Ethical Behaviour in Organizations: A Managerial Challenge

This essay discusses the challenges of ethical behaviour in organizations, with a focus on health and safety hazards in the workplace. It highlights the role of managers in resolving these issues and emphasizes the importance of a strong ethical culture.

Title - Ethical behaviour is an important managerial challenge for organizations today
Despite the increased attention to ethics in organizations, theoretical and empirical examinations of ethical
decision making in these organizations are in relatively short supply (Jones, 1991). Most experts define
unethical workplace behaviour as any harmful action at work that violates the moral norms. The challenge of
detecting and taking an action against unethical behaviour specifically in the managerial level where key-
decisions are made, is genuinely a hard undertaking. The cardinal thesis of this essay is geared to highlight
one such issue and underline the managerial activities that can be undertaken to resolve the same. While
there are numerous ethical issues that prevail in an organization such as harassment, discrimination,
whistleblowing, fraudulent accounting practices and corporate espionage that need serious attention (Barr,
2022), this essay will focus on the issues related to the health and safety hazards of workers in a workplace.
Hazards occur when the working environment leads to any form of physical or mental damage to the workers.
These can result from various situations including dangerous materials use, unsafe working practices and also
from toxic behaviour of colleagues (Anon, 2022). Such conditions can cause mental trauma as well as lead to
physical injuries, illness, and even death. Assessing hazards is not only an ethical practice, but also a legal
requirement for organizations. Employers at the managerial level should take all steps to eliminate such
hazards to protect their employees from any harm, at any cost. However, the priority given to a worker’s health
and safety requirements in an industry is embarrassingly low because the imperatives of profit and production
frequently override the welfare of employees. In many cases (Nielsen, 1988; cited by Sims, 1992, p.511),
mangers choose to do, go along with or ignore the unethical because they want to avoid the possibility of
punishments or to gain rewards. An example put forward by Parker (2020) shows how the American
multinational corporation Tyson Foods not only have their workers poorly paid, but also have hazardous
working conditions wherein the workers have to stand dangerously close together on the assembly line while
wielding sharp knives and tools to rip chickens apart and also while operating dangerous machinery. It doesn’t
stop there, workers are denied restroom breaks and are ridiculed by their managers for even asking. As a
result, many workers resorted to wearing adult diapers. This is inhumane and unethical, but sadly common.
Another example (Parker, 2020) demonstrates how the retail giant Walmart has unsound working conditions in
their overseas factories. The workers toil in the dirty and unsafe warehouses for very long shifts every day, with
a wage so low that many of them rely on government aids. In 2013, a shoddy factory in Bangladesh that
Walmart used as a sweatshop collapsed and killed over 1,000 people. It was after this horrible incident that
retailers from all over the world signed a pact to set a reasonable safety standard for sweatshops but Walmart
however refused to sign this pact, saying they would provide their own inspections.
Although both these cases appear to be instances of illegal corporate behaviour, the steps taken to avoid or
resolve them are not even a concern for anyone. Avoiding ethical issues in business always starts with top
management and In order to effectively detect and deter these issues, there are several everyday efforts that
should be made. The imbalance of power between the employers and the workers gives rise to a number of
problems raising unethical red flags (Anon, 2022). The executive level should strictly communicate and enforce
a robust code of ethics by providing clearly written policies and processes that should be acknowledged and
adhered to by all (Sims, 1992). The first step for managers is to honestly follow the ethical code of conduct
themselves to establish a strong foundation and set examples. Secondly, being vigilant about the activities
happening across the organisation, identifying unethical behaviour and reinforcing consequences for the same,
keeping the employees informed about prevailing ethical issues through training programs, and giving them the
right to speak about any affair that would seem unfair to them will all make a lot of difference. Ethical values
should be reflected in multiple processes that drive the daily activities of an organisation including reward
systems, performance evaluation, promotion determination and employee retention, because these are the
most prominent activities from an employee’s perspective.
Unethical behaviours can not only plague a workplace, but also damage a company's credibility. Even though
ethical problems in organizations continue to greatly concern society, organizations, and individuals, the
potential impact that organizational culture can have on ethical behaviour has not really been explored
(Hellreigel et al, 1989; cited by Sims, 1992, P.512). In order to maintain a positive and fair working
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environment, organizations should step forward and operate with strong ethical cultures, and promote
decisions that are both legal and morally acceptable (Jones, 1991). Once employees know how to deal with
ethical issues in their everyday work lives, the ethical climate of the organization will turn positive.
References:
Sims, R.R., 1992. The challenge of ethical behaviour in organizations. Journal of Business Ethics,
11(7), pp.505–513.
Jones, T.M., 1991. Ethical decision making by individuals in organizations: An issue-contingent model.
Academy of Management Review, 16(2), pp.366–395.
Ellemers, N., van der Toorn, J., Paunov, Y., and van Leeuwen, T., 2019. The Psychology of Morality: A
Review and Analysis of empirical studies published from 1940 through 2017. Personality and Social
Psychology Review, 23(4), pp.332–366.
Parker, G., 2020. 5 huge companies known for implementing horrific working conditions. [online] Money
Inc. Available from: https://moneyinc.com/5-huge-companies-known-implementing-horrific-working-
conditions/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2022].
Barr, E., 2022. 6 ethical issues in business and what to do about them • sprigghr. [online] SpriggHR.
Available from: https://sprigghr.com/blog/hr-professionals/6-ethical-issues-in-business-and-what-to-do-
about-them/ [Accessed 10 Nov. 2022].
Anon, 2022. Workplace hazards: Types of hazard: Staysafe App. [online] StaySafe. Available from:
https://staysafeapp.com/blog/6-types-of-workplace-hazard/#:~:text=Hazards%20in%20the%20workplace
%20occur,and%20the%20behaviour%20of%20people. [Accessed 10 Nov. 2022].
Anon, 2022. ." encyclopedia of bioethics. . encyclopedia.com. 9 Nov. 2022 . [online] Encyclopedia.com.
Available from: https://www.encyclopedia.com/science/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/
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