...Preferences and the Impact on Ethics in the Workplace: How Personal Can Ethics Get? Abstract This paper addresses the case study “How Personal Can Ethics Get?” and the effects of ethics within the workplace. In the case study, Valerie is facing ethical dilemmas within her workplace after coming across some controversial information. Valerie must consider her options carefully because she has many things that she could lose. This paper discusses the impact of personal differences and the preference on organizational ethics. It also discusses the impact of organizational policies and procedures on ethics. In the paper, the dilemmas Valerie is facing will be identified and recommendations are given to address the dilemmas. Employees’ Personal Differences and Preferences and the Impact on Ethics in the Workplace: How Personal Can Ethics Get? Personal differences and preferences can impact organizational ethics. People are taught ethics within the home while growing up. However, some individuals believe that there is a separate set or type of ethics just for the workplace. Ethics allows the individual to choose between right and wrong, but not all people have that ability or the same ability to do so. The ethics competency of the individual determines the level in which decisions are made to distinguish between right and wrong. The level of ethics competency is determined by the individual’s ability to identify elements of ethics, assess issues with ethics that arise...
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...10/03/2012 Mentor Name: Dayna Haydon Table of Contents Executive Summary 3 Introduction 4 Research Findings 4 Finding Number 1 4 Finding Number 2 5 Finding Number 3 5 Recommendations 5 Conclusion 6 References 7 Executive Summary The main objectives of this report were to evaluate and determine if business ethics and corporate citizenship initiatives would increase employee efficiency within the workplace, the impact of these programs on the reputation of the organization and their effect on the organization’s relationship with employees, investors, and customers. A variety of relevant books and modern journal articles were used to research on this subject. The review of these articles and books revealed that corporate social responsibility initiatives play a fundamental role in building the image of the company as well as strengthening the organization’s relationship with its customers. Ethical programs on the other hand guide employee actions and in effect minimize any points of conflict that may arise within the workplace thereby increasing workplace efficiency and overall employee productivity. Ethical programs also ensure that financial reporting abides by the stipulated standards. This ensures that the information contained in financial reports is reliable and therefore increases investor confidence and strengthens the relationship between them (investors) and the organization. It is therefore critical that our...
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...Behavior Assignment 1 Discuss how personal differences and preference can impact organizational ethics. Ethics are defined as the basic concepts and fundamental principles of right human conduct. It includes the study of universal values such as the essential equality of all men and women, human or natural rights, obedience to the law of land and concern for health and safety. Organizational ethics relates to how an organization responds to internal and external stimuli (Business Dictionary, 2011). Unfortunately, while ethics are made up of ‘basic concepts and fundamental principles’ these concepts and principles are not necessarily absolute, or universal. While the law concerns what we must do, ethics concerns what we should do. Such a broad and non-specific definition of organizational ethics can naturally lead to conflicting views on what constitutes ethical behavior and what does not. One person’s view of what the organization should do in a given situation might differ greatly from someone else viewing the same situation. As such, personal differences and preference can greatly impact organizational ethics. As an example, one area that garners significant ethical debate is that involving workplace relationships between supervisors and subordinates (Siegel, 2005). Utilizing this one area of ethical concern we can observe significant differences in how individuals view the ethical appropriateness of workplace relationships and subsequently how organizations then develop their...
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...Did you bring your ethics to work today? Think you are a person of integrity and that you bring your highest standards of ethics to your workplace each day? Despite hundreds of pages of policies, codes of ethics, codes of conduct, organizational values, and carefully defined work environments, company cultures, lapses in workplace ethics occur every day. Lapses in workplace ethics result from inappropriate officer behavior such as insider stock trading, expense account fraud, sexual harassment, and involvement in conflicts of interest. Lapses in workplace ethics do not need to rise to that level to impact the workplace environment you provide for employees though. Lapses in workplace ethics can occur because of simple issues such as toilet paper, copy machines, and lunch signup lists. In a nationally important workplace ethics case, Hewlett-Packard company's, successful CEO, Mark Hurd, (now former H-P CEO), became embroiled in workplace ethics issues. I have no insider knowledge, but the public statement from the company indicated that Mr. Hurd left because he violated the company’s expected standards of conduct. Cathie Lesjak, H-P's chief financial officer, who was appointed interim CEO until the company can find a permanent replacement for Mr. Hurd, asked employees “to remain ‘focused’ and said ‘Mark had failed to disclose a close personal relationship he had with the contractor that constituted a conflict of interest, failed to maintain accurate expense reports,...
