Essay Example on Organizational Ethics: Building an Ethical Culture

As an emerging field, organization ethics focuses on the study and practice of the moral choices influenced and guided by values, standards, principles, rules, and policies connected to the organizational activities and business situations (Letendre n.d). Organizational ethics concentrated both on the choices of the individual and the groups within the organization (Letendre n.d). The paper will discuss five levels or methods that corporations can use to build an ethical culture, such as individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup, and inter-organizational.

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Individual- To identify how individual workers are assessed and recompensed is a significant factor that sustains or degrades ethical culture. In the case of unduly pressure to realize the growth targets by anyway, a belief that the end justifies the means could trigger an unethical behavior (BSR, 2017). However, if organizations design a reward system, and further develop diversity and inclusion policies it will lead to the creation of an ethical culture (BSR, 2017).

Interpersonal- To ensure they develop an ethical culture, companies should focus on how workers interact across the hierarchy (BSR, 2017). Abuse of power and authority is a key element that negatively affects organizational culture. Developing an ethical culture from an interpersonal rationale needs pragmatic protections that empower all workers and stakeholders to raise queries and express grievances (BSR, 2017). Finally, leaders must identify the outsized function they play in setting the culture and fostering adherence to ethics.

Group- A group is a collection of people who contact with each other to complete similar tasks within an indicated deadline (Steers, 2012). Groups are categorized as formal and informal. Groups, where individuals get along well, feel the desire to contribute to the team, and are capable of organizing their efforts, may have high-performance levels, whereas teams depicted by extreme levels of conflict may demotivate members of the workforce (Steers, 2012). As companies become more geographically disintegrated and loosely attached, it becomes harder to design and define a consistent organization culture. Therefore, concentrating on team elements can empower middle managers to feel responsible for altering culture, and group dynamics to facilitate more appropriate ways of working. Finally, if workers feel safe in taking risks, and communicating, teams will be more inventive, successful and ethical.

Intergroup- The value of relationships among groups is pivotal to regard in any move to design an ethical culture. In the workplace, the key determinants to an effective organizational culture is a group or a team. Hence, teams functioning in a sustainable and compliance context may need to scrape for power and resources (BSR, 2017). However, when individuals are fixed to matrixed working groups, accountability can be enhanced better.

Inter-organizational- By now it is evident that internal relationships within a workplace are a key determinant to building an ethical culture. Companies need to further ensure that their values and mission statements are practical and achievable. Finally, designing an ethical culture sometimes means using workers as resources towards achieving their set objectives (BSR, 2017).

Ethical Decision-Making in Team Leadership that Promotes Social Responsibility

The main ethical decision making that managers can improvise in the organization to promote social responsibility include incentives and rewards. If team members are motivated to achieve their performance targets through incentives and rewards, they will perform their roles in a socially responsible manner. One study indicated that "variable reimbursement hellbent on sales inspires ethical performance and productivity and that contributes to 20-30 percent of genuine revenue growth.

Another way that companies can ensure that team members act and deliver their performance variables in a socially responsible manner is through promoting diversity and inclusion (BSR, 2017). A myriad of studies postulates that diverse teams make informed, and wiser decisions. Other studies have suggested that augmenting gender diversity in a team set up decreases risk-taking, and enhances dialogue, ethics, and inclusive decision making (BSR, 2017). Therefore, for diverse teams structures to be effective, and act in a socially responsible manner, they need to concentrate on inclusion- the ability of workers to "avail their mindsets to work" and not to feel downtrodden or hide elements of their social identity to appropriately fit within the organizational culture. A culture of inclusion will quickly plummet the chance of dissonance between individual and corporate values, making sure workers are not in a stance where they have to disregard these qualities to be successful (BSR, 2017). When workers notice any unethical behavior, they are supposed to report their concerns to necessary authorities. Therefore, if an organization is to ensure they embrace an ethical culture they need to come up with proper whistleblowing and grievance resolution mechanisms (BSR, 2017).

Discuss Leadership Styles and Traits that are Effective for Successful Management of Groups and Teams.

For an organization to build an ethical culture they need to have leaders with morally acceptable traits like integrity, and they also need to have visionary, collaborative, and consensus leadership styles (Gadirajurrett et al., 2018). Therefore, effective leadership styles include; democratic leadership style because it boosts the teams to share ideas and thoughts towards the better realization of the set goals (Gadirajurrett et al., 2018). This style is the most effective one in terms of contributing to high productivity. Transaction leadership styles will ensure on maximizing the efficiency and productivity of an organization. It a style that would be recommended in a mundane and clearly defined objective. Finally, transformational leadership styles ensure productivity and efficacy via communication and high transparency in the organization.

Conclusion

The paper has accentuated five levels that companies can build on to ensure they develop an ethical culture. The discussed facets include; individual, interpersonal, group, intergroup, and inter-organizational. The recommended leadership styles and traits that may be effective in enhancing social responsibility in an organization include; democratic leadership style, Transaction leadership styles, and Transformational leadership style. Finally, diversity and inclusion and motivations through incentives and rewards will ensure teams work productively and in a socially responsible manner.

References

Gadirajurrett, H., Srinivasan, R., Stevens, J., Jeena, N. (2018). Impact of leadership on the team's performance. 1-10. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2911&context=etm_studentprojects

Steers, R. M. (2012). Managing Groups and Teams. Goodyear Publishing Company. https://2012books.lardbucket.org/pdfs/an-introduction-to-organizational-behavior-v1.0/s13-managing-groups-and-teams.pdf

Letendre, M. C. Organizational Ethics. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Marie_Letendre/publication/302472978_Organizational_Ethics/links/5cd42757458515712e9cb6f3/Organizational-Ethics.pdf

BSR. (2017). The five levels of an ethical culture. 1-27. https://www.bsr.org/reports/BSR_Ethical_Corporate_Culture_Five_Levels.pdf