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Ethical Behavior

This document discusses strategies for promoting ethical behavior in organizations. It suggests that chief executives should encourage ethical consciousness from the top down and support ethical practices. Formal processes like codes of ethics and appeals processes can also reinforce ethical behavior. Managers' philosophies and behaviors are especially important, as they influence employees' ethical conduct. Organizations must establish reward systems that incentivize ethical behavior and discourage unethical actions. Providing ethics training can help employees make ethical decisions and strengthen their moral framework. An ethical culture overall promotes long-term success for organizations.

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Saleem Banday
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
536 views10 pages

Ethical Behavior

This document discusses strategies for promoting ethical behavior in organizations. It suggests that chief executives should encourage ethical consciousness from the top down and support ethical practices. Formal processes like codes of ethics and appeals processes can also reinforce ethical behavior. Managers' philosophies and behaviors are especially important, as they influence employees' ethical conduct. Organizations must establish reward systems that incentivize ethical behavior and discourage unethical actions. Providing ethics training can help employees make ethical decisions and strengthen their moral framework. An ethical culture overall promotes long-term success for organizations.

Uploaded by

Saleem Banday
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Ethical behavior

Introduction [Saleem]

Mayank [vedios and below two headings

Mayank
PROMOTING AN ETHICAL CLIMATE: SOME SUGGESTIONS AND
STRATEGIES

Recent literature has suggested several strategies for promoting ethical behavior in
organizations (Adler and Bird, 1988; Burns, 1987; Harrington, 1991; Raelin, 1987;
Stead etal., 1990). First, chief executives should encourage ethical consciousness in
their organizations from the top down showing the support and care about ethical
practices. Second, formal processes should be used to support and reinforce ethical
behavior. For example, internal regulation may involve the use of codes of corporate
ethics, and the availability of appeals processes. Finally, it is recommended that the
philosophies of top managers as well as immediate supervisors focus on the
institutionalization of ethical norms and practices that are incorporated into all
organizational levels.

The philosophies of top managers as well as immediate supervisors represent a critical


organizational factor influencing the ethical behavior of employees (Stead etal.,
1990). Research over a period of more than twenty-five years clearly support the
conclusion that the ethical philosophies of management have a major impact on the
ethical behavior of their followers employees (Arlow and Ulrich, 1980; Baumhart,
1961; Brenner and Molander, 1977; Carroll, 1978; Hegarty and Sims, 1978, 1979;
Posner and Schmidt, 1984; Touche Ross, 1988; Vitell and Festervand, 1987; Worrell
etal., 1985).

Nielsen (1989) has stressed the importance of managerial behavior in contributing to


ethical or unethical behavior. According to Nielsen, managers behaving unethically
contrary to their ethical philosophies represents a serious limit to ethical reasoning in
the firm. Much of the research cited in the above paragraph implicitly and explicitly
states that ethical philosophies will have little impact on employees' ethical behavior
unless they are supported by managerial behaviors that are consistent with these
philosophies. Managers represent significant others in the organizational lives of
employees and as such often have their behavior modeled by employees.

One of the most basic of management principles states that if you desire a certain
behavior, reinforce it. No doubt, how ethical behavior is perceived by individuals and
reinforced by an organization determines the kind of ethical behavior exhibited by
employees. As a result, if business leaders want to promote ethical behavior they must
accept more responsibility for establishing their organization's reinforcement system.
Research in ethical behavior strongly supports the conclusion that if ethical behavior
is desired, the performance measurement, appraisal and reward systems must be
modified to account for ethical behavior (Hegarty and Sims, 1978, 1979; Trevino,
1986; Worrell et al., 1985). According to Nielsen (1988, p. 730):

In many cases, mangers choose to do, go along with or ignore the unethical...because
they want to avoid the possibility of punishments (or) to gain rewards.

Organizations and their managers must understand that the above recommendations
are key components in the development and maintenance of an ethically-oriented
organizational culture. Organizations can also enhance an ethically-oriented culture by
paying particular attention to principled organizational dissent. Principled
organizational dissent is an important concept linking organizational culture to ethical
behavior. Principled organizational dissent is the effort by individuals in the
organization to protest the status quo because of their objection on ethical grounds, to
some practice or policy (Graham, 1986). Organizations committed to promoting an
ethical climate should encourage principled organizational dissent instead of
punishing such behavior.

