Code of Conduct: Ethical Principles for NGOs

By Khalid Al-Jufairi
Ph.D. Candidate

Tuesday, 14 March 2017

Business enterprises and non-profits alike face an ethical minefield when they operate internationally and face a disparity in corporate ethical principles between their home country and other countries where they are working.

This disparity of ethical standards is the largest contributing factor to cultural conflicts, and to the decision-making process between host-country and home-country operations, according to Tracy Wilcox in her 2002 article, “Ethics, Sustainability and Strategy”. For instance, US-based organizations have to deal with the moral constraints of US laws and their own ethical standards, even in their operations overseas. To successfully operate across national borders and cultures, these organizations have to conduct the necessary inter-organizational and inter-governmental negotiations aimed at ensuring compliance with international ethical standards.

To address the ethical challenges of operating, in the scheme of not-for-profit business models, an NGO must demonstrate commitment to developing a set of ethical policies governing its operations, and defining what these ethical policies stand for in the community where the NGO works.

Organizations can develop appropriate, yet useful standards to help its workforce understand its corporate values, and the guiding principles under which it operates, argue Gerhard Fink, Anne-Katrin Neyer and Marcus Kölling in the journal of International Studies of Management & Organization (2007). That is, an organization’s ethical policy informs its code of conduct and defines its norms and practices, especially as NGOs are regarded to serve an esteemed cause.

NGOs must have these guidelines spelled out and should be transparent in dealings. Failure to comply with certain measures exposes the organization to legal and financial risks, hindering its position – creating vulnerability in an inherently vulnerable cause of operating.

There are a number of suggested codes of ethics for NGOs available online, including one from the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations. And some of the universal ethical issues faced by NGOs is discussed in The Guardian here.

Image by Stuart Miles via Freerange photos