Developing to Sound Ethical Decision Making in Green Company
Ethical leadership is the main concept for the discussion at any one time when there is need to focus on organizational ethics and social responsibility. In the contemporary society than earlier before the focus on social responsibilities of an organization has developed in all areas of business. This, therefore, calls for organizations to plan effectively for the social responsibilities to the community and all the stakeholders (Trevino & Nelson, 2014, p. 53). This calls for the development of organizational codes of conduct and mission statements stating how an organization plans to dispense their responsibilities to its stakeholders. Planning for ethics in an organization, therefore, have developed to be a core activity/ responsibilities to be taken seriously by the senior/ high ranking corporate associates in an organization in consultation with all the primary stakeholders and to some extent with the secondary stakeholders. The results of lack of commitment to the planning of the ethical behaviors and code of conducts have been seen to result in enormous negative results in the brand name of the company and the products of the company (Trevino & Nelson, 2014, p. 54 This means, therefore, that and preparing for codes of conducts and the mission statement should be at the center of the top management's agenda and should involve all the affected stakeholders. This final part of the project focuses on some of the problems involved in the development of the codes of conduct and the mission statement for the Green Company.
Problems in the Green Company
There have been various problems in taking the cause of developing the presentation of the codes of conduct and the mission statement to be presented by the senior management to the employees regarding their ethical behaviors. These myriad problems may have resulted in the lack of interest in the matter at hard or lack of knowledge (ignorance) on the issue of ethics in the organization. This, therefore, hindered the management consultation firm to design and present all-around and professionally recognized codes of ethics and the mission statement to ensure effectiveness in the organization (Treviño & Nelson, 2014). It also hindered the decision-making the process of the management consultant firm. Some of these problems are discussed as follows:
Lack of Facts and Problems in the organization due to lack of resources
Our management consultant organization was faced with the problem of not being able to access the crucial information about the state of ethics and ethical issues in the organization. In ensuring that there are effective codes of conduct and mission statement in the organization, it needed to access information such as the current situation of the matter at hand, the history of the organization and the organization policies, and probably how the ethical issues have been addressed in the past and the defining factors. Firstly, the organization was denied the permission to interview or interact with the employees who of course were the major stakeholders to be affected by any decision made by our management consultant firm. This, therefore, denied the firm to get the first-hand facts to help in the decision making (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 51). The firm was not able to get the various problems hindering the employees to act professionally which may have probably come from the authority and therefore needed to be addressed in designing the codes of conduct. For the success of our project, facts, opinion, and recommendations from the employees were very essential, and lack of which would probably result in highly biased decision-making (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 51). The decisions, therefore, were not favorable to them since there was even no one to represent them. Secondly, our organization was denied access to the three senior executives in the organization. In making corporate decisions for an organization which may affect the operation of the organization in the short-run and in the long-run, it is mandatory for the senior corporate executives to be present. The absence of the senior executives meant that we would not be able to access the facts about the history of the organization and its performance on the social responsibilities. This meant that we would also not be able to relate and explain the problems of the employees to the senior management for the designing the best codes of conducts and the mission statement. In fact, designing the mission statement and the important codes of ethics is the main responsibility of the top management who are concerned with the corporate performance of an organization.
Problems in Defining the Ethical Issues
It is probably impossible to make essential and corporate decisions without having defined ethical issues. This process of defining ethical issues was hindered even before the time has come through denied access to information needed in the definition. The information and the parties which were needed in the definition were not accessible. It was impossible or rather difficult for the management consultant firm to make decisions without having solved some of the probable dilemmas for the accomplishment of the codes of conducts (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 52). The employees and the senior management executives were missing in action and the information from them was also lacking. No decision, therefore, would have been made at this point.
Problem in identification and access to the affected stakeholders
Decision making (either consequentialist or deontological) requires that the decision maker (management consultant firm) in this case must have the ability to identify the key stakeholders (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 53). The stakeholders, in this case, are those who rights and freedoms may be affected by the decisions made and probably those who may experience harm or benefit in this case. The stakeholders in the Green Company case were the employees and the top managers who are involved in overseeing the successful running of the organization as a whole. Lack of the two meant that the management consultant firm was not able to see the situation through their own eyes. Conflicting decisions were, therefore, unavoidable in the decision making. The form was also not able to access the roles which have played in the past events by these key stakeholders resulting in unethical behaviors, actions or even decision making. Their perspectives on the issue of ethical or unethical actions were not taken into consideration. We know that simply assumed perspectives of the stakeholders are very essential in any decision making for they are used to build the culture and even define the behaviors of individuals in an organization.
