Business organizations often develop several different policies, rules and guide
ID: 421803 • Letter: B
Question
Business organizations often develop several different policies, rules and guidelines for governing their operations. Acclording to Vitez, (2018) while home-based or sole proprietorship businesses usually require fewer policies, larger organizations use these guidelines to manage employee behavior. A code of ethics is a common organizational policy used in business organizations. The code of ethics policy usually sets the minimum standards for business owners, managers and employees to follow when completing various business functions. In their article, BOMI International suggests that many professions and corporations have developed codes of ethics to address their unique business situations. In fact, 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies and nearly half of all corporations have codes of ethics that can be applied to all employees. By developing a code of ethics, an organization makes it clear that employees and members cannot claim ignorance as a defense for unethical conduct (n.d.).You jmay have expereicned that codes of ethics help employees strike a balance between the ends and the means used to obtain them. This balance may be one of the most challenging aspects of being an ethical organization. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations provide an additional incentive for having corporate codes of ethics and ethics training. Companies that have made a bona fide effort to prevent unethical and illegal behavior are likely to receive less severe punishment should an employee be found guilty of breaking the law. The unethical conduct of just a few employees can affect an entire corporation.
Do you think that the factors that can influence or undermine the best intentions explains why individuals who live exemplary lives outside their jobs sometimes behave unethically in the workplace? Business organizations often develop several different policies, rules and guidelines for governing their operations. Acclording to Vitez, (2018) while home-based or sole proprietorship businesses usually require fewer policies, larger organizations use these guidelines to manage employee behavior. A code of ethics is a common organizational policy used in business organizations. The code of ethics policy usually sets the minimum standards for business owners, managers and employees to follow when completing various business functions. In their article, BOMI International suggests that many professions and corporations have developed codes of ethics to address their unique business situations. In fact, 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies and nearly half of all corporations have codes of ethics that can be applied to all employees. By developing a code of ethics, an organization makes it clear that employees and members cannot claim ignorance as a defense for unethical conduct (n.d.).
You jmay have expereicned that codes of ethics help employees strike a balance between the ends and the means used to obtain them. This balance may be one of the most challenging aspects of being an ethical organization. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations provide an additional incentive for having corporate codes of ethics and ethics training. Companies that have made a bona fide effort to prevent unethical and illegal behavior are likely to receive less severe punishment should an employee be found guilty of breaking the law. The unethical conduct of just a few employees can affect an entire corporation.
Do you think that the factors that can influence or undermine the best intentions explains why individuals who live exemplary lives outside their jobs sometimes behave unethically in the workplace? Business organizations often develop several different policies, rules and guidelines for governing their operations. Acclording to Vitez, (2018) while home-based or sole proprietorship businesses usually require fewer policies, larger organizations use these guidelines to manage employee behavior. A code of ethics is a common organizational policy used in business organizations. The code of ethics policy usually sets the minimum standards for business owners, managers and employees to follow when completing various business functions. In their article, BOMI International suggests that many professions and corporations have developed codes of ethics to address their unique business situations. In fact, 90 percent of Fortune 500 companies and nearly half of all corporations have codes of ethics that can be applied to all employees. By developing a code of ethics, an organization makes it clear that employees and members cannot claim ignorance as a defense for unethical conduct (n.d.).
You jmay have expereicned that codes of ethics help employees strike a balance between the ends and the means used to obtain them. This balance may be one of the most challenging aspects of being an ethical organization. The Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations provide an additional incentive for having corporate codes of ethics and ethics training. Companies that have made a bona fide effort to prevent unethical and illegal behavior are likely to receive less severe punishment should an employee be found guilty of breaking the law. The unethical conduct of just a few employees can affect an entire corporation.
Do you think that the factors that can influence or undermine the best intentions explains why individuals who live exemplary lives outside their jobs sometimes behave unethically in the workplace?
Explanation / Answer
Yes, I believe that the factors that can influence or undermine the best intentions often leads to individuals behaving unethically in the workplace despite having lived an exemplary life and a life that is devoid of any unethical practice outside their professional domain.
These factors are classified into three main categories – ethical issue intensity, individual factors and organizational factors. The first factor is that of ethical issue intensity and this refers to the level of awareness that exists among employees with regards to the fact that certain issues have an ethical component attached to them. Individual factors consist of elements like character of the individual, various psychological influences that shape decision making of the individual and the moral development of the individual. Organizational factors consist of elements like culture, immediate work group and opportunity.
The above factors, even though they influence our best intentions, can often lead us to behave unethically in the workplace. For instance in your life outside your professional domain you never receive gifts for favors that you have done for others. In your workplace the code of ethics says that accepting gifts from vendors and other parties is not ethical. However, your colleagues regularly accept gifts and so this has come to be regarded as a custom within your organization. Thus the organizational factor of immediate work group (the fact that your immediate work group accepts gifts) will lead you to digress from your ethical values and start accepting gifts as your professional right.
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