Imagine you’ve been assigned to an organizational committee that has been asked to evaluate the organization and make recommendations to the compliance officer on ways to strengthen legal and ethical compliance.

In this assignment, you will use the Organizational Research Memo Template to research organizations, not agencies. Remember that an organization is a company or business – such as a hospital, clinic, or insurance company – and an agency is a part of the government at the federal, state, or local level, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Department of Labor (DOL), or a state health department.

Select 1 of the organizations listed below. Research the organization’s compliance information. Review the Organizational Research Memo Template to ensure you can obtain all information for the organization you have selected.

American Red Cross
American Heart Association
United Healthcare
Johnson & Johnson
Stryker Corp.
Verizon Healthcare
GE Healthcare
A hospital
A clinic
An insurance company
A nonprofit health care organization
An organization of your choice – the organization should not be a federal, state, or local agency, and must include information that is publicly available.

Write a 700- to 1,050-word memo to the corporate compliance officer. Use the Organizational Research Memo Template to complete the assignment.

Cite at least 1 reputable reference. Reputable references include trade or industry publications, government or agency websites, scholarly works, a textbook, or other sources of similar quality.

Format your references section and references used in your memo according to APA guidelines.

ANSWER

Organizational Research Memo Template by Jessica Zlomke

Complete the following memo template. As you complete the template, replace the material provided in the square brackets with your responses.

Memo To: Larry Cannon

Memo From:

Re: The American Heart Association

Date: March 1, 2021

Analysis of the Organization’s Legal and Ethical Framework with Recommendations for Improvement

Name and description of the organization

American Heart Association (AHA) is one of the reputable organizations focused on ensuring individuals achieve quality health and well-being. Its primary aim is to support the fight against heart diseases and stroke. The organization is committed to helping raise awareness about these diseases to ensure that people acquire knowledge to make informed decisions. Their central target is to assist the global population in achieving heart-healthy lifestyles.

Description of the organizational culture

American Heart Association’s culture is built on openness, trust, and integrity. All affairs and activities are handled with the highest ethical conduct standards (American Heart Association, 2021). This organization ensures that it provides accurate and objective information to its consumers. Notably, they respect the confidentiality of all information and always exercises in good faith. Overall, AHA complies with all its rules and regulations in the promotion of ethical behaviors. Its culture revolves around aligning its actions and behaviors with the set ethical standards. This ensures that consumers receive the best services. The organization has effectively aligned all its activities and process with its core values and ethical standards. This ensures that it meets the intended milestones and objectives.

Mission, code of ethics, and core values of the organization

AHA’s mission, “to be a relentless force for a world of longer, healthier lives,” shows its commitment to creating healthy and safe communities (American Heart Association, 2021). It strives to create disease-free communities by providing populations with information that enables them to make quality decisions that support long and healthy lives. The organization’s code of ethics is built on strategic values that can deliver effective and efficient services to all clients. AHA believes in collective success, where it integrates values that promote the common good. The core values enable it to fulfil its mission of creating healthier communities. These values are integrity, excellence, vision, dedication, inclusiveness, and sensitivity. All these values encompass the desire and need to meet the needs and welfare of all the stakeholders. The organization is better positioned to help accelerate healthy outcomes among all global populations.

Leadership strategies to promote legal and ethical compliance

AHA has established a working environment that values diversity. Its volunteers and employees are sourced from different backgrounds. This portrays a leadership system that is committed to adhering to its organizational values and ethics. The HR policies and activities are centrally based on creating a respectful working environment where every worker is allowed to reach their highest level of outcome. Inclusiveness, integrity, and sensitivity are some of its core values supported by its leadership system. Over time, AHA’s top-management level requests feedback from the workers, volunteers, and customers. This shows that the organization believes in creating a fair and just environment as it is willing and always ready to adjust loopholes that affect the achievement of its core values. Notably, it has laid down mechanisms for reporting unethical behaviors. All stakeholders are provided with systems that enable them to report any inappropriate behaviors. For example, if workers, volunteers, and contractors experience any unethical action, they are expected to report for immediate action. All these leadership strategies show that the organization is dedicated to promoting legal and ethical compliance.

Legal and ethical issues

AHA has encountered a lawsuit that threatened its image in the public domain. The organization was considered as utilizing two different sets of nutritional criteria. Its set standard is that consumers should not eat more than 1,500 mg per day and select low sodium foods with 140 mg of the component (Kim, 2013). Kerry O’Shea’s lawsuit seeks to highlight the plight that consumers might experience as AHA’s nutritional standards do not align with the 480 mg of sodium recommended quantity. The lawsuit is expected to ensure that AHA’s standards guide consumers effectively when making purchase decisions. The targeted outcome is increased public trust in AHA’s healthcare standards as they target ensuring that individuals with heart diseases receive the best support in their consumption trends.

Recommendations to strengthen legal and ethical compliance

One of the solutions that AHA can take to improve its legal and ethical compliance is informing the public about its standards. This will help eliminate any legal actions that emerge from a lack of understanding about its health standard guidelines. For example, the lawsuit generated could have emerged from confusion as AHA’s Heart-Check food certification program guidelines indicate that consumers should take 480 mg or less. Informing the public about such information helps spread awareness so that consumers can familiarize themselves with the exact specifications. Another viable solution for advancing legal and ethical compliance is reviving their policies to ensure that they reflect the global emerging changes. As technology advances, there is fear that the organization can be exposed to safety and security threats. This can affect its ability to deal with issues such as fraud, the confidentiality of patient information, and other irregularities. Thus, reviewing and updating their policies can enhance compliance. Lastly, renewing their ethical values can boost compliance. Their ethics should always be value-driven as opposed to merely having a compliance perspective. For example, if there is a new trend in the healthcare industry, the organization should re-model their values to produce optimal benefits for the stakeholders.

References

American Heart Association Ethics Policy Details. (2021). Retrieved March 1 2021, from https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/statements-and-policies/american-heart-association-ethics-policy-details

American Heart Association (2021). Retrieved March 1 2021, from https://www.heart.org/en/about-us

Kim, S (2013). Campbell Soup Co., American Heart Association Sued Over Health Claims. Retrieved March 1 2021, from https://abcnews.go.com/Business/campbell-soup-company-american-heart-association-sued-health/story?id=19981943#:~:text=with%20news%20about-,Campbell%20Soup%20Co.%2C%20American%20Heart%20Association%20Sued%20Over%20Health%20Claims,healthy%20claims%20in%20soup%20products.&text=Lawsuit%20claims%20American%20Heart%20Association,heart%20check%22%20seal%20on%20products.