Question

Please discuss what you see as the role of ethics as it pertains to management and managers. Does management, in your view, help shape the values and ethics of an organization? Is employee behavior, ethical or not, a by-product of the organization's ethical climate? What ideally is the manager's role in helping to create and maintain organizational integrity? Using your professional experience as a backdrop, provide examples of managers who have demonstrated ethical behavior (or not) and discuss how this affected the organization, the employees, etc.

Answer 1

Management of Ethics for an Organization:

Managing ethics in the workplace holds tremendous benefit for leaders and managers, benefits both moral and practical. As a manager one is going to find oneself in a position where one is required to regularly make decisions. While one may, at times, feel as though one is guided by one's own morals and beliefs it is very important for one to remember to put one's personal beliefs aside so that one can look at each situation objectively and make the most ethical decisions possible.  

Four main principles of ethical management:

1. Respect for each employee: Although it’s difficult at times, yet it is important to make sure you treat each of your employees or team members respectfully. Everyone you work with will have different religious and cultural beliefs and should be treated in a fair manner

2. Mutual respect: Your role as a manager involves making sure that your employees all treat each other respectfully as well. While they don’t all have to agree with each other, they should show proper respect for each others ideas and opinions. A team that doesn’t get along on a personal level will not work will together and will be less productive.

3. Procedural fairness : You may not have control of the procedures your company expects you to follow but you do have control over the procedures you can implement within your team. It is important to make sure the procedures you implement are fair to all of your employees – neither favoring nor neglecting one employee or another.

4. Decision making transparency: It’s incredibly important for you to make sure your employees understand why you make the decisions you do. If they realize you aren’t making arbitrary choices based on personal beliefs they’ll be more likely to accept your decisions and work together as a team.

Moral Character:

By virtue of their power and status, managers may face the temptation of engaging in workplace relationships deemed inappropriate or improper. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission provides guidance to employers on actions that are considered unlawful when it comes to unfair employment practices and workplace harassment.

Employers often hold supervisors and managers to higher standards in their interaction with employees where unlawful harassment is concerned because employers can be held liable for their supervisor’s actions, especially in cases of sexual harassment.

Integrity in a manager means he/she refrains from poor behavior that's inconsistent with workplace policies or actions that cause others to wonder about his/her values. Examples include a romantic relationship with a subordinate that can put her in a compromising position or an extramarital affair that arises out of a workplace relationship.