Moral Awareness Program: Too Little Priority Given? - Essay Sample

Introduction

The moral awareness program has experienced some preconceptions since its establishment and has not been very helpful in preventing ethical breaches at the highest level in the organization. Employees at Lockheed Martin have confirmed that projects on ethics are instrumental and have not been given the priority. On the other hand, the senior management keeps on proclaiming that morals are the organization is their "number one quality" (Terris, 2005). Without a single doubt, there are some difficulties. According to the overviews, a significant number of employees at Lockheed Martin admit that they are exposed to the danger of being retaliated if they address issues of ethical infringement to their supervisors and managers.

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According to the case study, it is evident that workers who have been there for six months and below feel very helpless against morals infringement. The reason is that they have not been able to comprehensively understand the organization's society. Administrators in Lockheed Martin have turned a deaf year on most of the moral concerns raised by the employees. The managers do not confront ethical issues directly with the employees. The company only addresses such issues sometime after they become a problem for the company as a result of persistent change. More specifically, ethics ought not only to be just a movement to abide by the law but should be incorporated into the mission and objectives of the company.

Participation of Higher-Level Executives in Training

The efforts put forth to enable the executive to navigate 'ethical minefield encountered by leadership in the organization are not enough. The ethics officers in Lockheed Martin's ethics isolate their work from each other as they are engrossed in the specific issue of local facilities. These officers have passed through the Lockheed Martin ranks, and have experienced ethical work via the human resource management or the auditing department. The support structure of the company is not sufficient since the workers still experience tough dilemmas despite the efforts put forth such as ensuring that higher-level executives take part in the training. However, a requirement to provide a moral training system in just strategic and automatic archives may not be sufficient to ensure that it is implemented and put into use. As such, training in ethics ought to give a sense of meaning and mission for the employees' work at Lockheed Martin.

Addressing the Issue Related to Ethics at Higher Executive Levels

To address ethical issues at higher executive levels, Lockheed Martin develops ethics programs that address the particular issues and levels of the convolution of the duties of the senior executives. The company initiated the decision to develop "Ethics Tools for Leaders," (Terris, 2005), a program meant for all its managers. However, rather than the program focusing on addressing issues related to the generalization of power and authority, it aims at mid-level supervisors. The senior management should spend most of their time to assess that require individual decision-making at their level and learn from previous mistakes for a better future in the company, rather than spending more time on compliance modules (Terris, 2005). A more formal consultation structure is not only instrumental to people who are thus far likely to ponder most carefully about possible ethical issues but would also construct an extra advantage to confront issues before they occur. Additionally, when nominating members to the board of directors, Lockheed Martin can do so by selecting those that have specific professional expertise in corporate ethics. In doing so, the appearance and substance of independent oversight by the Ethics and Audit committee would be strengthened to a great extent.

Addressing ethical issues at higher executive levels would also require Lockheed Martin to be more transparent and valiant about formulating and handling ethical issues publicly, including executive compensation. The policies of the company in such areas may be completely justifiable in regards to ethics. However, this issue can only be backed up by open discussions of the matters involved. Such transparency, coincidentally, could encourage morale within Lockheed Martin, as well as reinforcing confidence in the broader community concerning the company's disposition to address difficult questions.

Addressing Group Dynamics That Can Impact Ethical Situations

To a large extent, group dynamics impact the direction of a team's performance and behavior. As such, failure to address group dynamics would negatively affect the process of decision-making since they have a great impact on ethical situations. Therefore, to address the situation of group dynamics and ethical issues, Lockheed Martin should understand that the aspects of cultural diversity as they influence how decisions are made in the group and that different societies perceive teamwork differently an in an unexpected way. Both ethics and culture impact the decision-making process in a company (Terris, 2005). Since it may be hard to prove, it is quite obvious that morals and society affect an organization's decisions, since each worker has a different cultural background and hence the varying perspectives regarding morals.

The company should carry out a diagnosis to better understand the composition of each group, considering authority and groupthink. Both groupthink and imprudent adherence to authority subjects employees to agree with their team leaders, rather than contributing great ideas. Lockheed Martin should also take the initiative of addressing problems quickly whenever they discover someone is engaging in unlawful behavior. Additionally, the company should create a team charter that outlines clearly defined roles in a group. In doing so, the company ould encourage team members to address their duties and function more effectively as a group. Furthermore, enhancing a team culture would be beneficial to the company since the employee well-being would be supported and ideas would be shared via an inclusive work culture.

Reference

Terris, D. (2005). Ethics at work: Creating virtue in an American corporation. UPNE.