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...The Effects of Unethical Leadership in the Workplace Leadership in Organizations A leader’s actions, ethics, behaviors, and values have a huge impact on those that they lead (Span, 2012). The impact can change the whole culture of the organization. Unethical behavior by a leader in the workplace can lower employee’s performance and productivity, lower a company’s credibility, and the possibility of legal issues ("Effects of Unethical Behavior in the Workplace | Cogentys," 2013). Unethical behavior can lower employee’s performance and productivity. By having an unethical leader, an employee may begin to take their job less serious. A leader should be setting an example for their employees to follow. If an employee sees a lack in effort and values from their leader, they will be more likely to reflect the same behaviors. Employee’s performance is determined by the amount of motivation they have; if they have a leader who does not care, they will not care either. By lowering the performance and productivity of the employees, the company will begin to lose money and cash flow (Zeiger, n.d.). Having an unethical leader can lower a company’s credibility. If consumers hear of things a leader has said or done that they do not ethically agree with, they may refuse to shop or spend money on a specific item or service given by the company. Once the public knows the lack of ethics, the company will lose credibility. Although a company can recover, it is hard to rebuild the relationship...
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...Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace James E. Gleason BUS 275-H01 Calhoun Community College Abstract Business leaders struggle to balance the desire for profit and maximum shareholder return with corporate ethics and social responsibility. Unfortunately, short-term financial bottom line has taken the place of maintaining strong moral character in today’s business practices. In the United States alone, about two-thirds of the top corporations have been guilty of some type of corporate malfeasance. In the face of both damaging and publicly embarrassing litigation, business leaders now recognize the need for sound, straightforward ethics management programs in their companies that makes ethical business practices a top priority at all times. Top executives must lead by example and actively and willingly encourage ethical behavior in their peers as well as employees. The need for stronger ethics in business has prompted business schools to critically examine their business curricula and place greater teaching emphasis on ethics and social responsibility to ensure future generations of new business graduates enter the workforce with the highest moral standards. Keywords: ethics, social responsibility, malfeasance, business schools, business curricula Managing Ethical Decision Making in the Workplace Introduction Ensuring that the necessary steps are taken to create and foster a high level of ethics in the business practices of the workplace is critically important regardless...
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...Managing Ethics in the Workplace Trinidad,Loudine T. BSE-4C Marketing Prof. Rose Marie Ramos Managing Ethics in the Workplace Managing workplace ethics promotes shared values that result in better cohesion of the workforce, and play a crucial role in the success of any organization Workplace ethics are the application of morality, or concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice and virtue to all activities of the business. It closely relates to corporate social responsibility, but is much wider in scope. The scope of business ethics lies in two dimensions: 1. Workplace behavior ethics, or the illegal and questionable practices of individual managers, such as wrongful use of resources, mismanagement of contracts and agreements for personal gain, conflict of interests, and the like. 2. Business ethics issues, such as ethical dilemmas when making decisions, dealing with stakeholders, and the like. The primary requirement for managing ethics in the workplace is an understanding that workplace ethics is a continuous and on-going process ingrained to management practices, and not a deliverable defined project. It influences the way the organization functions, and remains independent of profits or product range. • Ethics Policy Irrespective of the dimension of business ethics, the basic requirement for managing ethics in the workplace is to have a strong ethics policy in place that makes the company’s ethics policy transparent...
