Ethics deals with what is morally right and wrong and good or bad. This concept best explains the existence of a person as a rational thinker. Hence, ethics refers to how a certain rational thinker recognizes his/her actions toward other people may it be in the family as the divine building block of society where he/she seeks personal growth, the organization as the place where he/she can establish for professional growth and development, the government as an instrumentality which carries the affairs of the state where he/she is binded with to conform with laws and policies or the global community in general where he/she aims to survive amidst pressures and innovations.
On the other hand, an action or a decision of a certain person greatly depends on him/her and so with ethics. There are behaviors of a person which may find unethical to another person and may find ethical to others too, sometimes or most of the time, ethics of a person may be interpreted differently, depending on intentions or what others may see in you. Therefore, if a person commits a morally bad or ethically wrong behaviors and actions which are in conflict with law, a person may be subject to legal sanction.
Basically, personal ethics is the result of a person’s upbringing and may be curtailed from family, friends, and other significant social institutions. Further, personal ethics may influence how a person acts or decides in an organization.
Hence, ethics would speak about the phrase the “choice is up to you” which emphasizes the idea that a person – given the capabilities, skills and talents including the rights, freedom and privileges, it’s up to a person how he/she prevails what is ethically right and correct actions and behaviors rather than bad and wrong sides.
In any organization, managing organizational ethics is very crucial. It may be considered as a delicate matter because in organizational ethics, a manager or a leader should not only consider ethics or values for professional development but also the management of conflicts or issues that may arise between employees, stakeholders or within a certain organization including codes of conduct as well as its inclusion in a clear and defined goals and objectives of an organization. Thus, giving importance on the presence of open communication towards employees and stakeholders of the organization.
Essentially, being a leader or a manager of a certain organization takes a great responsibility and accountability. Your influence can either make or unmake a person working inside the organization. Why do I say so? Because in a given organization we routinely deal with employees- how we treat them may affect their personal and professional growth and development which may contribute towards their performance. Thus, affecting their effectiveness and efficiency as an employee.
Therefore, as a leader or a manager there is a need to elaborate and learn your role in the management giving significance on the importance of ethics and values in the workplace. In the presence of conflicts of interests and unforeseen issues, a leader or a manager’s intervention is very vital. It talks about the role of the codes of conduct which binds every action and decision to conform and be consistent with what is stipulated in the codes of conduct hence, just and fair treatment should prevail. There shall be ethical frameworks for decision-making taking into account an equal treatment for all.
Hence, a person working in an organization occupying position or not, the most important factor which should be present in the organization is the emphasis on every person’s uphold on its ethical integrity which deals mainly on the person’s responsibility and accountability for its actions and decisions.
Although businesses, and governmental institutions have corporate social responsibilities which significantly affects our environment, culture, economy, society and humanity. It should always consider processes and operations to guarantee that it functions ethically. For instance, in the business setting, the price of goods to be purchased should coincide with the mode of paying employees fairly and justly, further, businesses should not create false product claims or over-package the items because it defeats the purpose of a corporate social responsibility to be sensitive on economic issues.
Hence, organizations be it private or public should function with the presence of corporate social responsibility. Any organization for that matter should not hold its breath for its employees to offer a motivating and inspiring energy for responsible practices and activities. As a leader, you can’t assume the newly hired employees to produce a plan on how a certain organization will engage with social responsibility and anybody cannot just go out with their shells without encouragement.
Nonetheless, it’s important to be reminded that responsible corporate citizens should be the organization’s priority. Thus, as a leader of any organization, representing all of its business practices, it’s up to you to lead and make social responsibility a core of every detail of your operations.
Hence, by vigorously boosting the development of socially responsible programs, projects and activities and eliciting ideas and ensuring active involvement from your employees and making sure that your organization “utilize its resources with utmost efficiency and effectiveness” when it comes to social responsibility, you can be certain that your organization has a positive effect on the society and of the world.
Therefore, management’s role in promoting and ensuring ethics in decision-making is very vital since the management holds the accountability and responsibility for the ethical conduct of those who directly report to them. They fulfill this responsibility by making sure employees are made aware of the organization’s ethical code and have the opportunity to clarify and suggest hence, open and clear communication is equally important in sustaining ethical decision-making. Thus, the management should also note the importance of monitoring as to the behavior or attitudes of its employees which should be in consistent with organization’s assumptions of ethical behavior.
Further, the management should be responsive in addressing unethical behaviors. And most important, the management should be approachable and made available as a resource for counselling and assisting employees who encounters ethical dilemmas. Lastly, the management since they need to uphold ethical integrity, they should be responsible and accountable for sustaining ethical standards in their own actions and decisions.