Organizations should also provide more ethics training to strengthen their employees'
personal ethical framework. That is, organizations must devote more resources to
ethics training programs to help its members clarify their ethical frameworks and
practice self-discipline when making ethical decisions in difficult circumstances.
What follows is a useful seven-step checklist that organizations should use to help
their employees in dealing with an ethical dilemma (Schermerhorn, 1989; Otten,
1986):

(1) Recognize and clarify the dilemma.

(2) Get all the possible facts.


(3) List your options--all of them.

(4) Test each option by asking: "Is it legal? Is it right? Is it beneficial?"

(5) Make your decision.

(6) Double check your decision by asking: "How would I feel if my family found out
about this? How would I feel if my decision was printed in the local newspaper?"

(7) Take action.

An effective organizational culture should encourage ethical behavior and discourage


unethical behavior. Admittedly, ethical behavior may "cost" the organization. An
example might be the loss of sales when a multinational firm refuses to pay a bribe to
secure business in a particular country. Certainly, individuals might be reinforced for
behaving unethically (particularly if they do not get caught). In a similar fashion, an
organization might seem to gain from unethical actions. For example, a purchasing
agent for a large corporation might be bribed to purchase all needed office supplies
from a particular supplier. However, such gains are often short-term rather than long-
term in nature. In the long run, an organization cannot operate if its prevailing culture
and values are not congruent with those of society. This is just as true as the
observation that, in the long run, an organization cannot survive unless it produces
goods and services that society wants and needs. Thus an organizational culture that
promotes ethical behavior is not only more compatible with prevailing cultural values,
but, in fact, makes good sense.

Although much remains to be learned about why ethical behavior occurs in


organizations and creating and maintaining organizational cultures that encourage
ethical behavior, organizations can benefit from the following suggestions:

** Be realistic in setting values and goals regarding employment relationships. Do not


promise what the organization cannot deliver.

** Encourage input throughout the organization regarding appropriate values and


practices for implementing the cultures. Choose values that represent the views of
employees at all levels of the organization.

** Do not automatically opt for a "strong" culture. Explore methods to provide for
diversity and dissent, such as grievance or complaint mechanisms or other internal
review procedures.
** Insure that a whistle-blowing and/or ethical concerns procedure is established for
internal problem-solving (Harrington, 1991).

** Provide ethics training programs for all employees. These programs should explain
the underlying ethical and legal (Drake and Drake, 1988) principles and present
practical aspects of carrying our procedural guidelines. Understand that not all ethical
situations are clear-cut. Like many basic business situations, the organization should
recognize that there are ambiguous, grey areas where ethical tradeoffs may be
necessary. More importantly, some situations have no simple solution (Cooke, 1991).

** Integrate ethical decision-making into the performance appraisal process.

In conclusion, even though ethical problems in organizations continue to greatly


concern society, organizations, and individuals, the potential impact that
organizational culture can have on ethical behavior has not really been explored
(Hellreigel et al., 1989). The challenge of ethical behavior must be met by
organizations if they are truly concerned about survival and competitiveness. What is
needed in today's complicated times is for more organizations to step forward and
operate with strong, positive, and ethical cultures. Organizations have to ensure that
their employees know how to deal with ethical issues in their everyday work lives. As
a result, when the ethical climate is clear and positive, everyone will know what is
expected of them when inevitable ethical dilemmas occur. This can give employees
theconfidence to be on the lookout for unethical behavior and act with the
understanding that what they are doing is considered correct and will be supported by
top management and the entire organization.

REFERENCES

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Who is Responsible for the World', in S. Srivastva, ed., Executive Integrity: The
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Arlow, R. and Ulrich, T. A.: 1980, 'Auditing Your Organization's Ethics', Internal
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Baumhart, R.: 1961, 'How Ethical are Businessmen?', Harvard Business Review
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Baucus, M. S. and Near, J. P.: 1991, 'Can Illegal Corporate Behavior Be Predicated?
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Burns, S.: 1987, 'Good Corporate Citizenship Can Pay Dividends', Dallas Morning
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Cooke, R. A.: 1991, 'Danger Signs of Unethical Behavior: How to Determine If Your
Firm Is at Ethical Risk', Journal of Business Ethics 10, pp. 249-253. Conklin, J.: 1977,
Illegal But Not Criminal (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ).