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...Business Ethics in the Workplace Jamie J. Lear MT3250 – Organizational Behavior Dr. Carl W. Proehl, Jr. November 10, 2013 Abstract Work ethics is a group of moral principles, standards of behavior or set of values regarding proper conduct in the workplace. This is something organizations need to focus on in order for them to succeed and strive to remain on top while the competition in the marketplace is so high. Ensuring your employees know and practice work ethics is important so employees remain loyal to the organization as well as knowing when and how to report an incident no matter how big or small. Companies should always have this information available and periodically have training in this area to keep current with the times and create an environment where employees feel they can talk to their supervisors or managers without fear of retaliation or retribution. In this paper, I will discuss in detail what work ethics are and what organizations can do to help this process. Businesses and corporations that stand and uphold ethics in the workplace tend to show more productivity and less job turnover than companies that don’t support ethics in the workplace. The need for this is essential. In a market where competition runs rampid, companies that practice dirty ethics and customer distrust are on the rise, a company that has integrity and shows promise is the companies that customers tend to favor...
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...Computers and Ethics in the Workplace Executive Summary This paper discusses issues with ethics that have derived in the workplace as a result of the use of business computers. The definition of computer ethics is simple; they are a set of moral principles that intend to help with the regulation of the use of computers. Some common problems with computer ethics consist of privacy concerns, intellectual property rights, and the way computers have an effect on people. In other words, computer ethics refers to the ways people take ethical traditions and test, stretch, apply, negotiate and break in the realm of computer technology. As technology continues to evolve, there are a great deal of ethical issues and principles of behavior concerning privacy and accurateness for managerial leaders to deal with. In finding the issues of ethics that the Technology Age has brought to the workplace, organizations must be hands-on when it is time to highlight ethical use of technology by employees. Making sure that employees are knowledgeable on the proper policies the organization has on computer ethics. Promoting good computer ethics is a great way for companies to keep morale high and unnecessary issues from arising in the workplace. Introduction As technology like computers progresses, they will continue to contain a larger impact on people in today’s society. For that reason, computer ethics supports the how some debate on just how much influence computers need to have in human communication...
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...CONSENSUAL RELATIOSHIP AGREEMENTS CASE STUDY Ethic is a one of important competency in the relationship between the basic organizational behavior models of individual, group, and organizational processes. Ethic competency is a wide section, which include vary sub topic related with organizational behavior. This paper discuss one section of Ethic Competency is diversity and specifically Consensual Relationship Agreements into diversity section. The paper clarifies to followings. • Consensual Relationship Agreements (CRAs) in my future workplace. • A counter argument against the use of CRAs in my future workplace • The ethical principles involve in the use of CRAs • One other option besides CRAs that would address workplace romances. Consensual Relationship Agreements ( CRAs ) are becoming more important everyday into business environment. Several research show, whoever share same work place in average 40 hours per week, some of workers discover their common interest and enjoy sharing time together. Different companies have different policies and procedures and the company would like to sign contract before hiring someone and they will show companies vision about consensual relationship into work place. In the future I would like to choose my career path in the health care industry and I would like to work at a pharmaceutical company due to my previous experience and my background of education. Merck is a one of the company into...
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...behavior in the workplace. Business codes are widely used globally to prevent unethical means in the organization, an increasing number of companies have adopted business code ethics, 52.5% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2004 (Kaptein, 2004) compared to 87% of Fortune Global 200 companies in 2008 (KPMG, 2008). Business codes are a set of official document disclosed by and for a business firm to guide the behavior of managers and employees (Kaptein and Schwartz, 2008). The business code prescribed are related to matters such as human rights, labor conditions, ecological environment, confidential information, conflict of interests, fraud, corruption, product quality, profits, sexual harassment and competitions (Kaptein, 2011). Business codes ethic (BCE) are the fundamentals for corporate social responsibility (CSR) which are used to appraise companies for ethical performances and citizenship. Organizations with excellent CSR are rewarded with fame and reputations (Patick M., 2011), thus leading to better sales and company’s stock price (Ron Robins, 2011). However, business code and CSR appraisal can only prevent unethical behavior in the organization to a certain extent. For example, 15% of Ernst & Young’s executives were prepared to commit unethical conducts to win businesses even though the company implemented business codes (Christopher M., 2012). In this context, business codes without strong implementation cannot prevent unethical behavior in the workplace are discussed...
