Promoting ethics in the
workplace creates a positive culture for managers and employees, as well as a successful business. The Society for Human Resource Management [SHRM] notes that the stock price growth of the 100 firms with the most ethical cultures outperformed stock market and peer indices
by almost 300 percent, based on the most widely used measure of ethical workplace culture. “The evidence indicates that a positive workplace culture predicts shareholder value by enabling superior value-creation,” according to the SHRM. “The ethics
of a firm’s culture plays a significant role in creating and sustaining value.” Businesses with strong workplace ethics add value to the organization and support an environment where employees feel safe and valued. Leaders can help create an ethical workplace culture that benefits shareholders, the organization and people in the company. The study of business ethics refers to the ethical dimensions of productive organizations and commercial activities, and it applies to the production, distribution, marketing, sale and consumption of goods and services. Misconduct by employees and organizations can include anything from conflicts of interest to violations of company internet policies to falsifying time reports to bribery and illegal political gifts. “Misconduct happens in every organization,” Patricia Harned, chief executive officer of the Ethics and Compliance Initiative [ECI], told the Center for Association Leadership. “No organization is free from ethics and compliance challenges.” Harned’s assertion is based on 20 years
of results from the ECI’s National Business Ethics Survey of the U.S. Workforce. Highlights of the latest survey include the following statistics. How can managers help create a more ethical workplace culture? Leadership and talent development consultant Steve Nguyen summarizes a list of
practices for management to accomplish this goal.Employee Ethics
Promoting Workplace Ethics
Be a Role Model and Be Visible
Employees look at top managers to understand what behavior is acceptable. Senior management sets the tone for ethics in the workplace.
Communicate Ethical Expectations
An organizational code of ethics can reduce ethical ambiguities. The code of ethics should state the organization’s primary values and the ethical rules that employees are expected to follow. Managers should remember that a code of ethics is worthless if leaders fail to model ethical behaviors.
Offer Ethics Training
Managers should set up seminars, workshops and similar programs to promote ethics in the workplace. Training sessions reinforce the organization’s standards of conduct, to clarify what practices are and are not permissible, and to address possible ethical dilemmas.
Visibly Reward Ethical Acts and Punish Unethical Ones
Performance appraisals of managers should include evaluations of how actions measure up against the organization’s code of ethics. Appraisals need to include how managers achieve these goals, as well as the goals themselves.
Provide Protective Mechanisms
The organization needs to provide formal mechanisms that allow employees to discuss ethical dilemmas and report unethical behavior without fear of reprimand. This could include developing roles for ethical counselors, ombudsmen or ethical officers.
Enhancing the Workplace
A better workplace requires leaders to model behavior in every aspect of their role. In your career, the ability to demonstrate leadership with a sound ethical basis is essential to your success for any role.
Alvernia University offers an online MBA to help you reach your potential as a leader. Learn the skills and knowledge you need to pursue management-level positions, start a business or reach other career goals. The program takes place in a completely online learning environment, enabling you to maintain your work and personal schedule.
“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” A leader has a great responsibility within the workplace. This responsibility includes looking after the best interest of the organization, their team, and most importantly, themselves. All leaders have faced the challenge of “doing the right thing” in a variety of situations. Doing the right thing is just as important and arguably a difficult thing to do for people of all ranks within an organization. A team or an organization cannot be successful without solidifying their values and ensuring that the people that join their company are aware of and align with those values as well. Though the challenge of doing the right thing is one that is commonly faced, it is the responsibility of the leader to cultivate an environment in which team members may confidently make the right decisions for themselves and the organization.
For a leader to successfully cultivate such an environment they must be confident in their own ethical values and ensure that they are aligned with those of the organization. This also applies to those joining the company or who are overseen by the leader-their values must align with those of the organization, or at the very least have a clear understanding what those ethical values are. If values are misaligned or improperly communicated, organizations and leaders may face severe repercussions that could ultimately lead to their demise. Values are only the foundations of building a team that one can depend on to behave ethically. A strong leader is one that actively encourages ethical behavior in their employees by creating a safe space for their team, and by leading by example. A safe environment is created by communicating ethical expectations within the company, providing ethics training to employees, and by setting an example to be followed.
Communicating Ethical Expectations
In my experience, leaders have often made the assumption that ethical expectations do not need to be communicated. Making this assumption is incredibly dangerous as we have learned various times in history that what one believes to be the right thing, is not believed to be the right thing in the beliefs of others. This conflict can stem from a difference in background, environment, and cultures. Many organizations aim to have diversity in the workplace which effectively means that people can or will have a difference in opinion especially when relating to ethics. For this reason, leaders cannot assume that ethics are implicitly understood and agreed upon by the team. Organizations should establish a code of ethics, one that can be acknowledged by the public and by those who are employed by the company. The code of ethics can serve as a guide to employees and leaders and serve as a method of accountability by all stakeholders.