Problems in identification of consequences
As derived from the consequentialist approach to decision making, it is always important to identify various possible consequences of any action or decision taken (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 54). In making an important decision in an organization like developing the code of conduct and coming up with the mission statement which are the responsibilities of the corporate/senior executives in an organization, it is important to get the consequences which have the high probability of occurring as well as those with low probability. It is vital to identify the negative consequences of the occurrence even when they have a minimal probability of occurring (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 54). Identification of the consequences is only possible through comprehensive research conducted by the stakeholders. In our case study, this was only possible through interaction with the employees and the top management personnel. Unfortunately, this was hindered by preventing the consultant firm to access these parties. This, therefore, meant that the decisions made in the codes of conduct preparation and the mission statement were only based on mere assumptions of the probable consequences.
Problems in Giving the Obligations for the implementation
In developing the mission statement and the codes of conduct of an organization, it is implied that various obligations for the implementation must be given to individuals or a group of individuals. This means that in a case of violation of the set decisions which are binding, there is an obligation set towards the affected party (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 56). The obligation to the affected party should be intense enough to ensure that the action is not repeated any other time. It should serve to discipline as well as correcting the mess done. To assign obligation to the parties, the presence of the affected parties is mandatory to ensure that they can abound to the decisions. However, in our case study lack of information and absence of the employees and the senior executive opinion hindered the firm to consider binding obligations in their decision making while considering their character and integrity of their work. This added to the problems of the Green Company in trying to come up with the mission statement and the codes of conduct.
In summary, the main problem of the whole was the lack of information, facts, and parties required for the decision-making process to take place. There lacked most essential factors or rather the core factors which should guide any decision-making process. Decisions on the mission statement or statements of the company cannot be easily made as they require the reaction of the employees and the consent of the top management in any given organization.
Problems in the delegation of responsibilities
The corporate counsel has failed in their work. In the management position, there are roles you can delegate while there are roles which you should not delegate or even transfer (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 271). The corporate transferred the core responsibility of making the mission statement and the codes of conduct fully to the management consultant. This is a function which should be handled by the corporate counsel. The corporate counsel should rather get some advice and additional information from the consultants rather than transferring the whole corporate responsibility to the consultant firm. More so, there was a problem with the delegation of the responsibility of the corporate counsel to the various managers who were supposed to be consulted on their behalf according to the human resource manager.
Stakeholders in the Organization and the decision-making process
In our case study, various stakeholders should be taken into consideration in trying to make decisions about what should be the guiding principles, that is, the mission statement and the codes of conducts. The stakeholders, in this case, can, however, be divided as primary stakeholders and the secondary stakeholders depending on their probable benefits harms and the effect on the decision made.
The primary stakeholders
The most important or significant stakeholders, in this case, include the employees, the top management/ corporate counsel, and the customers. The employees are the one to be affected by the decisions on the codes of conduct since they are the once supposed to abide by what is stipulated in the documents as it appears and the top management have the authority and power to enforce that. On the mission statement, the employees are the ones who at the shop-level to ensure that all the work assigned to them has been completed. They are the one who would probably develop some creative ideas to ensure easier implementation of the of the set mission objectives within the set time. They are therefore the key stakeholders in this organization and decision-making process which cannot be looked down upon (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 353). Secondly, we have the top management executives/corporate counsel whose main responsibilities are making organization and corporate decisions. They represent both the employees in an organization as well as the interest of other business partners. It is their role to design mission statement and the codes of conducts in the organization as well as the obligations to the organization. Lastly, the customers are equally important stakeholders. Their opinions and perspectives as understood by the employees and the senior executive should have been incorporated in the decision making. Green Company has both formal and contractual relationship with all the above stakeholders.
Secondary stakeholders
The secondary stakeholders are also important to group to be considered in decision making. Their perspective and opinions affected to some degree the brand name of the company as well as the company products (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 353). Those in this category include the opinion formers which is the media and the competitors of the firm, the community which is affected by the activities and decisions of the organization and who may also affect their operation and lastly the authorities. The authorities here include those who are in control and are supposed to monitor the operations of organizations. All these parties are important in making any decision and, more importantly, the corporate decisions in an organization. They define whether an organization will implement their decisions successfully (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 353).
Possible reasons for the corporate counsel negative behavior and ethical responses
Probable reasons that would have made led to the poor behavior of the corporate counsel was the lack of knowledge (ignorance) about the corporate social responsibilities and ethical decision making (Treviño & Nelson, 2014). Some of the specific reasons for behaviors observed are poor delegation of the core activities, rationalizing problems and the group norms, roles assumption at work, assuming obedience to the authority at work, responsibilities diffusion in the organization, problems with making the informed decision in deciding what is right (Treviño & Nelson, 2014). This is discussed in details below while providing the probable solutions to the problem as ethical leader and consultant.
