Discussion Questions
Making decisions and implementing them in an ethical manner is one of the key determinants of successful managerial performance. Thus, the practice demonstrates that positive financial performance is not sufficient for business successfulness under the today’s business realities. In other words, a company may be considered successful not only when it yields profits, but also when its operations impacts the interests of its stakeholders in a wholesome way. These stakeholders are different, ranging from regular customers to community based organizations and employees. Furthermore, the practice shows that a single action, which infringed upon the communal interests, may have lethal repercussions on a company (Lefkowitz, 2003).
The best way to ensure that the interests of all major stakeholders are taken into consideration by the managers is to instill the culture of ethical decision making (Lefkowitz, 2003). Not only the managers should be aware of the corporate guidelines of ethical conduct, but also they should know how to apply these principles to the real-life business situations.
The methods of communicating ethical standards to the employees
Nowadays, there are three major methods of informing the employees about corporate ethical standards, and the way these standards should be realized.
Informing them directly – each new employee, who joins the company ranks should receive an ‘orientation workshop’ about the company ethical climate. An HR officer becomes responsible for explaining what is ethically tolerated and what constitutes a violation.
Teaching through actions – this method purports that there should be no deliberate teaching of the employees. Instead, ‘ethicality’ of the managers’ conduct should be always emphasized by such acting became an integral element of the company culture.
Mixed method – the practice demonstrates that the most successful companies are those, where the both approaches to instituting the culture of ethical decision making are in use.
The correlation between organizational culture and individual/group ethical behavior
The practice shows that there is a strong connection between the system of organizational values, assumptions, beliefs and relationships and ethicality of its employees’ behavior. Thus, the commentators agree on the idea that organizational culture seriously influences an employee’s understanding of ethics, because it is the cultural ramifications, which determine whether a particular action is good or not (Duska, 2007). In other words, the system of organization, not societal beliefs and values determines whether the employee’s actions are right or wrong
The role of leaders in maintaining and changing organizational culture.
Professional leadership is a critical aspect of developing and maintaining organizational culture of a company. Thus, it is the leaders, who help shareholders of the company to understand the kind of organizational culture, which may be necessary for a particular organization. In addition, it is the leaders of a company, who supervise employees and ensure that they comply with the cultural values and beliefs of an organization. Thus, it is impossible to inculcate specific cultural values to a business organization without competent, skilled and dedicated leadership (Duska, 2007).
Strategies, to ethical behavior and legal compliance of organization
Nowadays, there are several strategies, which can be used by business organizations to improve their ethical and legal compliance. The practice shows that the best results are achieved via the fusion of these methods.
Empowerment – one of the most effective strategies to improve ethical and legal compliance is to encourage responsible attitude of the employees through giving them more control over their work. Several studies demonstrated that personal control over the work assignment increases ethical attitude of the employees.
Communication - in addition to the first method, the management should ensure that information is exchanged between the departments and the specialists. This approach will help to ‘remind’ the team members about ethical standards and the importance of legal compliance.
References
Lefkowitz, J. (2003). Ethics and values in industrial-organizational psychology. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Duska, R. (2007). Contemporary reflections on business ethics. Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer.
