[Solution] Ethics in Organizations
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Author: Sarah Bennett
Businesses exist to turn a profit, but they also exist in a legal and social environment where they must adhere to certain standards of behavior. Businesses and managers who break the law may suffer legal penalties, and those who engage in legal but socially unacceptable behavior may suffer other negative consequences. For these reasons, managers must have ethical standards and contribute to the ethical management of their organization.
Ethics for Individuals and in Organizations
Ethics is a set of beliefs about what is right and what is wrong. This varies from person to person, based on culture and life experience, but most societies have broad social norms that define what is and is not acceptable.
- Ethical behavior conforms to widely accepted social norms.
- Unethical behavior violates such norms.
Only individuals have ethics, but both individuals and organizations can engage in behavior that violates social norms. Therefore, managers must be aware of how ethics guides the behavior of their employees and fellow managers, as well as the organization as a whole.
Managerial Ethics
Managers face unique ethical challenges due to their position of authority and responsibility for organizational outcomes.
Ethics and Organizational Culture
An organization's culture significantly influences ethical behavior through shared values, norms, and expectations.
Managing Ethical Behavior
Organizations employ various mechanisms to promote ethical behavior, including codes of ethics and ethics training programs.
Organizational Justice
Organizational justice refers to people's perceptions of fairness in organizations and has four main types:
- Distributive justice - Fairness in how rewards and resources are distributed
- Procedural justice - Fairness in the processes used to make decisions
- Interpersonal justice - How respectfully people are treated
- Informational justice - Transparency and communication about decisions
Select the word or words that best complete the sentence.
An individual's set of beliefs about what is right and what is wrong is known as that person's .
View Explanation
An individual's set of beliefs about what is right and what is wrong is known as that person's ethics.
Select the correct response(s) to the following question.
Which of the following statements about ethics are true? Check all that apply.
- Ethics are the same for every person within a society.
- Ethics are determined entirely by individuals for themselves, not by society.
- An individual's ethics are that person's beliefs about what is right and wrong.
- Ethics vary depending on the society or culture.
View Explanation
Ethics is a belief system that defines what thoughts and behaviors are right and wrong. While ethics are held by individuals, they are strongly influenced by social norms and thus vary from culture to culture.
Ethics vary somewhat from person to person even within a society, depending on their culture and life experiences. At the same time, while individuals do choose their ethics to some extent, they are heavily influenced by the social norms of their communities.
Classes designed to help employees resolve ethical dilemmas on the job are called .
View Explanation
Business ethics training is instruction designed to help employees resolve ethical dilemmas they encounter at work.
A code of ethics is a statement of the values and standards that should guide employees' actions. Moral judgment resides within individuals; it is what they use to make ethical choices they have not been trained for. Ethical norms are beliefs about utility, rights, justice, and caring.
Match each type of organizational justice to the corresponding example.
Employees feel that their managers treat them with respect.
The sales force thinks it is fair for the company to pay top sellers more.
Employees believe the process for deciding who gets promotions is fair.
Management feels that the board of directors sets company policy only after studying information from all departments.
View Explanation
Distributive justice concerns the fair distribution of rewards, such as pay.
Procedural justice concerns the fairness of the decision-making process.
Interpersonal justice is the degree to which members perceive that other members of the organization treat them with respect and are honest with them.
Informational justice is the degree to which members of the organization believe that decisions are made using all available information.
