Ethics

The purpose of this essay will be to analyse the link between culture and ethics. To discuss the concepts of culture and business ethics, summarising different authors’ views. I will illustrate different cultures and generally discuss how ethical theories provide guides in valuing human being’s behaviours to be ethically good or bad. Finally, I will mention how cultures and ethics inform each other. It is important to first understand the meanings and importance of organizational behaviour. Learning about organizational behaviour is important because it allows individuals to understand and change working conditions. According to Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborne (2005) organizational behaviour (OB) is the study of how humans as individuals and groups behave in organizations. An organization is defined as a collection of people who are all working as group to achieve a collective goal. Therefore, understanding organizational behaviour allows employees to work more effectively and efficiently towards achieving the common goal. When you walk into a hotel, a bank, a shop, what do you perceive first' What do ‘first feelings’ tell you concerning the organization which you have just entered' What positive and negative signs, symbols and signals do you get' These are all features of organisational culture. The nature of that culture is important, both for those who work there and also for customers and clients. When studying an organization's behaviour, an important concept is organizational or corporate culture. Schermerhorn, Hunt and Osborne (2005) stated that an organizational culture is "the scheme of shared actions, values, and beliefs that progresses inside an organization as well as leads the behaviour of its members”. There are two key issues that are involved with organizational culture. External adaptation answers the question, "What needs to be done and how do we accomplish it'" Internal integration "deals with the creation of a collective identity and with finding ways of matching methods of working and living together" (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborne, 2005). A good organizational culture will find a way to harmoniously incorporate external adaptation and internal integration. The best managers will find a way to reinforce a positive organizational culture and help build positive cultures where needed. Culture is the organizational equivalent of a human’s character. One of the enhanced definitions is that by Ralph Stacey (1996): The culture of any group of people is that set of philosophies, traditions, practices and ways of thinking which they share among each other by working as one. It is a set of assumptions people accept with no question as they interact with each other. At the perceptible level the culture of a group of people takes the form of ritual behaviour, symbols, myths, stories, sounds and artefacts. (Stacey 1996) In simpler, culture can be explained in terms of the ‘feel’ of an organisation or its ‘character’. Organizational culture can be depicted as the traits of an organization, or easily as how things get completed around here. Organizational culture affects many features of work life. “It directs how workers reflect, behave, and feel." (Hansen, n.d.) Organization culture is a main feature to the organization's achievement or failure. Organizational culture "outlines the way associations act and relate and powerfully affects how things get completed." (Adeyoyin, 2006,) The organizational culture could be formed through years of perceptions and views. The culture is extremely complicated to change. Everything is a possible factor in an organizational culture, from inside factors for example job profits to outside factors like the surrounding environment. One of the most frequently used methods of making sense of an organisation’s culture will be to use the cultural web (Johnson 1992). It is a schematic representation of the constituents of an organisation’s culture. The major elements of the web are explained beneath. • Stories are tales which people within organization have a discussion to each other concerning what they inform new recruits and outsiders about the organization. The stories give an account of events and people from the past and present. • Routines are the events for doing things within the organisation. Rituals contain a longer time frame and can be either formal or informal. Formal routines and rituals are a component of the organisation’s practice, such as the ‘long service award’. Informal routines and rituals could comprise the way that people act at the once a year Christmas party. • Symbolic features of organizational life affect those things which symbolize something to some people, for instance, the location of their office. The way that employees respond to these symbols can tell us a great deal concerning the culture. • The structure of an organisation may signify more than those formal relationships which are shown on an organization figure. • Control systems, is an activity in which performance is estimated against a predetermined standard and the techniques of both standard-setting and monitoring performance differ according to culture. • Power structure Handy (1993) recommended that organisational culture can be divided into four categories: power cultures, role cultures, task cultures and person cultures. Power culture is governed by either a powerful individual or a dominant small group. It is characterize by an organisation that has grown as a result of entrepreneurial flair. Strategic decisions are made by the centre and a small number of decisions are passed to other mangers. Role cultures are found in many traditional organizations which function in stable environments. They frequently reply slowly to change since it takes time for change to be documented through the reporting machineries. Role cultures are common in traditional bureaucracies for instance the civil service. Task cultures are found in organizations engaged in activities of a non-repetitive natural world. Activities are based around flexible multi-disciplinary teams. However, task culture can be found in organizations that are devoted to a specific task. Person cultures are those that exist mainly