However, a code of ethics cannot stand alone to convey the ethical values and expectations of an organization. Ethical values must be embedded into the organization, but most importantly, they need to be enacted by employees. Employees who have values that align with those of the organization are best suited to act by the ethical code, as codes cannot be imposed on employees who do not accept nor align with the values of the company. Shared values are critical to behavior and determine how members perceive problems and make decisions. If differences in values exist, leaders will have a much more difficult time creating a safe and ethical environment for their team. A code of ethics cannot itself create an ethical culture. This code is merely a guideline of what one should or should not do. An organization and leaders cannot rely solely on this code and must convey it to their team. Effectively communicating ethical expectations helps frame ideas, identify problem areas, and strengthens the fabric of the organizational web. Involving the team in this discussion is vital as it bridges the gap between leaders and subordinates by creating trust and respect at the individual level. Rather than communicating down the chain of command, a leader should encourage discussion when the team is making decisions so as to open a trusted dialogue. This would be a more effective approach in creating not only a safe environment for the team, but also in influencing ethical behavior. Codes work only if incorporated into the culture and the ideas are embraced by employees. Effective communication is critical to ethical messages. Communicating ethical standards relieves the possibility of any ambiguity. A leader must work to actively bridge the gap between the ethical code of the organization and the ethical behavior of employees. Shared values, trust, and respect must be established between leaders and team members for a safe environment to exist in the workplace.
Leading by Example
Ethical leadership is multidimensional and involves the evaluation of the worker commitment, psychological well-being of the team members, and job satisfaction. As a leader works towards creating a safe environment for their team members, it’s important that they model the behavior they wish to instill in their employees. Ruling with an iron fist will have a negative impact not only on company culture but also leads to unethical business practices. In my opinion, team members would prefer an authentic leader over one who is power-hungry and dominant. Reminding employees that the code of ethics applies to everyone in the organization-including leaders, will help leaders build an authentic relationship with their employees. Leading by example will continue to build an employee’s trust in their leader and cultivate a positive work culture.
Leadership by role model, or by good example, is the best way to support and promote ethical values. When employees have an example of what it is to model ethical behavior in the workplace, they are more likely to model the behavior themselves. This type of leadership is referred to as referent power, or the ability to influence and inspire others. Referent leadership will have a better impact on creating a safe culture in the workplace and influencing ethical behavior opposed to coercive power which uses force. Though a code of ethics, communicating ethical expectations, and holding employees accountable to ethical behavior can be powerful influencers in promoting ethical behavior in the workplace, I believe leading by example is the most powerful influence of all. Leading by example explicitly shows employees that there are no exceptions to the code and that it is expected of everyone in the organization to uphold the ethical values of the company and behave ethically.
Organizations and leaders cannot assume that employees share the same ethics as the organization or that employees will behave ethically on their own. The ambitious desire to preserve has often lead people to find themselves in the penumbra [or the “gray zone.”] One may find themselves in the penumbra due to a lack of understanding of the behavior that is expected of them, the ethical values of the company, and the repercussions of behaving unethically. To avoid or lessen the likelihood of employees finding themselves in the penumbra, leaders and organizations must take it upon themselves to define the ethical standards of which the company stands upon. These must be clearly established with minimal to no room for ambiguity. It then becomes the responsibility of the leader to adequately convey and communicate these expectations with their team members. Having an ethical code of conduct is just the foundation of promoting ethical behavior in the workplace. An ethical code will merely serve as a guide to leaders and employees. The ethical code must be enforced. Leaders must build trust within their team so their team may be willing to discuss such things with one another and with their leader as well. Through an open discussion, employees will feel empowered to do the right thing and it also provides an opportunity for the team members to hold one another accountable to the ethical code. Leaders must practice referent leadership in pursuant of influencing ethical behavior in the workplace. Leaders should perpetrate the same ethical behavior they’d like to see in their team and uphold themselves to the same ethical standards they enforce upon their team. These ethical aspects within the workplace will cultivate an environment in which the team feels valued, trusted, and above all, they’ll feel respected.
Sources:
Alshehhi, Hind. “The Impact of Ethical Leadership on Employees Performance: Asystematic review.” Proceeding of the International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Systems and Informatics, [2020]: 419-426.
Maxwell, John C.. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. Nashville: Thomas Nelson,2007.
Nygaard ,Arne “Leading by Example: Values-Based Strategy to Instill Ethical Conduct.” Journal of Business Ethics 145, [2017]: 133-139.
Soltes, Eugene. Why They Do It. New York: Public Affairs, 2019.
Stevens, Betsy. “Communicating Ethical Values: A Study of Employee Perceptions.” Journal of Business Ethics 20. [1999]: 113-120.