Ethics in the workplace
ØEthical dilemmas at work
-Sexual harassment-inappropriate comments or action regarding sexuality
-Conflicts of interest -taking a bribe
-Customer confidence
-Organizational resources
-Behavior is not really illegal.
-Behavior is really in everyone’s best interests.
-Nobody will ever find out.
-The organization will “protect” you.
Factors influencing ethical behavior include:
- An ethical dilemma occurs when choices, although having potential for personal and/or organizational benefit, may be considered unethical.
- QUOTE- “I define an unethical situation as one in which I have something I don’t feel good about.” – An engineering manager
- Some of the Ethical dilemmas include:
-Sexual harassment-inappropriate comments or action regarding sexuality
-Conflicts of interest -taking a bribe
-Customer confidence
-Organizational resources
- Some common unethical problems /activities managers might be pressured into doing are supporting incorrect viewpoints, signing false documents, overlooking the boss’s wrongdoings and doing business with boss’s friend.
-Behavior is not really illegal.
-Behavior is really in everyone’s best interests.
-Nobody will ever find out.
-The organization will “protect” you.
- All of these above comments made by rationalizers are misperceived and mistaken beliefs.
- To overcome these rationalizations, you should ask yourself questions when your unclear about your decisions, look beyond results to address longer-term implications, make sure that everyone knows that wrongdoing will be punished whenever it is discovered, and finally don’t say loyalty to the organization is an excuse for bad behaviour.
Factors influencing ethical behavior include:
- The person
- People with solid ethical frameworks, personal rules or strategies for ethical decision making, will more consistent and confident than those that don’t.
- The organization
- QUOTE- “Honesty, integrity and caring from the foundations of the company and should flow through everything we do-we will demonstrate our care for the world in which we live by respecting fellow human beings, by not harming animals, by preserving our forests.”- Anita Roddick(founder of The Body Shop)
- The environment
-Government laws and regulations, societal norms and values, and competitive climate in an industry are all part of the environment and are all important influences on ethics in the workplace. - Laws take social values to define appropriate behaviours for organizations and their members and regulations help government monitor these behaviours and keep them within acceptable standards.