Ethics plays a crucial role in organizational behavior by promoting safety, trust, and accountability in the workplace. It ensures fair treatment of individuals, personal accountability, and a healthy organizational culture. It also helps the entity perform well in the wider community by maintaining an ethical reputation.
The functionality and success of an organization can be attributed to many factors, including productivity, business acumen and a sound organizational culture. The role of ethics in organizational behavior underpins many of the keys to success and sustainability by creating a set of rules and guidelines that promote safety, trust and accountability in the workplace. When considering the role of ethics in organizational behavior, it is important to consider both individual and community ethical issues.
Ethics is generally defined as behaving in a morally correct manner, although the exact definition of “moral correctness” can vary between organizations. In general, there is an organizational code of ethics to promote a culture where all actions promote the good of the individual, the organization and the community serving or around the organization. By creating and applying a workplace culture with a strong code of ethics, an organization can benefit in several ways.
For individuals, the role of ethics in organizational behavior helps ensure that every person is treated fairly and maintains personal accountability. Ensuring that each person earns a fair market wage based on their efforts, experience and performance is one example of an ethical guideline that greatly affects individuals. Similarly, by clearly outlining personal accountability, such as not covering expenses or overusing sick leave, codes of ethics can help ensure a high level of trust among colleagues. In general, if an employee feels that they are being treated fairly and can trust their colleagues and superiors, loyalty and therefore productivity can increase.
The role of ethics in organizational behavior can also greatly influence how the entity acts as a whole. Even if individuals follow a strong code of ethics, if the larger organization acts unethically, the positive effect can be negated. For example, even if all mid-level workers in an office act fairly and morally toward one another, if managers are allowed to get away with sexual harassment or insider trading, the entire system can become a hostile environment and dangerous that can erode loyalty and generate more problems. One of the keys to fostering a healthy organizational culture is ensuring that the rules are the same at all levels of the organization.
In addition to maintaining internal standards of behavior, part of the role of ethics in organizational behavior is to ensure that the entity performs well in the wider community. If a company engages in behavior that harms the community, the ramifications will often seep into the organization itself. An example of this could be a significant reduction in employee loyalty after a newspaper article revealed that the company uses manpower to manufacture products. Serving the community in a positive way can help improve employee loyalty, attract better employees, and bring about new business opportunities while maintaining an ethical reputation.
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