Ethical Leadership versus a Written Ethics Code

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Ethics, which is less commonly known to us as moral philosophy, is an affiliation of philosophy that talks about issues of morality, concepts such as crime and justice, good and evil go hand in hand with morality. Ethics plays a major part in society and it is the way people behave in certain situations, over the years it has come under the spotlight through numerous situations. In this essay I will discuss whether a written code of ethics combined with ethics training is more effective than strong ethical leadership and vice versa.

In an organisation ethics are supposed to set standards as to what is the right thing to do in conduct and decision making however this is not always the case. Over the years different scandals have occurred which have shown that companies and in particular the people that run them are not at all ethical and only seek to maximize profits. Economical analysts throughout the years have suggested that the way to avoid such incidents is by either having a code of ethics along with ethics training or through strong ethical leadership.

A code of ethics is written in order to help members of an organisation behave in an acceptable way within their given organisation. At the same time a code of ethics can help improve the popularity of the company due to the fact that it will be seen more favourable in the eyes of the public and of course the people that work in it. In addition, it will increase confidence within an organisation by showing to their rivals and the public that they are committed to following ethical guidelines. Firstly, a code of ethics is similar to the ACAS code of practice that is used in the government, however a code of ethics is strictly applied to the parameters of an organisation or ...

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...ng to enhance the reputation of their company by being ethically faultless.

Works Cited

• Anonymous, (nd) “Value based leadership.” Holt Cat, [Online] available from:

http://www.holtcat.com/about_us/values_based_leadership.aspx [Accessed 29th November 2011]

• Daft, R., Kendrick, M. and Vershinina, N., 2008. Management, 8th ed. South-Western Higher Education.

• Daft, R. and Marcic, D., 2004. Understanding Management, 4th ed. South-Western Higher Education.

• Isidore, C., October 7, 2005 “Boeing CEO out in sex scandal.” CNN Money, [Online] available from:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/07/news/fortune500/boeing_ceo/ [Accessed 30th November 2011]

• Wee, H., April 11, 2002 “Corporate Ethics: Right Makes Might.” Bloomberg Businessweek, [Online] available from:

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2002/nf20020411_6350.htm [Accessed 30th November 2011]

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