Poor delegation of the Core Activities
The corporate counsel seemed to behave in this manner as a result of delegation and also the transfer of responsibilities. Firstly, it transferred its responsibilities to the managers who on their part denied the management consultant firm permission to access the employees. The management consultant was from not in a position therefore to integrate the views, opinions and facts coming from the main stakeholders (Trevino & Nelson, 2014). They failed to take their core responsibility personally and hence the behavior was quite unethical. It is unethical to delegate duties which should be taken personally by individuals in an organization. In response to this and as a management consultant, with the desire to make conscientious moral agents, I would advise the corporate counsel to ensure individualized responsibilities. This means that would have eliminated the individualization and every person in the organization must take their responsibilities in the organization (Trevino & Nelson, 2014, p. 352). The taking of the responsibilities by the corporate counsel would set an example to the other employees on taking individual responsibilities and being accountable for their actions.
Lack of involvement of the parties in decision-making
The corporate counsel also failed in their responsibility to engage the employees in some of the decision-making concerning their concerns (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 53). It was important for the corporate counsel to work together with the employees which creates a feeling of ownership of what they do. To accomplish the mission, it is important that the employees and other stakeholders own it. However, the unethical action of delegating it and even transferring the responsibilities meant that some other parties would create the codes and missions which are not binding. This can be said to be unethical behavior on the side of the corporate counsel. To solve this problem and unethical behavior, it would be necessary to advise the corporate leaders on the need to involve all the affected team in any decision making. The management consultant would also explain to the corporate counsel on the needs to take their responsibilities seriously without delegating or even transferring as it happened (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 53).
Rationalizing problems and group norms
The corporate counsel through the delegates they appointed who are the high-level managers including the human resource went ahead to rationalize important issues in the organization and to assume that they would work out as expected (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 266). Firstly, they assumed that the managers in the organization would give the information required by the company in making the core decisions. The corporate manager in the case study asked the consultant firm to liaise with these managers to get the information needed. In this case, the corporate counsel had assumed that the usual delegation of the roles in the Green Company would still work out in this case. They failed to understand that ethics requires control of the responsibilities whether delegated or not. They also failed to draw a line between what can be delegated and what should not be delegated. The corporate therefore assumed that things would be done with delegation and transfer as they have always been done. This produced the mess in the whole situation. With this, the Green Company corporate counsel and the top managers to whom the work was delegated got the pressure to carry along with the issues delegated to them as they have always done earlier before.
Failure to take roles in the Organization
Roles are one of the important factors leading to either success or failure of anyone organization and dispensing its social responsibilities to the various stakeholders. Failure of the corporate counsel of the Green Company to take their role is one of the main challenges, and all the other challenges revolve around this problem. Failure to take roles led to conflicting roles in the organization and with the management consultation firm. Essentially, conflicting roles in an organization can lead to unethical behavior where an individual or a group performs functions which should be taken by another party (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 270). This may lead to crashes in the organization which is unethical. On the other hand, taking the roles effectively can support ethical behavior where an individual can carry out all the assigned duties while at the same time ensuring accountability of all the activities undertaken by him/her. What should the corporate managers do? The corporate counsel of the Green Company should reconsider constructing a portfolio where roles are given out to individuals with clear statements of the far one can go. To be able to do this, they should be able to consider the extent to which the assigned roles in the company support and encourage either ethical or unethical practices (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 271). Through this focus, they can be able to change those roles which support unethical behaviors while supporting those that promote ethical behaviors. The corporate counsel should be advised on how to use the various roles in the organization to influence the behavior. This comes with the understanding that people fulfill the assigned roles in the organization.
Assuming obedience to the authority at work
The other major probable reason which would have led to the behavior of the corporate counsel is their lack of understanding of the power of the authority to the subjects. They may have probably lacked an understanding of the perception of the employees or other individual under authority on those in authority and the influence they have. In the real sense, individuals under authority tend to act and behave as their seniors command them in an organization. For example in our case, it is possible that the managers giving the orders had received the same orders from the corporate counsel and which they worked with as given. Secondly, it is probable that the management consultant firm may have used only what was provided for them to do exactly what was specified by the management of the organization. What should the corporate managers do? To manage the ethics in the organization, the management should ensure that any information and orders coming from the senior management are properly thought and represent the best decisions for actions to be taken. The information or orders given should, therefore, be as a result of the good decision-making process.
Ethical Obligations in an Organization and How I Would Proceed With the Issue
As a management consultant firm who have been appointed by the organization to assist in the drafting and designing the mission statement and the code of conduct in the organization, my responsibilities remains to act by my profession in ensuring ethical behaviors. It is, therefore, important to carry out the professional responsibilities ethically to ensure the maximum benefits of the organization are achieved. In doing this, various factors will be considered before going on with the task ahead of me and out consultant firm at large. The main reason will be to ensure that the right decision is made in the future regarding the way issues in the organization should be handled and how various roles should be taken, delegated or even transferred. This will ensure quality is maintained throughout the decision-making process and hence quality service to our client.