Drake, B. H., and Drake, E.: 1988, 'Ethical and Legal Aspects of Managing Corporate
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Geis, G.: 1977, 'The Heavy Electrical Equipment Antitrust Case of 1961', in G. Geis
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M. Staw and L. L. Cummings, eds., Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 8 (JAI
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Management Executive 3(2), pp. 123-130.

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Ronald R. Simms is Associate Professor in the School of Business Administration at


the College of William and Mary. His research interests include ethical behavior,
experiential learning, employee and management training and development, and
organizational transitions. His articles have appeared in a variety of scholarly and
practitioner-oriented journals.
Indian Ethos & Values in Modern Management
Himadri Barman
“Certainly we should take care not to make intellect our God.
Intellect has, of course,
powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead. It can only
serve. It is not
fastidious about its choice of leaders (Mind or Soul). The intellect
has a sharp eye
for tools and methods but is blind to Ends and Values”. – Albert
Einstein
“It is already becoming clear that a chapter which had a western
beginning in
business management will have to have an Indian ending, when the
world adopts
rich thoughts of Indian ethos and wisdom, if it is not to end in the
self-destruction
of the human race”. – Arnold Toynbee, Nobel Laureate
􀀊 What constitutes Indian Ethos?
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines Ethos as “the set
of beliefs, ideas, etc.
about social behaviour and relationship of a person or group” while
Oxford Advanced
Learner’s Dictionary defines it as “the moral ideas and attitudes
that belong to a particular
group or society”. Indian Ethos is all about what can be termed as
“national ethos”.
Formally, the body of knowledge which derives its solutions from
the rich and huge Indian
system of ethics (moral philosophy) is known as Indian Ethos in
Management (IEM). Is IEM
some kind of Hindu concept of management? Certainly not.
Management is behavioral
science and it has to be culture specific. IEM has as its basis, the
culture base of India and
as a country whose culture has its roots in religion - it does draw its
lessons from the
religions of the land - be it Hinduism, Buddhism, or any other. The
salient ideas and
thoughts of Indian Ethos in Management revealed by our ancient
scriptures are:
1. Atmano Mokshartham, Jagat hitaya cha: All work is an opportunity for
doing good to
the world and thus gaining materially and spiritually in our lives
2. Archet dana manabhyam: Worship people not only with material
things but also by
showing respect to their enterprising divinity within.
3. Atmana Vindyate Viryam: Strength and inspiration for excelling in
work comes from
the Divine, God within, through prayer, spiritual readings and
unselfish work.
4. Yogah karmashu Kaushalam, Samatvam yoga uchyate: He who works with
calm and
even mind achieves the most.
5. Yadishi bhavana yasya siddhi bhavati tadrishi: As we think, so we
succeed, so we
become. Attention to means ensures the end.
6. Parasparam bhavayantah shreyah param bhavapsyathah: By mutual
cooperation,
respect and fellow feeling, all of us enjoy the highest good both
material and
spiritual.
7. Tesham sukhm tesham shanti shaswati: Infinite happiness and infinite
peace come
to them who see the Divine in all beings.
8. Paraspar Devo Bhav: Regard the other person as a divine being. All
of us have the
same consciousness though our packages and containers are
different.
Basic principles of Indian Ethos for Management (IEM):
1. Immense potential, energy and talents for perfection as human
being has the spirit
within his heart.
2. Holistic approach indicating unity between the Divine (The Divine
means perfection
in knowledge, wisdom and power), individual self and the universe.
3. Subtle, intangible subject and gross tangible objects are equally
important. One
must develop one’s Third Eye, Jnana Chaksu, the Eye of Wisdom,
Vision, Insight
and Foresight. Inner resources are much more powerful than outer
resources.
Divine virtues are inner resources. Capital, materials and plant &
machinery are
outer resources.
4. Karma Yoga (selfless work) offers double benefits, private benefit in
the form of self
purification and public benefit. *

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