Ethikos Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:31pm on Friday, September 25th, 2009

September 2009: The Internet continues to change the world in ways that were completely unforeseen a generation ago -- from the way people communicate to how they receive their news to where they purchase their books, clothes, and music.

It is even changing the way employees report business misconduct.

At the Coca-Cola Company (Atlanta), more 'concerns' about business conduct and ethics are now reported through the firm's Internet portal than arrive via its ethics hotline (telephone).

Indeed, about three-fourths (75 percent) of the company's EthicsLine questions and reports now arrive from its Internet portal as opposed to the telephone line (25 percent), according to Sharon J. Zealey, the company's Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, interviewed in the September/October 2009 issue of Ethikos.

This is particularly surprising because less than half of Coca-Cola employees use a computer at their work site, notes Zealey. A lot of them use the telephone, but many are obviously connecting with the Internet portal via their home computers or from other areas, like Internet cafes.

EthicsLine use has been growing rapidly. In 2008, contacts increased 50 percent compared with 2007, says Zealey. "Education and training has had an impact," although at least one business unit manager expressed concern about the increase in complaints from his unit. Zealey answered him that he was "burdened with success" and not to worry.

Another article in the same issue reports how retailer Best Buy publishes its employees' ethics and compliance infractions online, something one ethics practitioner calls "a remarkable exercise in transparency."

"We're trying to take transparency to another level," Chief Ethics Officer Kathleen Edmond tells Ethikos, while admitting there was some angst attached to the project. "Why do you want to air your dirty laundry?" she was asked by some.