Organizational ethics
Most organizations have consistently strived to create a better ethical atmosphere within their workplaces through expressing their organizational values and standards to their employees. This has been through establishing the employees’ conduct as well as their performance expectations. It is these laid down expectations in both conduct and performance that assist the leaders in any organization to tone the organizational symbolism which reflects the representation, culture and how one is to act or think within an organization. Despite these values and standards, organizations are more than often faced by issue of unethical behavior in the workplace. Below is an ethical issue that commonly arises in many organizations.
Harassment in the workplace
It is in most cases a challenge for an organization to maintain professional workplace relationships amongst its employees. It is even more challenging when the organization uses sexually charged imagery in its advertising which creates an ethical dilemma on the conduct of the employees on the workplace and the image the organization projects as it sells its services and products. It however gets tricky for the managers to handle issues of harassment as it is difficult to account for peoples’ perceptions and how they interpret sexual harassment in the workplace (Keyton J, and Rhodes S, p. 130). It is therefore advisable for the leaders in the organization to take numerous steps to enlighten the employees on the nature of sexual harassment and the consequences. To curb this ethical issue, leaders in organizations need to understand the composition of the current ethical culture in that organization and work towards improving and sustaining the positive culture so that it gets embedded within the organization. The decisions on ethical behavior within an organization like coming up with sexual harassment policy (p. 130) should involve not only the leaders but also the employees who are often guided by their perceptions of the ethical values of the organization’s culture.
Two way communication
As a manager in an organization, it is essential that a two-way communication is established and maintained between the employees and the leaders. Leaders can create and encourage two-way and upward communication by being honest with co-workers as well listening to them more. This can also be achieved by adopting an open-door policy where a junior can visit the manager any time and share information that is beneficial to the organization. The employees’ right to dissent should also be respected. According to Dulye (2003) a manager can achieve this by:
- Being consistent and positively accepting feedback whether it is critical. This helps in building trust in the employees.
- Ensuring he/she involves the employees in the decision making process which makes it more likely to woo them and win their support.
- It is also advisable for the manager to give options that allow for inputs while the employees withhold their anonymity for instance providing suggestion boxes as this ensures that the leaders and the employees can exchange ideas and concerns.
- The managers can also invite employees from different sections and departments to hold discussions and talks on certain issues. This gives the employees an opportunity to raise their concerns and thoughts on such matters which is important feedback to an organization.
Values
Integrity is an important value in workplaces that should be upheld at all costs. It is however a big challenge to organizational leaders to sometimes stick to this value and they often are compelled to lie in some situations. Dilenschneider (2013) explains that some executives think that they could not have been promoted if they hadn’t lied of their loyalty to the organization or that they had to lie to protect the firm against unfair lawsuits. It is however not justified to lie of anything about the organization and leaders should stick to integrity to avoid bringing about bigger scandals to the organization once the lying is exposed like the Wedtech scandal in the late 80’s in which government officials had given fat contracts to dishonest supplier only to be exposed later. Dilenschneider (2013)
Honesty encourages trust among employees in workplaces and the leadership style affects and determines the level of honesty exhibited by employees on the job. It is therefore crucial that as a leader one should encourage honesty and exhibit it also. Despite the fact that some information should be confidential, the employee should be kept informed as they appreciate transparency from the company. According to Brown (2005) one is being dishonest when they tells the supervisor only the good news or just remains silent when they do not support a proposed initiative.
Respect is a core value in any organization and the leaders should encourage coworkers to treat each other with courtesy and politeness. Employees come from different cultures and it is upon the management to ensure that this diversity works to the advantage of the organization.
These core workplace values should be adhered to by the leaders and the employees in any given organization. The leaders should not sacrifice these values for the betterment of the organization as he/she will be held accountable if anything goes wrong as a result.
References
Brown, E. (2005, Dec 1). “Honesty in workplace, open communication go hand in hand.”The Daily Reporter. Retrieved on 27th Nov 2013 from
http://www.thetrustedleader.com/honesty_daily_reporter.pdf
Dilenschneider, R. (2013, Sep 3). 5 Core Values for the Workplace.
Retrieved on 27th Nov 2013 from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-l-dilenschneider/business-advice_b_3829655.html
Dulye, L. (2003). Ways to encourage upward communication.
Retrieved on 27th Nov 2013 from
http://www.lmdulye.com/WaysToEncourageUpwardComm.pdf
Keyton, J., Rhodes, S. (1997, Feb) Sexual Harassment: A Matter of Individual Ethics, Definitions, or Organizational policy? Netherlands. Kluwer.
Manning, G., Curtis, K., (2003). The Art of Leadership, 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill, Boston.
