There is no one way in defining what ethics is. According to American Heritage Online Dictionary, ethics is the code of moral principles and values that governs the behaviors of a person or group with respect to what is right or wrong. Ethical behavior is something that every person will experience on the job at one point or another, but do we know how to handle the situation when we see it or once we are involved?
Ethical issues are problems or dilemmas involving moral compromise, and they can arise anywhere. Employees are constantly being in a position where they must do what is right for the sake of the company, and this means keeping their mouths shut or risk losing their job. Many employees see unethical behavior, but they choose to turn the other cheek and not get involved. Why is this? I understand that the world is in a recession and it is difficult in finding a job, but where does it say that one must give up their integrity to keep their job?
According an article by Marvin Brown, he wrote a publication Ethics in Organizations and said, “When talking about ethics in organizations, one has to be aware that there are two ways of approaching the subject–the “individualistic approach” and what might be called the “communal approach. ” Each approach incorporates a different view of moral responsibility and a different view of the kinds of ethical principles that should be used to resolve ethical problems (Brown, 1989). The individualistic approach simply states that every person is morally responsible for his or her actions in an organization, and the communal approach states that upper-level management and directors are partially responsible for their employees’ actions. This is why I think discussing ethics in an organization is often a dialogue topic or sometimes debatable topic; every person is going to see it differently. Ethics is always about making decisions, and some issues are difficult to resolve.
If we remember what happen in the late sass with World came crashing down due to conspiracy and securities fraud charges, and Martha Stewart and her ex-broker, Peter Biconcave, which they each faced up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines for each count Draft, 2008). It pays to do right. I don’t think organizations can rely on codes of conduct and ethical structures to prevent all ethical behavior, and when an employee sees or hears something that doesn’t follow an organization code of conduct; he or she becomes a whistle-blower.
Draft noted that, “Whistle-blowers often report wrongdoing to outsiders such as agencies”, but is whistle-blowers protected? An ethical misstep can cost a company its reputation and hurt its profitability and performance, so that is why it is important for an ethical behavior is important. In our textbook, it talked about the role expectations of an individual based on their personality, values, moral principles, history of reinforcement and gender. People who think of themselves as being moral individuals tend to take stronger ethical stands (Kinetic & Grittier, 2009).
I agree with this statement. If an employee or manager is trying to look good to directors, then their behavior will be unethical. Unethical behavior is more frequent in large organizations (Kinetic & Grittier, 2009). I am not sure how true that is because “Ethics must be lived, not just talked about. (Kinetic & Grittier, 2009). Unethical behavior can happen in large or small organizations; it is not one-sided. Often persuasion can be another influence that leads to unethical behavior. What is influence? The person that has the power to sway another person from doing what is right is influence.
A lot of companies now have Ethics and Compliance forms that every employee must sign explaining the do’s and don’t of the organization. As previously stated, ethical behavior must be lived and not just taught. My mother always said, “Good you do, good you receive, ad you do, bad you receive. ” Every person must remember that everything you do in the dark will eventually come out in the light, and it will not look pretty on you or the organization. Employees are easily influenced in organizations. They want to “look good” for corporate office.
They want to move up the ladder such as promoted to manager level or some other higher position, and if they will do whatever it takes to get there. Influence can even be between two employees exchanging information, which can be sold to outside people or other organizations for gifts. Too bad employees do not realize that is not the way to do it. Hard work and perseverance is how you get noticed by corporate office, and if your hard work become unnoticed, then he or she should speak to their manager about a performance review.
Most likely, if a manager or organization sees a good, hardworking employee that is thinking about leaving the company due to salary increase, the organization will reconsider for fear of not having to lose that employee. My article that I was looking at is the congressional leaders, the Democrats and Republicans coming to an agreement to avert federal overspent shutdown. I honestly did not agree with the shutdown. First, you have military men and women out there risking their lives fighting and getting blown up, and they would not get paid. Are you serious?
Thousands of federal employees would not get paid for paid leave. A decision was decided, but I read that that Republicans demanded to have changes made to family-planning program for low-income women. They talked about cutting back on spending, but what about if they cut back on their benefits because they are getting paid a lot more than the middle-class people. Our entire political system is not working on either side. It’s all about money, greed, special interests, party political agendas, and nothing being done except “blustering” on both sides.
We need a whole new system, and get rid of all the parties. Campaigns should all have the exact same amount of money for their political platform. No money from maneuvered else, personal or otherwise. The elections are not for everyone when you have to have a war chest of millions and billions of dollars. Make the playing field level for all, and get rid of the Electoral College, it’s outdated for today. Employees will often be faced with ethical decision-making and one must live to do what is right.
Some people within organizations will conduct unethical behavior, which can bring productivity crashing, and this can cause an organization to go out of business. An organization and employees words and actions must be congruent with one another, and must value their character more than their profit, or they will have neither.
