Organizational exposure to risk of unethical behaviour : in Eastern European timber purchasing organizations

Issues:\tThe issues Swedwood asked us to explore in their Eastern European timber purchasing organizations were: \n\tHave clear directives been given to each purchasing unit regarding the purpose and scope of its activities? \n\tIf so, what do these directives contain? \n\tIf so, how are these directives followed? \n\tHow are purchasing transactions planned and carried out? \n\tWhat roles are involved in the purchasing process, and what are the responsibilities and authorities of each role? \n\tCan the purchasing process, or parts of the process, be improved? \n\tCan the company organize its purchasing units more effectively to ensure best practices? \n \nPurpose:\tThe overall approach we took was to assess Swedwood's potential exposure to low levels of legal or ethical practices by benchmarking its actual practices, using the concept of best purchasing practices described in the literature. \n \nMethod:\tTo collected data using qualitative methods, since this is an appropriate way of raising the sensitive issues that needed to be addressed. This involved interviewing local purchasing organisations about their local market conditions, organisational structure and purchasing processes. \n \nConclusion:\tThe study has shown that organisations' purchasing managers are exposed to considerable risks of low levels of ethical practices. While most local organisations have policies to prevent corruption, there is rarely a working manual to provide people with guidelines to achieve this. Support for ethical practices could probably be improved.