Question

What is the role of moral intensity, organizational culture, and ethical leadership in promoting ethical behavior?

Answer 1

Ethical Behavior refers to acting in ways consistent with what society and individuals typically think are good values.
Ethical behavior tends to be good for business and involves demonstrating respect for key moral principles that include honesty, fairness, equality, dignity, diversity and individual rights.
Moral intensity is a construct that relates to issues in terms of their perceived moral significance. Individuals' perceptions of moral intensity should impact their recognition of issues as posing moral dilemmas and should also affect ethical judgments and behavioral intentions regarding issues. A study examined the relationship between 4 dimensions of moral intensity and the ethical decision‐making process. Results indicate that moral intensity dimensions were associated with individuals' ethical decisions. Social consensus and seriousness of consequences were particularly important influences on the ethical decision‐making process.

In difficult financial times, companies face various moral issues to try to keep up with their competitors. Although these issues have a direct impact on employee decision making, businesses rarely address how employees should assess the ethics of their actions and incorporate ethics into their decisions. Often this can be alleviated by creating and maintaining a corporate culture with a focus on ethics. Corporate culture is often considered to be both a source of various problems and the basis for solutions and is certainly a factor that determines how people behave in an organization. The role of management in the organizational culture is important as it both acts as a role model for the employees and can also directly influence the behavior and culture to improve organizational performance.

Strong cultures have two elements: A high level of agreement about what is valued and a high level of intensity with regard to those values. “In the long run, a positive culture of integrity is the foundation for an effective ethics and compliance program, which, when properly embedded into an organization, can create a competitive advantage and serve as a valuable organizational asset,” says Keith Darcy, an independent senior advisor to Deloitte & Touche LLP.

Ethical leadership is a form of leadership in which individuals demonstrate conduct for the common good that is acceptable and appropriate in every area of their life. Ethical leaders can help establish a positive environment with productive relationships over three levels: the individual, the team and the overall organization. The 4-V model helps align the internal beliefs and values with the external behaviors and actions for the purpose of the common good. The four V’s stand for Values, Vision, Voice and Virtue, the characteristics that help create a strong ethical leader. In the end, the main goal of an ethical leader is to create a world in which the future is positive, inclusive and allows the potential for all individuals to pursue and fulfill their needs and meet their highest potential.