Demanding access to the right information for decision-making
As a management consultant firm which is obligated at focused on delivering quality services, we will not be able to handle any work. The firm will, therefore, propose some of the recommended actions and moves to the corporate counsel which should be attended to before drafting the mission statement and the code of conducts. Firstly, I will demand the provision of information through interaction with the employees and the corporate counsel. For any decision to be made and to be binding for the use in the organization, it will be essential to involve the two major parties in decision making. The employees and the senior executive will form the main source of the information to be used for creating the mission statement as well as the codes of conducts. To ensure that the right information and the right methodologies and followed to the satisfaction of each body, interviews and interaction with the officials must be maintained at all levels to ensure quality services.
Dealing with conflict of interest
In this case, of Green Company, conflict of interest is seen where an organization through the senior’s executives ensures that its activities are carried out through the senior executive while compromising the rights and freedom of the employees. This violates the chapter on ethics and employees where the needs of the employees are not taken into account during decision making. To ensure professionalism and the right placement of the decision made, it is important to eliminate any form of conflict of interest in an organization (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 354). This means that I should submit these complain to the company’s senior executive seeking correction of the issue before any decision is made. This will hence ensure that any decision made is comprehensive and involving and that no party benefits more in compromise of the other.
Ensuring that role are taken by each of the stakeholders
For the management consultant firm to be able to provide durable, reliable and efficient services, Green Company must have a clear definition of who should do what at any one given time. They should define the roles played by each or level of employees or managers in an organization. This helps in preventing the issues of conflicting roles and in setting obligations to each of the team or individual in the case where unethical behaviors are seen. What are my obligations then? It is my obligation as a management consultation firm to recommend for the roles definition and sharing in the company before making decisions on the guiding codes of conducts and the mission statement. In pursuing the right course, therefore, I will advise the management on the importance of defined roles in an organization which should be presented through writing as a binding agreement between the individuals to avoid instances of unethical behaviors produced by conflicting roles in an organization. It will also be important for me to provide assistance in the various areas of interaction between professionals doing various tasks and taking various roles to avoid conflict where the roles relate to each other.
Assuming a helping role in decision-making
In carrying my out my roles as provided under the obligations towards ensuring that ethics in Green Company are maintained and also that social responsibilities are given an upper hand, I will assume the role of the consultant rather than the proposed role of the corporate counsel. This means that I will advise the corporate counsel on the extent to which I am obligated to perform in my capacity and ensure that they take their roles as the senior management. Through this, I will advise them through writing or through direct meetings on the need for them to take the decision-making roles rather than giving the mandate of making a decision to an outside organization (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 269). After giving the necessary advice to the top management of the organization, it is expected that the top management will take their roles in making the core decisions in the organization such as designing the mission statement and the codes of conduct as in the case of. Assuming the consultation role rather than the decision-making role will ensure and prove that I have worked along the lines of duties and roles of a consultation firm. As a management consultation firm, it is my duty and obligation not to make the decision for the company but rather to assist the organization‘s management in making decisions which are comprehensive and abiding by all interested parties. It is also expected of me to ensure that the management has enough knowledge and information necessary for making decisions on important matters in the organization (Treviño & Nelson, 2014, p. 269).
As a management consultation firm, it is our obligation to ensure that all the unethical behaviors and practices are eliminated and are also covered in the codes of conduct. Leadership role in the codes of conduct states with the top management who should understand their duties and from where the employees can learn from. Leadership in Ethics, therefore, starts not with the creation of codes of conducts but rather creating awareness of the leadership roles to the senior executive.
My obligations, therefore, is to ensure that there is the creation of leadership in ethics and social responsibilities which start and is manifested by the internal operation of the company. Therefore, Green Company must embrace the culture of ethical practice which should be practiced effectively in the organization (between employees and employers) and later transmitted to the community and stakeholders outside the organization. As a firm, we are therefore obligated to design and develop a workable plan which is both comprehensive and participatory and provides for leadership.
Conclusion
Ethics and ethical behaviors in an organizing remain the determining factor in the success or failure of an organization. Finance success of the organization is highly dependent on the ethical standards for all the stakeholders including the employees, senior managers and even the auditors of firms. Misleading information, facts and decisions on finance and other core issues have lend to the collapse of a large organization due to probably lack of due care in decision making. Ethics, therefore, should ensure that management teams in the organization are the leaders in ethics in their respective organizations. It is expected that these organizational leaders are the trendsetters through the fulfillment of their roles in ensuring ethical behavior in the organization. Through ensuring ethics in the organization and also maintaining the high level of responsibility in ethics, organizational leaders can influence the culture of ethics in their organization and hence building a lasting company image and brand name for their products.
References
Trevino, L. K. & Nelson, K. A. (2014). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right (6th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