for the benefit of the members of an organisation itself and tend to be uncommon in commercial businesses. They can have a very different ‘feel’ to the other cultures since all members of the organisations work for the benefits of themselves. They can be found in trade unions, in co-operatives, in some charities and in some religious organizations. Edgar Schein’s model of culture is the most widely discussed. It considers organizational culture in terms of three levels. Schein’s view was as follows: Organization culture is the pattern of fundamental assumptions which a group has invented, discovered or developed in learning to deal with its difficulties of external adaption and integration. It is the assumptions which lie behind the values and which determine the behaviour patterns and the visible artefacts such as architecture, dress codes and so on. Schein’s elemental view is that culture is the sharing of meanings and the sharing of basic assumptions between organizational employees. Schein’s first level is the surface manifestation of culture. It refers to the visible things a culture creates. It comprises both physical objects and as well behaviour patterns which could be seen or felt. How to behave toward oneself and toward other individuals is a matter of making choices: whether to be friendly or unfriendly; whether to tell the truth or lie; whether to be generous or greedy; these and all other questions about how people act toward themselves and one another are called ethics. The word ethics is derived from the Greek ethos, meaning “character,” the pattern of behaviour or personality found in an individual or group; moral constitution, moral strength, self discipline and fortitude. Business Ethics refers to what is right or wrong, or good or bad, human behaviour. The concept of business ethics is “being able to look at your face in the mirror”(Drucker, 1996). Ethics is a code of conduct and values that is accepted by society as being right and proper. Code of ethics is simply a compilation of the rules that are meant to govern the conduct of members of a particular organization or profession. Ethics have an effect with what is good or right in human interaction. It revolves around three essential conceptions: self, good, and other. Ethical behaviour results when one does not think about what is good for oneself, but also considers what is good for others. Business ethics is about identifying and implementing values of conduct that will make sure, business does not detrimentally influence on the interests of its stakeholders. In other words, business ethics concerns with standards of behaviour that will improve the interests of all who are influenced by business. Ethics is frequently perceived as a grey area where there is conviction about what is right or wrong. This perception of ethics is incorrect. When it comes to ethical behaviour, it is significant to distinguish among what is ethically right, what is ethically, and what is an ethical dilemma. Ethical behaviour is self-interested but not egotistic. When you know your behaviour may have negative effects for others, but only concern about what is good for yourself, such action is selfish and unethical. Also, there are certain behaviours that are considered ethically right, such as the respect for the dignity of employees. On the other hand discrimination against employees and theft of company property is considered wrong. From time to time incidents arise in business where people are no longer certain whether an action should be considered right or wrong. It is typical of moral dilemmas that when different people look at the same issue, some would regard it as morally right, whilst others would regard it as morally wrong. There are obvious similarities between ethics and the law, but there are also significant differences. Both ethics and the law strive towards determining what is right in human interaction and society. The law does so through a public and political process and employs the power of the state to ensure that all abide by the stipulations of the law. Ethics emanates from personal values; as such the sense of obligation to do what is right is internal as opposed to the external pressure of the law. Ethics is involved with how a good person must act, while values are the interior judgments which determine how an individual really behaves. Ethical’s main beliefs are the policies of conduct that derive from ethical values. For instance, truthfulness is a value that rules behaviour in the form of main beliefs such as: say the truth, don't lie, and don’t cheat. Thus, values give increase to principles in the form of particular "dos" and "don'ts." One area in which ethics play a huge role is in whistle-blowing. Whistle-blowing is the release information by a member of an organization that is evidence of illegal conduct within the organization. Whistle-blowing involves the release of non-public information. It is usually done to try to avert or rectify a serious wrong. To qualify as whistle-blowing the information must be released outside regular channels of communication. Whistle-blowing is not always justified; it can have serious consequences for the organization as well as the person doing the whistle-blowing. It can cost jobs, destroy lives, and crumble businesses. It can also save lives when someone exposes a harmful product. Two of the most important ethical theories (Utilitarianism and virtue ethics) will be discussed below: Aristotle’s virtue theory begins with the assumption that morality is both necessary and vital for human beings. It is impossible to live with human dignity without being a well developed moral being. Morality is not a luxury that one can choose to have or not to have. Aristotle believes that everything in life has a specific goal. The goal or telos of a knife, for example, is to cut. In order to live a life of human dignity, you should strive to attain the telos of human life. The greek word that he uses to describe the telos of all men is eudaimonia (translated into English as happiness).It also suggests a life well lived. It describes the state of a person who has realized his full human potential. Morality, according to Aristotle, hinges upon the character of the individual. What is