feedback channel for members to
present ethical issues. To develop policies to protect whistle blowers, ensure they are safe when
reporting ethics violations.
Reward Policy
One of the important factors in maintaining and implementing an effective code of ethics
is that the company should formulate reward and encouragement policies and have reasonable
penalties for compliance to be taken seriously. At the same time we also share relevant stories
about ethics that brought success to the enterprise, commend those individuals make good ethical
behavior.
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Conclusion
Code of ethics directs everyone in organization to conduct ethical behavior. It helps the
company maintain legal business in any country without worrying about the potential risks of
unscrupulous behaviors affecting the reputation of the company. Code of ethics creates a strong
reputation, sustainable business and is seen as a legal corridor for the whole organization for
people to comply and eliminate the scandals caused by people intentionally.
We believe that only an unwavering commitment to the highest standards of ethics and
integrity will enable us to maintain our reputation. The company has a good ethical culture that
brings many benefits such as creating trust with customers, meeting the expectations of
investors, creating confidence to cooperate, giving employees pride and employees want to try
long term with the company. Finally, business ethics is the core value that brings a sustainable
business environment and positively contributes to the social and environmental development
where we do business.
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References
Betterteam. (2019). Code of Ethics. https://www.betterteam.com/code-of-ethics-andprofessional-conduct
Stanwick, P.A., & Stanwick, S. D. (2016). Understanding Business Ethics (3rd ed.). SAGE
Publications.
Syngenta. (2019). 2018 full year results.
https://www.syngenta.com/~/media/Files/S/Syngenta/2019/fyr-2018-pr-english.pdf
Syngenta. (2019). Who we are. https://www.syngenta.com/who-we-are
Velasquez, M.G. (2014). Business Ethics: Pearson New International Edition. Pearson Higher
Ed.
Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J D., Huffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2018). Concepts strategic
management and business policy: Globalization, innovation, and sustainability, Global
Edition (15th ed.). Pearson Higher Ed.