Case Study: Alcoa's Core Values in Practice

Case Study: Alcoa's Core Values in Practice

Alcoa got its start back in 1888, under their former name of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company and then President Fred Fretterolf took a stand to have the company document the values that all employees must live by on a daily basis. Fretterolf had a few core values in mind and listed them as: Integrity, environment, health, and safety. Alcoa was based on strong values, and wanted their employees to capture them early on throughout the beginning of their careers and know that the choices they make must follow these values in order to help the company strive and succeed.

Alcoa's reputation is underpinned by a strong ethics and compliance program to ensure all employees around the world understand and are committed to complying with all applicable laws, living our values, and adhering to our policies and procedures. (Alcoa.com, 2013)

Alcoa's has a very diverse work climate in which they encourage open communication, learning, and community outreach. Alcoa has encouraged their employees to take the initiative to help the company strive by coming up and formulating new ideas. Given the diverse workplace they have also taken pride in creating a work environment that respects, values and encourages its employees. Alcoa bases its ethical criterion on its principles; they state on their website that

Ethics, compliance, and appropriate business behavior are reinforced through training, communications, reporting mechanisms, and the handling of investigations. Our program goal is the effective prevention, detection, and remediation of conduct in conflict with the law or our policies or values. (Alcoa.com, 2013)

The top management role has proven to be a vital source in any work climate and the role in which Alcoa played should be admired and learned from. When Alcoa started, they wanted to incorporate their values and document what they thought was appropriate concerning the health and safety of their employees. The company came up with a plan for their employees to follow to ensure the codes of health and safety were being carried out so that Alcoa could accomplish their goal of providing for their stakeholders.

Reference

2013 Alcoa Inc. Ethics and Compliance Program. Retreived from http://www.alcoa.com/global/en/about_alcoa/corp_gov/ethics_compliance/info_page/sustainability_metrics.asp

Lawrence, A. T. & Weber, J. (2011). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public policy (13th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.