right or wrong in interpersonal interaction, does not matter, but in the intra-personal development in your own character. Aristotle insists that morality begins with self love. For Aristotle, self love is in fact a pre- condition for morality. It provides the impetus for developing one’s character to its fullest human potential. The way to develop your character is through virtues. A virtue is a character trait that enables you to reach your telos. Aristotle defines a virtue as an activity of the soul, implying a rational principle. Underlying this definition of virtue is a very specific view of human nature. Aristole assumes that there are two distinguishable dimensions in human beings. The one is the rational dimension and the other the irrational dimensions. Aristotle introduces the concept of the mean to indicate what is implied by rationally dispositions. He indicates that a mean is always relative to a specific person. For example courage, someone can have either too much or too little courage. If you have too much courage, your disposition with regard to courage will be excessive. If you have too little courage, your disposition is deficient. Aristotle insists that the right attitude towards pleasure is a pre-condition for achieving our personal means. Pleasure can be both detrimental and beneficial to establishing our personal mean. Aristotle maintains that we tend to indulge in those things that give us pleasure. Our natural experience of pleasure and pain is the main cause of our wrong dispositions. So, we should avoid being guided by our natural instincts of pleasure. We should take rational control of our natural feelings of pleasure and teach ourselves to find pleasure in achieving our personal means. Once our sense of pleasure has been cultivated so that pleasure derives from achieving our means, it becomes conductive to our moral development. We find pleasure in doing the right thing. This transition should be facilitated through education. It is responsibility of the state to educate the youth so that they will be receptive to the ideal of a virtuous life. It becomes the responsibility of parents to prepare their offspring for the development. One of the most important discussed theories of right action is consequentialism. The utilitarian moral theory claims that the morality should be judged by their consequences. The classical representative of this theory is John Stuart Mill. Mill is convinced that actions are good when they contribute towards full filling the ultimate goal of human beings. This ultimate goal he defines as happiness. Actions are right in proportion as they tend to promote happiness, wrong as they tend to produce the reverse of happiness. By happiness are intended pleasure and the absence of pain, by unhappiness. The practical implication of this Greatest Happiness Principle is that whenever we are in moral doubt, we should calculate which of our alternatives for action would result in the greatest amount of happiness for the greatest number of people. The option that promises to produce the most happiness and the least pain for the greatest number of people affected by our decision should be regarded as the most worthy course of action. Mill concludes that if each individual desires his or her own happiness, then the ultimate good must be the happiness of all people. So the ultimate goal is not the happiness of the individual, but the happiness of society. Mill thinks that there is also external pressure on the individual to take heed of the interests of other people, as everyone needs the support of others throughout their lives. Without such support they would face the threat of rejection and expulsion from their community. Finally, Mill argues that we have a natural inclination to sympathize. Ethical relativism is the belief that there is no moral truth. The ethical value judgements that a person makes should be regarded as an expressions of her or his own ethical values. Ethical relativism is further fuelled by the emergence of the global village. As modern communication and information technology improve, people from different parts of the world learn more than another. This exposure to different cultures serves to emphasize the vast differences that exist between cultures. People realize now what is right in your own culture is not necessarily right in someone else’s culture To conclude, organizational behaviour is a multi-layered concept that must be learned to ensure the success of organizations and individuals within those organizations. Culture, are all layers of the study of organizational behaviour. Each of these key ideas plays an important role for the individual and organization studying organizational behaviour. Reaching towards the end, ethics play an increasingly important role in today's business environment. From whistle-blowing to workplace privacy and from marketing, advertising and product safety to occupational health and safety, the conduct of business is the public eye more and more every day. Ethics is primarily concerned with attempting to define what is good for the individual and for society. It also tries to establish the nature of obligations, or duties, that people owe themselves and each other. I feel that people do not willingly do what is bad for them, but may do what is bad for others if it appears that good for themselves will result. I’ve found that it’s difficult to define what is good and how one should act to achieve it. In addition, every one of us must comply with business ethics of all applicable laws and regulations, and with other company policies and instructions. Our conduct is our responsibility. In conclusion, culture is the idea of what is wrong or right, the concept of what is acceptable within our society. Culture serves us as a guide, taking us to the "right way" and helping us to make sense of things that surrounds us. So, if we as individuals want the power to think and judge for ourselves then we must accept the consequences of our own actions. Organisations should give us this choice. It is for these basic reasons that organizational culture matters. It is the right thing for an organization to do - to think about the work environment, working relationships and "how we do things here."