Many successful businesses operated under a set of normative standards, expected behaviors and guidelines that are generally accepted by society (Jennings, 2009). That is, businesses operated under ethical principles that “consist of standards and norms for behaviors that are beyond laws and legal rights” (Jennings, 2009). These ethical principles are reflected in an organization application of trust, integrity, fairness and responsibility. Research groups have identified overarching ethical principles as the application of honesty, fairness, objectivity, and responsibility. A company's use of ethical principles demonstrates solid corporate governance and management (Verschoor, 2011). However, when these principles are deliberately …show more content…
One of the first signs of an ethical collapse is when the organization’s culture is one of intimidation and the employees feel pressure to perform which was the HealthSouth’s corporate culture. Employees felt pressured to meet unrealistic expectations and were intimidated into fabricating numbers if the goals were not met. For instance, when the company was not meeting the numbers and analysts’ expectations, executives were required to figure it out, even if the goal was just short a dollar (Jennings, 2009). In fact, Mr. Scrushy believed that if you shine a light on someone that is not meeting the expected goal, then that individual will feel obligated to improve the numbers (Jennings, 2009). The company’s culture was filtrated with fear of dismissal, threats of critics with reprisals, and incentives for loyal subordinates (Jennings, 2009). Essentially, the Healthsouth “employees felt pressure to make the numbers do what they felt their superiors wanted them to do” (Jennings, 2004). This type of culture influences employees to behave unethically and with fear of consequences. As a result, some employees will knowingly behave unethically as a means
During the announcement of the seventh annual list of most ethical companies in the world in 2013, Alex Brigham of Ethisphere, noted that more companies find that ethical business practices increase their competitiveness in their respective industries, helping to further substantiate the notion that a culture of ethic is crucial to sustainable excellence (Smith, 2013). Researchers in the field of Organizational Behavior has found that employees are subjected to an environment of ethical dilemma constantly. During such moments employees have a choice either to pursue with ethical conduct or engage in an unethical behavior which results in harming the organization or its stakeholder (Trevino & Brown, 2004). How the employee behave greatly depends
Organizations that behave ethically are more apt to earn the trust of their customers, employees, and stockholders. Then there are companies that hide the true value of the company from possible investors, customers, employees, and the public at large showing a lack of ethically behavior. This does not all the time included just one company, but a group effort to hide, steal, and mislead everyone for personnel gains. Everyone that deals with any organization expects the upmost ethically behavior on all levels.
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
A multitude of factors influence unethical decision making and behaviors such as employment, dissatisfaction with wages and benefits, etc. In the case of Crestview, it is the organizational culture of getting the job done at any cost, which encourages disregard for ethical considerations in the interest of achieving outcomes (Holzer & Schwester, 2011).
Every business develops a set of ethical principles that they abide by. The business ethical principles intentions: it construct the business certainty in the community , maintain the employees liveried in what the business attempt to have as structural conducts and aid the employees consume principles to make ethical choices that guards the business. In a culture with a diverse assessment structure and augmented judgment visibly by companies with changeable ethics and interests, there appears to be further difficulties on business individuals to make tougher ethical assessments. In our day-to-day performances, we depend on on our ethical principles to monitor us in the correct path and do the correct things. The substance of any efficacious and perpetual business is they segment a mutual ethical matter concentrating on presenting and generating value along with allocating their business values with the citizens they network with on a day-to-day basis.
Business practices, in addition to guidelines on the matter of probable controversial impediments are a component of organizational ethics. This type of ethics is frequently motivated by the law; a copious amount of organizations practice ethics in order to be accepted by the community, not to mention in order to ensure a successful business. Ethical values can have a focal point on organizational concerns which assist the company in adhere to respectable practices within their establishment or corporation.
