In the contemporary society, unethical and illegitimate activities within organisations are increasing, in order to remain competitive. Examples of violations are disrespectful behavior, non-compliance to company’s policies, unlawful conduct such as misuse of company’s fund and sharing of confidential information. In fact, all these activities cost a lot and organisations have to bear the consequences. Such consequences include tarnished reputation of the company, loss of trust among its stakeholders and unable to recruit the best talents in the industry. Studies have shown that many companies only realize the importance of ethical business practice after their wrongdoings are made known to the public. (Green 1997)
Surveys have been conducted and only a mere 47 percent of employees that participated in the surveys reported that leaders in their workplaces are honest and lead with integrity. In addition, only 56 percent of employees felt that ethical and integrity issues are communicated and practiced at work. (Smith 2000) What does it mean by behaving ethically and what can be done to create an ethical workplace?
Ethics are known as understanding what is right and wrong. It means more than just abiding the laws, which include lists of ‘to do’ and ‘not to do’. Every individual responds differently towards ethical behavior. It depends on one’s personal core values to shape their self-identity. (Kerns 2011) With the set of morals and values, it serves as a motivational guide in life, helping one to differentiate what are the appropriate actions to be taken in dealing with ethical issues. In this society, people are often influenced by temptations around them; this applies even to an ethical individual.
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... in their decision-making, guides them in the way they should behave and reaffirms the company’s objectives and responsibilities. Employers play an important role in ensuring that employees in the company understand what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ and making appropriate decisions. Employees will be confident in their work and able to perform better when they feel that their actions match their superior’s. Therefore, employers should set good role models and make the effort to assist them when they are in doubt. Most of the employees are afraid of speaking up and raising concerns to their superiors and co-workers about the problems they are facing, due to fear of retaliation. Companies can conduct ethics training program, designate a suitable, responsible and honest subordinate as a representative to provide guidance and suggestions to all employees. (Wheeler 2011)
Throughout your life, you’ll face tough decisions where you'll have to decide possibly against your ethical beliefs. Ethics don’t necessarily always have to involve law abiding. It’s rather about trusting your moral path and doing the right thing. Dori Meinert is the author of “Creating an Ethical Workplace” she explains the thought behind the never black or white decision making when it comes to businesses. Can businesses truly trust those individuals hired to steer their companies? It was mentioned that last year 41 percent of U.S. workers said they observed unethical or illegal misconduct on the job, according to the Ethics Resource Center's 2013 National Business Ethics Survey. Meinert’s article was not only eye-opening but very truthful since we’ve all been faced or witnessed unethical decision making. Once employees see individuals breaking the rules and regulations others will then think it's okay, which could result in employees leaving or major hoops for companies to jump through. When we tolerate misconduct we lower productivity and diminish the reputation of a company. Meinert mentioned that if
Effective organizations are able to clearly define their ethical expectations by setting high moral standards, writing codes of conduct, and utilizing mentoring programs. “Masters provide your servants with what is right and fair, because you know that you also have a Master in heaven” (Col. 4:1). When organizations clearly define their ethical expectations to their subordinates, they are much more likely to treat their customers fairly. Customers who are treated fairly are much more likely to be loyal consumers of the products or services that the company provides. This helps to establish a loyal customer base that a business can depend upon, thus providing a predictable source of annual revenue. If an employer treats their employees with respect, honesty, and with candor they’ll give the customer 110% (Rion, 2001).
Ethics are the principles that shape individual lives in modern society. It is a subjective idea that seems to have a standard in society. Ethics and morals are the major factors that guide individuals to make right and wrong choices. Something that is morally right to one person might be the very opposite of what another person would view as right. There are many factors that can trigger a change in an individual’s view of morality.
The organization can set the standards for how employee 's should behave using several methods and guidelines. The organization can utilize formal codes of conduct in document form and can reinforce with in class materials and informal talks to encourage the company 's ethical expectations that is to be adhered too. These will greatly help ensure that it operates both legally and ethically. These ethical decisions will come down to leadership and examples set by co-workers and especially superiors that are looked upon to set the example of the organization 's values. This trickle down effect will vastly effect employee 's in positive or negative ways. Therefore, leadership roles must have clear cut duties and understand the gravity of their responsibilities while also maintaining the standards desired. These leaders should be constantly teaching, intentionally or by example, with fellow employee 's by interaction and keeping track on the individuals underneath them. Many organization 's have mentor-ship programs or with leaders setting clear goals and guidelines for future conduct. By doing so they can positively reinforce in decisions and correct behavior that is not up to the organizational standards (Organizational Ethics,
Ethics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the moral principles and values that govern our behavior as human beings. It is important in the human experience that we are able to grasp the idea of our own ethical code in order to become the most sensible human beings. But in that process, can ethics be taught to us? Or later in a person’s life, can he or she teach ethics the way they learned it? It is a unique and challenging concept because it is difficult to attempt to answer that question objectively because everybody has his or her own sense of morality. And at the same time, another person could have a completely different set of morals. Depending on the state of the person’s life and how they have morally developed vary from one human
Ethics is the study of human conduct or in other words the study of moral behavior. All humans use ethics in their daily actions and decisions, but not many have the opportunity to probe into the core of ethics. When Socrates said in 399 B.C., “The unexplained life is not worth living” he was encouraging man to examine his way of life and ways of moral decision making. Ethics not only aims to discover the rules that should govern a moral life, but the goods one should aim to acquire in their life time. Ethics aims to explain why and how man acts the way he does and to shape the way man lives and acts,. Some philosophers say that reason is the criterion for making moral judgments, others say that duty and obligation rule moral decisions. Eighteenth century philosopher David Hume gave a different outlook on what makes man act the way he does. Hume takes an almost Epicurean stance and proclaims that man’s passions overrule reason and direct man’s moral actions and judgments. Moral judgments are manifestations of human sentiments and passions.
