Ethical culture
Definition: Ethical culture refers to the consistent behaviour and commitment of organizations in adhering to the stipulated ethical principles, being honest and treating their employees and customers appropriately (Mohamad, 2018).
Summary
It is of paramount importance for organizations to stress on having ethical cultures if they want to be successful and competitive (Mohamad, 2018). However, establishing an ethical culture in an organization is not an easy task since organizations today are affected by a wide array of factors. The organizational leaders play a very vital role, too, when it comes to establishing the ethical and appropriate culture in the organization. The first step that an organization ought to take when it comes to ethical culture is to create a clear and robust ethical framework of doing things in the organization. These ethical principles ought to guide the employees and leaders of the organization, and anyone violating them ought to be severely punished. Additionally, the organizational leaders ought to be on the forefront advocating the significance of ethics in the organizations. Another critical thing that leaders ought to do is to lead by example and come up with strategies of encouraging and instilling ethical values among its employees.
Discussion
Different factors ought to be considered by organizations when it comes to establishing an ethical culture. These factors include the following. First is how ethical the leaders of the organization are. If the organizational leaders are ethical and lead by example, they encourage other employees to be ethical too. Through this, all employees learn the importance of ethics in the organization and through emulating their leaders, the organization establishes an ethical culture. Secondly is that the organization needs to provide the employees and all people who interact with the organization with the tools to act ethically. Thirdly is that an organization need to have an ethics and compliance officer.
Additionally, the organization can have an ethics hotline where ethical cases and controversies are reported. Through this hotline, the organization establishes a clear framework of communication of how employees can report any leader or fellow employees who are spotted acting unethically. When these cases are reported, the ethics officer then approaches these individuals and the appropriate corrective measures taken. Another vital issue that organization need to stress on when they want to establish an ethical culture is that they ought to emphasize the behaviour they want, not the one they don’t want to tolerate. Through this, they encourage all their employees to behave appropriately and be committed to ensuring that they are always on the right side.
Additionally, an organization ought to model the desired behaviour among its leaders and employees at large. When the organization is focused on, modelling the behaviour of their leaders, they quickly make the rest of the employees ethical since the employees emulate their leaders. Another critical step when it comes to creating an ethical culture in the organization is that the management ought to come with strategies of encouraging their employees to be moral. This can include having a reward system where the most ethical employees are given bonuses or promotions at work. Through this, the organization gets all employees eyeing for the prize or reward; hence, they become ethical, and this makes it easy for the organization to have an ethical culture