Ethics and Sustainability in Contemporary Organizations

This assignment analyses ethical issues that must be managed by contemporary organizations and focuses on ethical frameworks that help to inform about the best way in managing these ethical issues. It also reflects about how the ethical management of these issues inform about future workplace behaviour.

Running head: ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
ETHICS AND SUSTAINABILITY
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Summary of ethical issues and ethical frameworks managed by the contemporary
organizations..............................................................................................................................2
Reflection on future workplace behaviour.................................................................................3
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................5
References..................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
The purpose of the assignment is to analyse ethical issues that must be managed by
the contemporary organization. Business ethics refers to the morale principles, which guide
the way every organization behaves (Collins, 2012). The study also focuses on the ethical
frameworks that help to inform about the best way in managing these ethical issues. The
assignment also reflects about how the ethical management of these issues inform about
future workplace behaviour.
Summary of ethical issues and ethical frameworks managed by the contemporary
organizations
In the contemporary organizations, the individuals face several ethical dilemmas in
several diverse areas. The ethical issues that must be managed by the contemporary
organizations are given below-
 White – collar crimes- According to Crane & Matten, (2016), criminal behaviours in
corporate have outcome in huge financial scandals. Utilizing work hours to conduct
the business and sending mail by utilizing enterprise resources are few of the ethical
issues in contemporary organizations.
 Employee’s rights- Administering the employees’ rights at job generally creates
several ethical dilemmas in the enterprise. Few of the ethical dilemmas include- drug
testing, privacy problems and so on (Davies, 2016). Safeguarding workers right to this
privacy and at that time keeping accessibility to data for those who require that the
company’s manager balance competing interests.
An ethical framework helps to assist the enterprise as well as employees within the
enterprise for identifying and working through ethical issues using standardized decision-
making approach. The two ethical framework that helps the managers of contemporary

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organization to manage the ethical issues in better way are Duty framework and Virtue
Framework.
Reflection on future workplace behaviour
Workplace behaviour refers to the patterns of actions as well as interactions of
members of the enterprise, which directly or indirectly influence its effectiveness. Every
contemporary organization faces ethical issues, which refers to the problem or situation,
which needs an enterprise to select between the alternatives that must be assessed as ethical
or unethical (Weiss, 2014). Ethical management of these issues help to gain proper
understanding about future workplace behaviour. Effective ethical management of issues aids
to assure consistency in understanding as well as practice across all the levels of enterprise.
It informs the managers thinking by providing an idea about the establishment of frameworks
as well as policies for shaping work practices, interactions and behaviour in the workplace.
Apart from this, it also informs the managers about the way of increasing transparency within
the enterprise. This in turn facilitate the managers to ensure that workers have proper access
to information within the organization. Moreover, ethical management of issues informs
one’s thinking about how to implement respectful workplace behaviour that lift the
employees spirits by making them feel appreciated as well as valued (Ruiz-Palomino,
Martínez-Cañas & Fontrodona, 2013).
Contemporary organizations must use these two ethical frameworks because of
certain reasons, which are described below-
Duty framework-In this ethical framework, the manager mainly concentrates on duties as
well as obligations in the given situation. The contemporary organization must use this
framework for creating system of rules, which has consistent expectations of all individuals.

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It also concentrates on moral rules regardless of result, so it permits for possibility which one
might have acted in ethical way (McCullough, 2012).
Virtue framework-In this framework, the company tries to recognize character traits that
can encourage the employees in the given circumstances. The organizations must use this
framework as it is useful in such circumstances that ask what kind of individuals one must be.
It also considers all types of individuals experience and their role in the ethical deliberation.
These two ethical framework will help to develop common approach in future to
increase as well as guide ethical practice and decision-making that applies to any enterprise
ethical issues. Implementation of ethical framework can help to change workplace behaviour
by guaranteeing good governance across the enterprise. In fact, it also helps the managers as
well as employees of the enterprise to understand moral dimensions of the workplace
decisions. Professional ethics usually encompass corporate as well as personal behavioural
standards as expected by the professionals. Professional ethics code are mainly established by
the professional enterprise facilitates to guide employees in performing their work based on
consistent as well as sound ethical principles and this changes their employees behaviour
(Robison, Pritchard & Ellin, 2012). The senior management employs several strategies in
order to dictate employees behaviour and performance. As the senior managers are the ones
who guides the workforce, the behaviour of senior management affects their subordinates
behaviour. The managers who takes negative outlook on all the activities mainly cause the
workers to do the same thing. In addition to this, this negative attitude of managers cause
workers to become cynical about work, thereby resulting to carelessness. Corporate
governance refers to the structure of rules processes and practices by which an enterprise is
controlled as well as directed. The parties mainly involved in corporate governance are
stakeholders including- senior management, broad of directors and shareholders. The
structure of corporate governance as integrated by these stakeholders influences the

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behaviour of other employees in the organization. Moreover, six components play vital role
in facilitating to reinforce right behavioural norms across the workforce. These components
are consistent communication, tone from top, enterprise structure, rewards, competitive
pressures and performance measures. Enterprise culture illustrates as set of beliefs, values
and norms that represent way the company completes business activities (Rafiee &
Sarabdeen, 2012). Better corporate culture positively affect the behaviour and performance of
employees. Ethical code of conduct can be utilized by the organizations to create ethical
culture. Some of the important steps that the enterprise uses for creating ethical culture are –
 establishing ethical stance
 Building work ethics into selection criteria
 understanding employees present ethical culture for determining areas of
improvement
 Demonstrating ethical standards for discovering high corruption level or
discrimination among the employees
 Rewarding ethical behaviour
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that ethical problems should be
managed by the contemporary organization in order to improve their employees behaviour
and performance. The managers of the organization must employ different ethical policies
and framework for improving the workplace behaviour. Besides this, the manager of the
organization must also focus on improving corporate governance structure and use ethical
code of conduct in order to enhance workplace behaviour as well as organizational
performance.

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References
Collins, D. (2012). Business ethics: How to design and manage ethical organizations.
Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Crane, A., & Matten, D. (2016). Business ethics: Managing corporate citizenship and
sustainability in the age of globalization. Oxford University Press.
Davies, P. W. (2016). Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.
McCullough, L. B. (2012). An ethical framework for the responsible leadership of
accountable care organizations. American Journal of Medical Quality, 27(3), 189-194.
Rafiee, V., & Sarabdeen, J. (2012). The cultural influence in the practice of corporate
governance in emerging markets.
Robison, W. L., Pritchard, M. S., & Ellin, J. (2012). Profits and professions: Essays in
business and professional ethics. Springer Science & Business Media.
Ruiz-Palomino, P., Martínez-Cañas, R., & Fontrodona, J. (2013). Ethical culture and
employee outcomes: The mediating role of person-organization fit. Journal of
Business Ethics, 116(1), 173-188
Weiss, J. W. (2014). Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach.
Berrett-Koehler Publishers.