These characteristics help dictate the actions of management and their employees. If a company’s corporate culture values honesty and has high moral standards, then its employees will include these values in their decision making. The corporate culture of HealthSouth was definitely not considered ethically sound during Weston Smith employment there. CEO Richard Scrushy set high standards for the company and when it came to making sure earning expectations were met. He made it clear that employees were to take any actions necessary in order to meet those expectations, even if those actions were fraudulent.
This paper will obtain information about a researched issue that deals with business ethics. The paper will include a summary of the Article and issue. This paper will also touch on the following topics, what seems to be the basis of the issue, what ethical change, deficiency, or conflict brought it about, and how did the organizational leadership come into play. The paper will conclude by proposing a plan for revising the ethical standards and
Ethical standards in business are important for every leader to know and understand. The book Ethics 101: What Every Leader Needs to Know by: John C. Maxwell discusses ethics in the world today. When people make unethical choices, the reason they do because of three main pitfalls. People do what is most convenient to them, people tend to do what they must do to win, and people rationalize their choices with relativism. In this summary, Maxwell’s definition of business ethics will be framed, examples of ethical standards and guidelines, the meaning and contrast of ethical thinking and ethical behavior, and how to avoid these major pitfalls to live an ethical life. The
Business Ethics is a set of moral principles applied in the commercial world. Business ethics provide guidelines for acceptable behavior by organizations in both their strategy formulation and day-to-day operations. An ethical approach is becoming necessary both for corporate success and a positive corporate image. Following pressure from
Business ethics is a major component of organizational success. Companies must strive to act in an ethical way, not only because it is the right thing to do, but also because it is required of them by their stakeholders. Stakeholders have a vested interest in the performance of the organization (Jones, 2012, p. 28), above and beyond the organization’s financial performance. While shareholders expect to receive returns for their financial backing (p. 29) and expect an organization to behave in a way that ensures those returns, other stakeholder such as consumers (p. 30), the government (p. 32) and special interest groups (Weiss, 2014, p. 13), may be more concerned with how an organization operates and whether they follow legislated and/or accepted norms of ethical behavior (p. 50). Should an organization and its leadership cultivate a culture/structure in which unethical behavior flourishes, especially in this age of heavy government oversight, that organization will not last long. This paper sets out to
Today’s business world presents numerous ethical issues. In today’s world above board/moral ethics in organizations do not often materialize intuitively. Organization must strive to provide employees with a clear understanding of the overall company vision. This will aid employees in practicing the code of ethics, policies and procedures in the workplace. Companies must be unwavering in continuously delivering the uppermost ethics of provision in which customers, applicants and employees are entitled to under fair business practices. One major core value is to uphold responsible and fair business practices.
Every organization also has a profession responsibility to conduct business honestly and ethically. Our readings reported, “Experts estimated that U.S. companies lose about $600 billion a year from unethical and criminal behavior” Kinicki and Kreitner (2009). The organization could avoid having ethical issues by meeting the
In their personal and professional lives, people can and, unfortunately, sometimes do go against their moral and ethical standards. Ethical standards are what it means to be a good person, the social rules that govern our behavior. Ethics in business is essentially the study of what constitutes the right and wrong or the good or bad behavior in the workplace environment. A business is an organization whose objective is to provide goods or services for profit. The organization has a group of people that work together to achieve a common purpose. The moral challenges that these men and women face each day along with a whole range of problems that could occur, are why ethics plays such an important
Business ethics, social, and environmental guidelines frame the expectations of an organization's stakeholders including customers, employees, and regulatory bodies. An organization's ethical guidelines encompass how the organization and its employees embody ethical principles in their dealings, with each other, and other stakeholders. Therefore, Ferrell, Fraedrich, and Farrell (2008) have defined Business ethics as "The principles and standards that guide behavior in the world of business" (p.6). In many situations, individuals must incorporate their personal ethics to match those of the organization's ethical culture. For this reason, business ethics theory indicates that an organization's ethics are evident in its organizational mission and vision (Hummels & Timmer, 2004). This is because the mission and vision determine organizational structure and culture, and thereby organizational and individual behavior.