Importance of Ethics in the Success and Demise of an Organisation

This article discusses the importance of ethics in the success or demise of an organisation, using the case study of Gosport War Memorial Hospital. It explores the role of ethics in workplace culture, the impact of unethical behavior, and the measurements taken to ensure ethical practice. The article also highlights the ethical obligations of doctors and provides recommendations for promoting ethical behavior in the workplace.

Academic and professional
skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................1
To what extent ethics play a part in the success or demise of an organisation...........................1
Measurements taken by an organisation to ensure ethical practice............................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
RECOMMENDATION...................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Professional skills includes leadership, project management and conflict resolution skills
that are very basics for students and individuals to have as they play an important role in their
lives. Gosport war memorial hospital is a hospital that is located in England. It is the study of
Gosport hospital scandal in which 465 patients were given unnecessary doses of opiates as result
they were died. This study will cover and show the importance of ethics at workplace. It has
various benefits or a manager of a company has various benefits if they follow ethical behaviours
such as it increases the image of a company and add more value. Unethical behaviours have
many consequences and those companies who do not follow ethics or do not have proper
knowledge of ethics then they have to face various problems such as it diminish their company's
image and also increase labour turnover (Beets, Lewis and Brower, 2016). This report will also
show the ways of measuring ethical behaviours. These ways help manager of a company to solve
ethical issues which creates various problems and are the barriers in the growth of their
company. It also show the ethical obligation of doctors which is very important for them for
showing respect for human being and also they are responsible for protecting the health of their
patients. Doctors have responsibility also to make their patients bets interests their first concern.
This report also shows the importance of key factors that plays a significance role in
order to behave ethically and also for creating value based culture such as: common language,
morale courage, commitment at the top and shares core values. Unethical behaviours damage the
reputation of a company that is a key element and important factor for a company.
ANALYSIS
To what extent ethics play a part in the success or demise of an organisation
Ethics are standards of behaviours within a society and a group of people that indicates
and shows that the way of behaving in order to achieve moral goals which is essential for
satisfying society needs. It is concerned and related with the way and how we act & interact with
others. It varies from society to society but all the person within a society expect to maintain
these standards

Importance of ethics: Ethics play an important role in any type of company and at any
place. It is important because it satisfies all the human needs by being fair not to discriminate
anyone and by being honest towards everyone. In the health and care setting and in context to
Gosport war memorial hospital ignorance of ethics can create a big barrier in the growth of an
organisation. The most important asset for the company and hospitality sectors is their
reputation, and they face most difficulties in order to rebuild it once it lost. In the Gosport war
memorial case study there were almost 456 patients died after being prescribed a powerful
opioid painkillers as it was a case of behaving unethical and illegal. So it is very important for
person and business to focus on ethics and treat with everyone ethically (Brenkert, 2018).
There are various reasons to play and operate ethically that includes to increase
shareholders and capital value, to create a competitive advantage and also for to avoid internal
corruption. On the other hand if an organisation do not focus on ethical behaviours or unethical
behaviours can result in decreasing or lower productivity among potential and highly skilled
employees as well as an organisation. It also impacts on their relationship and satisfaction to
their job performance.
The sector or industry: Gosport war memorial hospital is related is related to health
and social care in the hospitality sector.
Patients or customers: Patients and customers of who died at Gosport war memorial
hospital were about 456. These patients were shortened by administering and prescribing
dangerous opioids drugs which was not clinically justified.
Managers: Dr. Jane Barton, the GP and clinical assistant at the centre of Gosport war
scandal who prescribed the powerful opioid drugs or painkillers to elderly patients.
There are some key factors that are important in order to behave ethically and they add
and create value based culture such as:
Shares core values: There are mainly 5 core values that is very important in every
culture such as: respect, honesty, responsibilities, compassion and fairness. It also can be said
that these are the factors that play a vital role in the growth of an organisation. This can be
happen only when an organisation and person behave ethically and have proper knowledge of
business ethics (Cottrell, 2017).

Commitment at the top: It is very important to execute at top level and ethics training is
meaning less without top level executives. When leaders and manager reward to those who focus
on doing right then it helps them in creating an ethical culture more than anything else.
Common language: For getting success and play ethically it is important for employees
to have a proper knowledge and have a common language of ethics that can help them in to
communicate comfortably about the problems and issues which are typically difficult to discuss.
For solving this problem and focusing on this factor employer can provide them ethics training
programs.
Morale courage: For solving the problems related ethics it is important to have morale
courage. Morale courage can be defined and refereed as a spirit that make them able to face up
ethical dilemmas in an effective manner without retreating.
Unethical behaviour and avoidance of ethical behaviour create many problems for an
organisation. In the case of Gosport hospital Dr. Burton was principally responsible for unethical
practice as it prescribes lethal doses of opiate or high dose of painkillers without medical
justification but all the nurses and senior consultants were better known and aware of or
administered of this drugs (Darbyshire and Thompson, 2018). Due to fear of getting fired they
did not say anything and did not show concern for this so they also become a part of this
unethical and illegal behaviours towards all the patients who were died.
Unethical behaviour can damage and spoil the reputation of a firm and also make it less
appealing to stakeholders.
Measurements taken by an organisation to ensure ethical practice
For reducing ethical issues at workplace there are various measurements that an
organisation required to take. Unethical behaviour creates various problems and issues that
directly impact on the image and reputation of a firm. Reputation is a key element and important
factor of success of a company. It can also damage a company's credibility and cause their
business to loose their customers which directly decrease the sales of their company. A company
can be identified by its beliefs, shared values and norms.
In context of Gosport hospital, a research shows that an unethical corporate culture can
increase the risk profile, on the other hand ethical behaviour and culture can diminish risk

