Extent of Business Ethics Explaining SMRT's Systematic Cultural Issues

This report investigates the extent to which business ethics concepts explain the systematic cultural issues at SMRT, a multi-modal public transport company in Singapore. It examines ethical culture, ethical climate, and ethical leadership, highlighting their interrelation and importance in organizational practices. The study focuses on disruptions, lapses, and issues like tunnel flooding and fake work records at SMRT, drawing on perspectives from various authors to analyze the roles of managers, employees, and organizational systems. The report explores the impact of leadership on workplace culture, employee commitment, and the formation of ethical practices, as well as the challenges in addressing cultural flaws. It analyzes the company's responses to incidents and emphasizes the need for ethical decision-making, motivational strategies, and strategic leadership to improve the organizational environment and operational management. The analysis references issues such as poor maintenance, inadequate monitoring, and false records, while considering the views of experts and the actions of SMRT's leadership. The report concludes by emphasizing the significance of ethical organizational practices in maintaining credibility, maximizing performance, and preventing public criticisms.

Running head: SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL ISSUES AT SMRT
To what extent do business ethics concepts explain the "systematic cultural issues" at SMRT?
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

1SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL ISSUES AT SMRT
Ethical culture, ethical climate and ethical leadership are all interrelated with each other
though has the different meaning altogether. Ethical culture can be understood as a system that
reveals how an organization is managing its ethical values like dealing with projects, employee
engagement and responsive approaches from leaders (Akdoğan, Arslan and Demirtaş 2016). The
ethical climate is a workplace environment which is built upon from a set of ethical values that
also reveals the ethical culture in the company (Akdoğan, Arslan and Demirtaş 2016). Ethical
leadership means how the managers are taking up the responsibilities to attain an ethical culture
and climate within an organization (Akdoğan, Arslan and Demirtaş 2016). These concepts are
being addressed in this study in reference to ethical practices in SMRT which is a case study
organization. ‘SMRT’ is a public transport company which follows multi-modal transport
systems in Singapore. The services offered through the public figure are comprised of buses, rail
and taxis services (Smrt.com.sg 2018). This study is purposefully aimed at understanding the
ethical organizational practices in context to the disruptions, flooding, lapses and fake work
records at SMRT.
As opined by Lawton and Páez (2015), ethical leadership is of high regards in context to
the formation of ethical culture and ethical climate at the organizational level. This means
managerial positions at the different types of organizations do play important roles in facilitating
a culture or a climate of ethical practices. The fact does indicate towards a fact; however, this
requires a real understanding of ethical values to make it a more understandable fact to the
readers. The fact highlighted by Lawton and Páez (2015) is understandable in the views
supported from Shin et al. (2015) which states that managers are needed to be ethical in every
organizational regard like managerial decisions, employee involvement, corporate social
responsibility (CSR) and stakeholder management. The few discussions which have been

2SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL ISSUES AT SMRT
covered to understand the ethical organizational practices can be summarized as the deliverance
of values through leadership role-play of managers, employee commitment and the
organizational environment.
The discussions have been conducted to understand the probable issues which are
affecting the cultural values at SMRT. The probable issues are not those which were being
highlighted in few newspaper articles. These are rather the core theory of business ethics which
has probably done the real damage. However, the facts identified for floods and lapses do help to
relate it to the business theory of ethics. As stated from Yazdani and Murad (2015), business
ethics do not happen on its own; these are rather formed with collective efforts from the business
leaders and cooperative hands of other stakeholders. The facts presented by Yazdani and
Murad (2015) do very well indicate that there are some certain organizational based issues at
SMRT. The issue is not just confined only to the managerial positions; it has rather gone to cover
its employees as well. This is a real challenge to identify who is at the maximum faults.
However, the theory of business ethics suggests that leaders have high involvement in inspiring
ethical practices at the organizational level.
The new CEO of SMRT, Mr. Kuek, has indicated the very same fact as suggested by a
theoretical background of business ethics. Mr. Kuek has identified the few more critical issues at
SMRT. According to the new CEO of SMRT, there are evidently structural, managerial,
systematic and cultural issues which are needed to be addressed (SIM 2018). The CEO had
further added that few employees have poor in performance and have struggled to perform to
their potentials. Although there have been few notable changes like appointing a panel for
technical advisory and recruiting more engineers & technicians since the flood has destroyed the

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normal activities, it still has a long way to go to mitigate the cultural flaws in the organization as
felt by the new CEO (SIM 2018).
As opined by Zehir et al. (2014), the role of leaders is crucial for leaving an impact on
the workplace culture and the employee commitment to their jobs. The systematic cultural issues
at SMRT is really confusing and probably nothing much can be done to it rather than being just
skeptic to few guesses like managerial negligence to their responsibilities or a casual move from
employees. As indicated form, the transport economist in Singapore, Dr. Walter Theseira, has
urged SMRT to investigate whether organizational issues were the reasons behind the tunnel-
flooding. In the opinion of Dr. Walter, it may be the case that employees had not wanted it
deliberately to perform their works or is it the management that has failed to design a robust
system to respond to such crisis (Channel NewsAsia 2018).
The theoretical background on business ethics presented form Sekerka, Comer and
Godwin (2014) do state that both managers and employees can be at faults for not having an
ethical workplace climate. The fact does provide a clue that the flood incident must be put to the
investigation in order to identify the actual faults at SMRT. The suggested action if being
implemented may help to identify the problem zone. Hence, this will then be comparatively
easier for Mr. Kuek to lead SMRT successfully to nullify the managerial and the staffing issues.
At the moment, it is very difficult to conclude anything on that. A lot has been reported on
different issues like employees had intentionally not shown interest in maintenance work,
managers had lacked in producing a robust design and false records on maintenance works
(Channel NewsAsia 2018). The outcomes of the inspection as suggested by Dr. Walter Theseira
may help to get the one zone which is at maximum fault; however, the damage-repairing work
will be challenging in either of the outcomes. The situation is understandable form the views of

4SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL ISSUES AT SMRT
Bedi, Alpaslan and Green (2016) which state that organizational issues require a leadership
approach to mitigate it effectively. A leadership approach helps to govern such actions through
the exploration of a wide range of strategic approaches.
The complexity of cultural issues at SMRT can be understood from a various point of
views presented by a few authors. In the opinion of Griffith, Zeni and Johnson (2015), leaders
must have the capability to make ethical decisions, so that, it produces a positive impact on the
different organizational sectors like workplace climate and culture. According to Chadegani and
Jari (2016), corporate ethical culture is a real challenge to its leaders who are responsible for
establishing the ethical culture and climate. Aziz et al. (2015) have found few factors like
internal control system, integrity system and leadership practices accountable for an ethical
practice in public sectors. The various views of different authors do state that ethical practice at
the organizational level is challenging and needs utmost attention from leaders and the other
stakeholders. If leaders are committed to their duties and also employees are, such thing like the
tunnel-flood incident could have been avoided.
The various viewpoints of different authors Griffith, Zeni and Johnson (2015), Aziz et
al. (2015) and Chadegani and Jari (2016) suggest the complexity of cultural issues at SMRT.
The ethical organizational practices do have an involvement in the cultural issues at SMRT. This
is also being believed by different authors. However, it is relatively challenging to identify the
actual resource of the issue. The fact is also evident in the concerns of Mr. Kuek who also have
two areas of doubts about employee’s commitment and leadership issue. According to Guerci et
al. (2015), it is the responsibilities of organizational leaders that they incept motivational
strategies to attract the employee’s participation. There are a few employees who require a real
push in the form of motivational benefits from management. Such push may comprise of

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anything from being supportive to employees to creating a friendly working environment where
they could feel free to explore a wide range of their expertise. This in other way is talking about
the leadership approach from the organizational managers. An effective managerial action may
certainly influence the work behavior of employees.
In regards to the case study organization, the scenario is little different to what has been
felt as necessary by several authors highlighted earlier in this study. The leadership role is not as
influencing as it should be. Fake or false statements have been released to the media personnel. It
was being said by the ex-CEO of SMRT that the company had adopted six core values which
also include responsibility, excellence and integrity. According to the company’s officials, an
advisory panel for the technical thing was also being formed. The management has also admitted
an increment in the number of engineers and technicians that rose by 150% during the last four
years. Reportedly, an operation center for maintenance was also being set up in 2015 to enhance
the organizational capability to respond to disruptions (SIM 2018). Despite the changes as
admitted by company's officials, SMRT has really struggled to mitigate the floods and the staff
lapses. Moreover, managerial staffs and employees are both in the area of doubts.
The authors Huhtala et al. (2015) have probably provided a few steps towards the
solution of cultural issues at SMRT. According to the authors Huhtala et al. (2015), there are
close relations between managers, staffs and the organizational output. This means all factors are
interlinked and are serving different purposes that are important for an improved organizational
culture. If employees are committed to their roles and responsibilities, a potential outcome may
then be expected from them. Such potential outcomes can be in forms like technological
advancement, innovative thoughts and strategically proven involvement (Ullah et al. 2017).
Leaders, on the other hand, are larger in the picture for their vast area of functionalities that

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range from supervising the works to create an ethical workplace environment. They are
responsible for making innovative decisions to further the progress of organizational success.
They are required to motivate employees who are less in moral values, so that, their candidature
is also being utilized (Bedi, Alpaslan and Green 2016). It is necessary that leaders are
strategically capable, so that, an ethical work environment could be created. An ethical
workplace climate is essential to explore the core organizational values that are important for
facilitating projects with less or probably no flaws. If organizational values are explored, there
won’t be places for criticized activities. People criticize organizational leadership and the
culture; however, if values are capably handled then there won’t be cases as such (Gunz and
Thorne 2015).
Poor leadership at SMRT had been criticized for tunnel-flooding incident. They were also
being criticized in 2011 when two massive breakdowns had hampered the North-South Line. The
incident had also attracted a COI investigation from the government. Consequently, an
inadequate maintenance and monitoring system was being identified as probable reasons behind
the disruptions (SIM 2018). The issues are not being sorted out yet as the reasons behind the
recent tunnel-flooding are same again. However, it is only this time that lot of emphasis is being
given to finding the core reasons behind the incident. The need to identify the core reasons has
provided some other aspects of ethical leadership, ethical climate and the ethical culture.
To conclude, it is now clear that ethical organizational practices like ethical leadership,
ethical culture and the ethical climate could be the reasons for tunnel-flooding incident. Ethical
organizational practices, as understood by different authors in this study, help to deliver the core
organizational values which are vital for operational management. A poor showdown of
managers in regards to leadership act may lead to serious destructions like incremented

7SYSTEMATIC CULTURAL ISSUES AT SMRT
employee turnover and public criticisms. This can also be concluded that ethical organizational
practices are better resources to judge the organizational credibility in regards to maximize
performances in terms of profitability and ethicality as well. Nevertheless, organizations with the
highest standard of ethicality do explore high values to its core features that further help it to
attain a maximized position in the market. The highest level of ethicality can only be attained if it
features an ethical work environment, ethical leadership and the ethical culture.

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