1. One of the essential actions that seems to be unethical and that leads the employees to involve in unethical behavior is the decision of CEO who allows himself to be influenced by Dale, an experienced person. Dale suggests that the appointment of an ombudsman and delay of the training related to the new open-door policy until the completion of the existing HR programs. To apply the policies without having proper training and without a representative person who would supervise the policies seem to be unethical because the employees do not know the policies, they are not given the training regarding the new policy(Hasson, 2007).
Furthermore, the CEO has three areas of focus namely formation and articulation of crystal clear set of values and vision focusing on the new vision and introduction of a system to meet the new vision. In the preference of the CEO, ethics and a culture that would foster ethical behavior neither is nor present. Also, the appointment of Harry Mart as COO and the appointment of Dale as the vice president of HR are the actions of the CEO that seem to be unethical. Harry Mart does not give importance to the values of individual people and he believes that the management of organization is a job that does not have anything to do with the issues of people(Hasson, 2007).
The CEOs lack interest in ethics and fostering a culture that would help in penetrating ethical behavior will not develop the sense that how much ethics is important for an organization to the employees (Hasson, 2007). Consequently, the employees involve in various unethical behaviors. Therefore, to foster ethical behavior in an organization it is necessary to give special attention to the ethics in an organization.
Furthermore, management of an organization is directly linked to the values of people and, therefore, the appointment of a person who does not give importance to the values of people makes the organization vulnerable to unethical behavior. When people’s values contradict with the organizational values, it leads to generate problems for the organization(Hasson, 2007).
These actions are unethical because they show very little concerned with ethics and promotion of the ethical behavior in the organization. These factors lead the organization face unethical behaviors.
2.
The Galvatrens had put in place some procedures and policies to detect and prevent unethical behavior. These policies and procedure give the organization the sense that they have very strong policies and procedures to detect and prevent unethical behavior, therefore; such unethical behavior will not happen in the organization. The board of the organization seems to become complacent resting on the policies and procedure they formulated to prevent unethical behavior. This complacent nature of the member of the board leads to a lapse in the supervision of the employees, and it results in the form of unethical behaviors in the organization.
The integrity of the management also plays an important role in promoting ethical behavior in an organization and the integrity of management is intertwined with the management of the larger corporate culture. The informal reward influences employees’ decisions and behaviors. This motivational process will help the board to make the employees follow ethics of the organization. It seems that the organization does not have informal reward for the employees who strictly follow the code of conduct and the ethics of the organization and, therefore, the misconducts happened in the organization(Hasson, 2007).
3.
The CEO of Galvatren bears responsibility for the company’s failure to promote ethical behavior. In an organization, the duty of supervision goes into the account of CEO. If for a while one forgets the company’s failure to promote ethical behavior and tries to answer some question regarding an organization and the responsibilities of the CEO of that organization. For instance, who is responsible to run the organization? It is whose responsibility to bring changes into the organization? Who is responsible for the promotion of ethics in the organization? Who is responsible for managing the organization? The answer to all these questions is one and that is CEO. If the CEO is responsible for the operation of the organization then the responsibility of company’s failure to promote, ethical behavior goes to the account of the CEO (Hasson, 2007).
The CEO is responsible because he allows himself to be influenced by the Dale and delays the training related to the new open-door policy and an appointment of an ombudsman until HR has complete existing programs. It seems to be one of the reasons of company’s failure to promote ethical behavior. Furthermore, the appointment of Harry Mart, who have very little interest in values of people as COO, is also one of the factors of fostering unethical behavior in the organization(Hasson, 2007).
The CEO of Galvatren fails to develop a culture that would stop the unethical behavior by promoting ethical behavior. The new culture introduced by the CEO puts the company on the track to financial success, but it has made the ethics in the organization vulnerable. Despite having a committee to deal with the complaints of customers and employees regarding fraudulent activities, if one find in the organization, the employees do not bring the unethical behavior in the organization forth. It shows that the policies of the organization are not effective and do not make the employee bond bring unethical behavior forth.
Despite having numerous policies and procedures to detect the unethical behavior, the organization fails to detect unethical behavior in the organization, and it is the failure of the policies of the organization. The failure of the policies is the failure of CEO as well as the organization and, therefore, the CEO of Galvatren is also responsible for the company’s failure to promote ethical behavior(Hasson, 2007).
4.
If the board of Galvatren declares clear of any responsibility, it would not be justice because most of the decisions and policies, as well as procedures, are formulated and passed unanimously by the board. The policies, procedures and the especial toll-free hotline for reporting the violation of the code of conduct besides the ethics awareness campaign all are the decisions made by the board. Therefore, the failure of these policies and particularly the failure of the toll-free 24 hours hotline for preventing the misconduct of code of conduct are in a way failure of the board. The important aspect of this case is that no a single employee uses the hotline and follow other policies in relation to complain about the unethical behavior that is operational in the organization (Hasson, 2007).
One of the significant and leading members of the board is the CEO. CEO’s role in making decision, giving his advice to the members of the board in the matter of making decision, or promoting policies as well as introducing new police in the organization is decisive that determine the culture of the organization.
The CEO selects the old Dale as the Vice President of HR and Mart as COO that leads the organization in promoting unethical behavior. The selection of these tow person is done unanimously with the consent of the board member and, therefore, the board is responsible for the penetration of unethical behavior in the organization (Hasson, 2007).
The reason of why employees do not bother to bring the misconduct of the code of ethics to the notice of the board because the employees will get nothing if they bring such misconducts forth. Also, the organization now should give special focus on the promotion of ethical behavior in the organization. For this purpose, the board should lead from the front because the employees look to the managers and the members of the board for direction on how they should conduct themselves.
The board should appreciate the effort of an employee to foster the sense of belonging to the company because a loyal employee is not likely to be unethical. The board should always well the customers and employees who are found of speaking about the importance of ethics in an organization. The board should consider a candidate’s values at the time of hiring to prevent unethical behaviors in the organization. If a candidate’s values are more inclined toward unethical than ethical, the organization should not hire such person, no matter how much he or she is competent or has gotten experience.
Reference
Hasson, R. (2007, April 1). Why did not We Know? Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2007/04/why-didnt-we-know