The term “ethical business” is seen, by many people, as an oxymoron. This is because a business’s main objective is to make as much money as possible. Making the most money possible, however, can often lead to unethical actions. Companies like Enron, WorldCom, and Satyam have been the posterchildren for how corporations’ greed lead to unethical practices. In recent times however, companies have been accused of being unethical based on, not how they manage their finances, but on how they treat the society that they operate in. People have started to realize that the damage companies have been doing to the world around them is more impactful and far worse than any financial fraud that these companies might be engaging in. Events like the BP oil
...d rules that are managed and reinforced can make a difference in the organization. Senior leaders must be aware of the influential impact that immediate leaders play in the daily duties of the workplace. Then the immediate leaders can emphasize and support the ethical character of their workers. Civility demands that a person must be self-disciplined for the sake of others. “By putting ethics into practice in our day-to-day encounters, civility is that moral glue without which our society would come apart” (Brannigan, 2008, para. 13). It is more important than ever for companies to act responsibly, as customers are buying products and services from the companies that they trust. Ethical values can be incorporated into an organization’s culture. Ethics plays an important role in the company and can have beneficial and profitable results on the corporation.
In Module 1, Kindred Todd faced quite a few ethical dilemmas that included her values and technical ineptness. The first predicament was tested her personal morals and ethics. According to, Cumming and Worley, OD practitioners are dealing more and more with value conflicts with powerful outside groups (Cummings & Worley, 2008). Kindred was immediately faced with the issue of knowing what was ethically correct but being told the unethical approach was the best in order to benefit the client and her job security. Although compromising is one of the many skills of organization developers there are still morals that should be followed on each assignment. Kindred, know that deceiving the clients was unethical, took the first step to working on behalf of the client and immediately involved her superior, Larry, to resolve a potential conflict In the project. While her actions went in vain when she told her boss to remove her from the project and provide the client with a more qualified resource, Kindred did what she thought to be the best approach.
The term “ethics” discusses how one’s morality needs to take acknowledge that of the rest of the members of the group or community t...
Ethics in the Workplace "Ethics are personal and, at the same time, a very public display of your attitudes and beliefs. It is because of ethical beliefs that we humans may act differently in different situations" (University of Phoenix, 2007). Poor ethical choices in the workplace can truly hurt people. Poor ethics can damage their career, happiness, and quality of life. Not only can these actions hurt the individual who has made the bad choices, but also most often it hurts the innocent.
Ethics is the responsibility of each individual person, but starts with the CEO and the Board of Directors, setting the right tone at the top and moves down through the organization, including setting the tone in the middle. A company’s culture and ethic standards start at the top, not from the bottom. Employees will almost always behave in the manner that they think management expects them, and it is foolish for management to pretend otherwise (Scudder). One of the CEO’s most important jobs is to create, foster, and communicate the culture of the organization. Wrongdoings or improper behavior rarely occurs in a void, leaders typically know when someone is compromising the company
By inducting ethical business practices, the need for whistleblowers will not be needed, but there is always someone that crosses the line. Therefore, by encouraging whistleblowing and supervised departmental and corporate performance concerning ethical questions. Whistleblowing is an ethical procedure when there is clear evidence of serious evidence, that will harm the public and the blower has tried to find an internal solution to effect change. The whistleblower who is associated with the unethical activity has a moral responsibility to do the right thing. Companies always know there is a possibility that the whistle will be blown, in this case the obstacle is created by knowledge that their employees stand to gain an advantage from uncovering corporate misbehaviour and thus they may be proactively looking for other people outside the organization to inform the authorities.
Ethics in the workplace is a very important thing to have. Without a sense of ethicality in the workplace there are many things that could go wrong. You could even end up losing a job because of a lack of ethics, or other consequences could be felt due to a lack of caring or morality. The workplace is a place that you should show respect and dignity, and a deeper sense of ethics is very important in order to uphold these senses of morality. Workplace ethics, which include such things as behavior, integrity, commitment, teamwork, and other things, are important, if not required, in most workplaces and can help to improve performance and morale for workers and employers.
When I think of ethics, I think of the angel on my left shoulder telling me to do the “right” thing, and the devil on my right, tempting me to join the dark side. This scenario deals with what is “right” or what is “wrong” and where my morals will lie in the end. But who is to say what is right and wrong? Ethics is such a trivial word because every person, company, and culture has a different idea of what is considered ethical or what is considered unethical. Throughout this paper, I will address my personal view on ethics, and how I believe it effects the workplace and today’s society.