profiles and also reduce business misconduct. There are some ways of reducing these ethics
related problems and measures to ensure ethical practices (Ferrell and Fraedrich, 2015).
Create a code of conduct: A written code of conduct helps employees as it provides
them an overview and brief introduction of the type of conduct and behaviours that a company
expects. It outlines and shows that which type of behaviours are not acceptable and what
measurements need to be taken if a leader and employees violate the code of conduct.
Reward ethical behaviour: Companies want and expect ethical behaviour. If they want
to promote it among all the staff members then they need to prove it. It can provide rewards for
promoting it to those who put or keep their personal interests aside and show their concern
towards clients and always try to do the best for their clients. It is the best way of promoting
ethics as it also helps in their ethical decisions.
Hire for values: When an owner of an organisation hire effective employees who have
experience and education which shows and prove that they are skilled employees and have the
ability of handling the tasks (Fisher, Bagiati and Sarma, 2017).
Communication and awareness campaigns: In order to engage workers and raising
awareness of ethical decision making it can focus on effective communication. In which
employees of a company can understand all the importance of ethical policies and their
consequences of not following them. Discussion in training session can helps them out in
exploring ethical issues.
Doctors have an ethical obligations in order to show their respect for human life as they
are liable and have responsibility to protect the health of their patients. For protecting health they
require to provide those treatments that can helps them in curing their diseases and avoid to
provide those treatments where there is no benefit to the patients.
In order to follow ethics or ethical behaviours in hospital and hospitality sector doctor
should be careful when they deal with patients (Pearson, 2017). The main aim of following
ethical behaviours and review Gosport war memorial hospital case study is concern with the use
of selected drugs towards the end of life.

CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that ethics played an important role at
workplace. Due to lack of understanding of ethics it created many problems and ethical issues
which impacted on the company's growth. Unethical behaviour spoiled the image of a company
which is an important key element for every type of company. In hospitality sector it is very
important for manager to focus on ethics in order to make a positive image of their company. Fro
reducing and avoiding these types of issues a manager of a company also took measurements
that helped them in solving ethical issues from workplace in an effective manner.
RECOMMENDATION
From the above study it can be recommended that there is a requirement of following
ethics and have the proper knowledge and understanding of ethical behaviours. In the case study
of Gosport war memorial hospital, due to lack of understanding of ethics almost 465 patients
died as Dr prescribed high dose of medicines. It can be recommend that in the hospitality sector
and in hospital Doctor should increase the dose of medicines step wise according to response. It
is the responsibility of a doctor to care their patients in an effective and proper manner. They
should also follow the guidelines which has been made in order to protect human beings from
discrimination (Trevino and Nelson, 2016). The main aim of this study and review is to
understand and make all the people understand the importance of ethics. For making all the
employees or workers understand and for solving the issues related ethics employer should
provide training to them.
It can also be recommended that employer of a company should consider that how their
employees are treated. For managing ethical behaviour at workplace a manager should treat with
their employees fairly or in an effective manner. If a manager tell all the employees about the
importance of ethics then they are also responsible for treating with them fairly. Manager should
also provide their employees rewards for ethical behaviour and doing all the work in an effective
manner. If employees do not follow ethical behaviour or misbehave with others then manager
should tell them and define them all the consequences of unethical conduct. It can be a verbal
warning, written reprimand. Workplace ethics and ethical behaviours at workplace ensures

positive ambience. Ethics play a vital role as it leads to satisfied and happy employees who
enjoys their work rather than treating it as a mere source of burden. When a manager and leader
focus on business ethics then employees also help them in developing a feeling of loyalty
towards an organisation, so it is very important for manager of a company to focus on ethics or
ethical behaviours (Wagner, 2018).
REFERENCES
Books and journals
Beets, S.D., Lewis, B.R. and Brower, H.H., 2016. The quality of business ethics journals: An
assessment based on application. Business & Society. 55(2). pp.188-213.
Brenkert, G.G., 2018. Mind the gap! The challenges and limits of (Global) business
ethics. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-14.
Cottrell, S., 2017. Critical thinking skills: Effective analysis, argument and reflection. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Darbyshire, P. and Thompson, D., 2018. Gosport must be a tipping point for professional
hierarchies in healthcare—an essay by Philip Darbyshire and David Thompson.
Ferrell, O.C. and Fraedrich, J., 2015. Business ethics: Ethical decision making & cases. Nelson
Education.
Fisher, D.R., Bagiati, A. and Sarma, S., 2017. Developing professional skills in undergraduate
engineering students through cocurricular involvement. Journal of Student Affairs
Research and Practice. 54(3). pp.286-302.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Salvioni, D. and Gennari, F., 2017. CSR, sustainable value creation and shareholder
relations. Salvioni, DM & Gennari, F.(2017). CSR, Sustainable Value Creation and

Shareholder Relations, Symphonya. Emerging Issues in Management (symphonya.
unimib. it). 1. pp.36-49.
Trevino, L.K. and Nelson, K.A., 2016. Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do
it right. John Wiley & Sons.
Wagner, C., 2018. Sexbots: the ethical ramifications of social robotics' dark side. AI
Matters. 3(4). pp.52-58.