The Factors Of Ethical Standards And Corporate Culture

Ethics is the guiding force in any respectable organization. With a moral compass, especially in the leadership of organization, a company can become compromised and fall into a quagmire of legal issues, a tarnished reputation, and devaluation of company stock if it is a publically traded company. In pursuit of examine my own ethical lens I will analyze the ethical traits of an admired leader, my own traits as exhibited in the Ethical Lens Inventory, and how I make a decision concerning a particular ethical dilemma.

This article attempts to explain how personal, cultural, and organizational values play significant parts in decision-making. In addition, the foundation of ethical dilemmas can

Dyck and Neubert  (2012) defined  ethics  as "[A] set of principles or moral standards   that  differentiate right  from  wrong". It is a way of determining the morality of any action. It is important that managers adhere to ethical principles that will guide them in making appropriate and ethical decisions for the company. Thus, Roger Berg, being Vice-President of Planning at The Lake Corporation  plays a significant role in the company in ensuring that decisions are made without tarnishing management ethics. He must face and weather through the challenges caused by other sources that could put him in ethical dilemma situations and push him to render management decisions violating ethics.

When an individual or group of individuals in an organization makes a decision, there are both individual factors as described above, in addition there are organizational factors come into play and affect the final decision.  The culture of an organization is made up of three elements: Societal culture, industrial culture and organizational culture.  If any of these cultures accepts less than ethical behavior it can encourage ethical dissolution in the organization ( Jackson et al., 2013).  The approach to decision making in organizations is important as well.  If an organization is focused on making quick and an deadline decisions, this may lead to unethical decision making and ethical dissolution as it does not allow the formal process of weighing out all of the ethical implications ( Jackson et al., 2013). Finally, the organizational structure and networks (internal and external) affect the overall quality of communication, chain of command and establish relationships which affect ethical decision making and behavior.

Ethics are principles that are kept throughout one’s life so that he/she maintains a respectable level of honest value. Based on my moral outlook on life, my view of ethics may differ to that of many in this class. The reason for that is ethics partially depends on the individual feelings of a given situation. For example, some cultures believe that it’s unethical to have multiple partners, but in other cultures, you find that this is the norm. Morals and values are the framework to having and understanding ethics. Morals and values are the drivers

According to Johnson (2012) leaders are powerful role models, and policies will have a little effect if leaders do not follow the rules they set. In Enron case, corruption and ethical misconduct were deeply embedded in their business culture where profitability was more important than ethics. In this paper, I will address the factors that had led to the development of the culture of profit before principle at Enron. Also, I will create my personal code of ethics that will guide me in my professional and personal decision making and doing the right thing when faced with ethical challenges.

Ethical standards in business can be divided up into three levels. These levels are law, policies, and individuals. In the United States, we are bound by laws. With these laws, we distinguish right and wrong, and what is accepted by the majority of citizens in terms of behavior. Businesses have to abide to these laws at all time. There are laws on wages and hours to protect employees, but there are laws on environmental responsibility too. For a business to be considered ethical, at first, they should always follow the law. The law however, does not always guarantee ethical conduct as there is a thin line between legal and ethical. A business might act legally but unethical at the same time. In this case, the business must see to that themselves if this is ethical or not.

Culture, climate, and ethical decisions are a significant part of the organizations. The organizational culture refers to the values and the beliefs that exist in an organization for a long time and the beliefs of staff and the foreseen value of their job that will influence their behavior and attitude. The organizational climate is considered as the shared perceptions of and meaning attached to the practices, policies, and the procedures employees experience and behaviors they observe getting the reward, and that are expected and supported. The organizational culture and organizational climate tend to be two alternative aspects for conceptualizing how people experience and describe their work settings. The organizational ethics are considered as the standards and principles in which the business operates. The organizational ethics is normally dependent on organizational culture. Ethical organizational culture does consist of employees and leaders who adhere to the code of ethics.

Personal values may conflict with ethical decision making if those personal values are different than the organizational norms of the business or institution. Constructing, and maintaining personal ethics in the workplace rests with the individual, and how willing he or she is in assimilating to the evolving cultural dynamic of the corporate world. Many times a person find their personal, cultural and/or organizational ethics conflicting and must reconcile a course of action that will mitigate cognitive dissonance. In order to be a productive member of society, in small groups and globally, one must reconcile these conflicts on a daily basis and continually move forward while maintaining personal integrity and

Ethical standards vary from person to person, as no two people have exactly the same value systems. These value systems are influenced by one’s upbringing, perspective, and culture, big and small. The legalistic approach is one that appealed heavily to those in the past, but is being combined with different approaches to keep up with modern changes. According to Rathus, S., Nevid, J., & Fichner-Rathus, L. (2014), “The legalistic approach formulates ethical behavior on the basis of a code of moral laws derived from an external source, such as a religion” (p. 5). This is not an entirely flawed system, as most moral laws tend to be concepts such as “don’t commit adultery” and to avoid incest. However, many religious codes on sexual conduct are outdated. As Rathus et al. (2014) state, early Christian beliefs were severely against male-male and female-female sex (p. 15). A ban placed on homosexuality served to cement the church’s power. Christianity has survived centuries, and thus evolved with the times. It is not difficult to find Christians that are deeply devout, but have no qualms with same-sex relationships (perhaps even being in one themselves). This separation from the original doctrine shows that the legalistic approach can be used alongside other approaches, such as rationalism.

The purpose or aim of every organization is to establish such an organizational culture and behavior among its employees that helps in achievement of ideal ethical standards. There are certain determinants that play a critical role in helping achieve the right organizational culture. Some of these include personal moral intensity, social ties, codes of ethics, locus of control and Machiavellianism. These

In looking at ethics in an organization, this essay will use David Oyedepo Foundation as its case study. It will start by giving a background understanding of the organization then it will move on to explain how an organization’s culture can influence the creation of ethical and potentially unethical policies and practices. Further into the text, using David Oyedepo Foundation as an example, it will give an explanation of how the organization’s culture (norms, customs, and traditions) might have influenced decision making and the creation of specific policies and practices as well as a description of a specific policy or practice that presents an ethical dilemma and an explanation of how that specific policy or practice creates the dilemma.

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

How do ethical values shape behavior in organizations? According to Saleem (2014), ethical values and behaviors of an organization are made up of organizations institutionalized philosophies along with the moral ideologies of its members. In addition, the codes of ethics help to enhance the moral reasoning of employees while shaping their behaviors towards morally questioning unethical situations. Organizational leaders are encouraged to build cultures of trust with leadership who establish concerning goals employees pursue y setting examples for others to follow (Crosbie, 2008). The leaders whom are able to build training and development throughout their organization helps design and build relationships characterized by collaborative behaviors those results in mutually beneficial outcomes (Crosbie, 2008).

Organizational culture entails an individuals or groups, values, beliefs, attitudes, customs, such as norms, written and unwritten rules. Organizations create the culture or atmosphere within the company based on their goals, values, experiences and outer world interactions. Cultural values reflect a moral or ethical notion, which results in an action. Beliefs can stem from learnt behaviors, social influences and religions. Attitude, is a way of thinking and in turn reflects how an individual behaves. Values, beliefs and attitudes all inter-twine with each other. When reflecting on an organization, these all greatly impact the overall success of a company. Company norms are created based on an organizational standard. Most Organizations have written rules. The rules can entail anything from expectations, salary, conduct, contacts, repercussion for behaviors and a variety of other things. However, each organization also has unwritten rules. Unwritten rules can be a variety of things for example the relationship among co-workers, reaction to company change, how to express yourself in