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...Perspectives Sydney Week 5 3/21/2016 Organisational Diversity 3/21/2016 Diversity What does “diversity” mean to you? How does it apply in the workplace? 3/21/2016 Introduction • Diversity is always a sensitive issue. • People who belong to a “minority” group often feel labelled, stereotyped, and marginalised in the workplace; • People who belong to the “majority” group are often unaware of the consequences of the collective action of the majority. 3/21/2016 Introduction • We all hold bias and prejudices simply because we notice difference and it is important not to try to obliterate difference and diversity in an attempt to redress prejudice. • Ignoring difference, for example, can be as damaging as highlighting it in a negative manner. 3/21/2016 Introduction • The literature around inclusiveness is the direction in which this field of study and practice is going. • The idea that we work towards an inclusive workplace for everyone, recognising everyone as a diverse member of the organisation is important, and leverages the strengths that differences bring in to the workplace rather than squashes them. 3/21/2016 What We Cover • The concepts of diversity, exclusion and inclusion • Different roots of diversity in the workplace • The experience of prejudice in the workplace and the limitations it places on organisational performance 3/21/2016 Objectives By the end of this module you should be able to: • Understand...
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...LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATION Title: How Personal Can Ethic Get? Name: Raymond McCall Instructor: Dr. Orsini School Name: Strayer University Course: Leadership and Organization Date: 1/23/2011 Discuss how personal differences and preference can impact organizational ethics. People have different attitudes towards their work due to their preferences. This implies that there exists natural tension between people values or preferences and organizational ethics (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010). Personal and professional differences have impact on organizational impact in that people start behaving in ways that are inconsistent with their personal characteristics and not consistent with organizational ethics. Giacalone & Jurkiewicz (2010) established that “the deciding factor behind a person’s decision to conform, leave, or alter is based on the relative priority given to the conflicting organizational ethics” (p. 155). Individual preferences shape ones consciousnesses; imposing routines that reflect socially approved, purposive action hence they guide the perception and behavior of oneself. This implies that these preferences present cultural and contextual constraints that alter individual and organizational perspectives on social issues (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010). Studies indicate that if a personal need for job is an individual’s overriding value above all other, then conformance to organizational ethics is the likely response to the detriment of the individual...
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...Running head: A NEW WORK ETHIC 1 A New Work Ethic? Strayer University Business Ethics – BUS 309 October 25, 2010 A NEW WORK ETHIC 2 1. Describe how typical the attitudes that Sheehy reports appear to be in work environments you have experienced. With the new generation of workers, in particular recent college graduates the attitudes of the Sheehy reports are neither unusual nor unprecedented. This generation unlike those of the past, are not exposed nor in some instances, taught the meaning of hard work, dedication, sacrifice and how success can evolve from those types of attitudes. Unfortunately through influences of the media such as television, and in some instances glorified unethical business practices of corporate CEO’s, this new generation of workers with a new work ethic, succumb to believe that hard work does not matter and that treating co-workers and external customers indifferently will get you what you want no matter what the consequences may be. As I have worked and currently work in a prominent, nationally recognized entity, and have hired both college and non-college graduates, there seems to be an attitude of entitlement with the new work ethic and workforce. There are expectations of promotions, and high salaries without proven ability of performance. There is a lack of understanding and true reality of where they fit within the organization and how they meet the performance standards. These attitudes are far different...
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...“How Personal Can Ethics Get?” Terrence A Reed Jr Dr Daniel Frost Bus 520, Strayer University 4/24/2011 Q1. Discuss how personal differences and preferences can impact organizational ethics. (Wikipedia) states that organizational ethics express the values of an organization to its employees irrespective of governmental or regulatory laws Many organizations will suffer from many personal differences or preferences amongst its workers. It must all somehow come together to meet the ethical needs of an organization. In today’s workforce any violations of an organizations ethical policy will result in immediate termination of an employee’s job. That is, if the violation is reported to higher level management. Workers in an organization come from all walks of life and different upbringings. Therefore, it is the job of the supervisor to have a hand on all the different type of workers in an organization. They have to bring the personalities together for the good of the organization. They should never try to change or control employee personalities, because this is literally impossible. (Brown, N.D) Every person in an organization is morally responsible for his or her own behavior, and any efforts to change that behavior should focus on the individual. This article, explains that personal differences and preferences do exist but they also have no place in the workforce. These should be understood at the first line supervisor’s level if anything. The employee...
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