Ethics Assignment Help
Tutorial 4: Activity 1
What is ethics?
Ethics are the guiding values, principles and standards that help people determine how “things ought to be done”. It refers to the judgment that people make, and the process of arriving at those judgments. They can also be defined as the moral principles of duty and virtue that describe how we should behave. Ethics form the foundation of our internal control.
The essence of the above definitions / descriptions is that ethics involve “doing what is right”, and not simply going ahead and doing what one has the “right to do”. It is based on the concept of integrity. This is because, in certain situations it may be legally correct to take a course of action, but it may be immoral to do so. In law, the authority is external and is drawn from statutes etc., while in case of ethics, the authority is internal. Not all law is ethical as it is created by majority opinion. Ethics is not always the prime consideration for framing the laws. Ethics is thinking beyond what law permits, not exploiting the loopholes, paying regard to others, considering the context of the situation, being fair and being empathic. This is because it is possible to be unethical without being illegal (Tutorial 4 2013).
What does it mean to be an ethical organization?
An ethical organization is one which practices ethical behavior. It is about actions and not just words or codes. However, it is important to put in place an ethical system, and follow the same in letter and spirit. An ethical organization has written codes and principles in place, and the documents are available for all to see on the intranet / library and on the website. It promotes ethical behavior (reward & punishment systems), discusses the issues which become ethically relevant from time to time, formally and informally communicates with the stakeholders on the ethics, is explicit by displaying the related documents, and has a dynamic approach to the whole issue of ethics. The documents should ideally contain examples from real-life situations involving ethical dilemma to guide the employees. It should also have specialists dealing with the whole issue of ethics, and not entrust the formulation / implementation of the system to the HR department. Most importantly, the leaders should support the ethical system through words and actions. Leading by example is extremely important, and supports the reward / punishment system mentioned above (Tutorial 4, 2013).
What is an ‘ethical system’?
An Ethical system comprises of policies, codes, management structures and processes which an organization devises to encourage appropriate behavior. The system needs to take account of the organization’s values and employment principles, personal values and societal norms. Ethics has to be an integral part of the organizational culture rather than an appendage grafted onto the administrative systems, it should be modeled by the leadership team even when it is painful, be preventive in nature, encourage transparency and prevent concealment, and encourage recruitment and retention of the best talent. An ethical system, therefore, has to be built around these principles. Best practice concepts and principles for creating the ethics system would include having an ethics committee with executive membership and ultimate responsibility for the establishment, and maintenance and review of the ethics system. The ethics committee should report annually to organization’s stakeholders. An ethics officer should be assigned resources to manage the ethics system on a day-to-day basis. An appropriately trained person should have the authority to independently investigate and resolve ethical dilemmas. The ethics system should be linked to performance management, and lead to the investigation of unethical practices and, where necessary, discipline personnel for inappropriate or illegal behavior (Tutorial 4, 2013).
Tutorial 4: Activity 2
The Manifesto for a Global Economic Ethic (Küng, Leisinger, Wieland2010), was a document prepared in response to the global financial crisis. The manifesto outlines five universally acceptable principles and values which can form the basis of global ethics. These are the principle of humanity, non-violence and respect for life, justice and solidarity, honesty and tolerance, and mutual esteem and partnership.
The crisis had its roots in unethical behavior by many individuals. It is important to understand, that many of the actions which led to the crisis could have been legally correct, but were unethical. Thus law alone is not always enough to prevent unethical behavior. Further, it is not only about individual unethical behavior, but about corporate ethics also. The failure of the market system was, inter-alia, a result of excessive speculation (property and stock market), and lack of accountability and transparency. “A failure of moral virtues” has been described as the core of the failure of the markets and institutions. The paper mentions that “ethic is not just the icing on the cake” and involves moral “action”
The paper accepts that ethical values and standards are culture bound, but there are core values and standards that are universal. Global Ethic is based on the principles of humanity and reciprocity, and the basic standards of non-violence, fairness, truthfulness and partnership.
Tutorial 5: Activity 1
How do you feel about the issues raised in the report?
It is interesting to note from Fear and Denniss (2009) that Australians work the longest hours in the western world. Everyday, they put in 16% extra time, and an average employee works 49 minutes unpaid. This implies that the 10-11% extra effort is not compensated. The statistics are more alarming for full time employees where 15% extra effort not compensated. Across the economy, employees are foregoing $72 billion in wages (six per cent of the GDP). Change in economic and demographic profile of Australia is responsible for the shift from the “income effect” to the “substitution effect”. Addiction to work has also been mentioned as a factor.
It is felt that working extra is a demand of the modern competitive world. Many organizations are understaffed and work efficiency is not optimal. Employers feel that adding more staff would either lead to reduction of profits or increase in prices of their products / services. Both these scenarios would reduce the organization’s competitiveness in the short or long term. However, the moral cost of this behavior is not factored. Furthermore, it would make sense to pay the legitimate overtime and motivate the employees to work more efficiently through better monitoring / improved systems. If the employees know that they will not be compensated, they feel that unethical behavior is acceptable, and reciprocate directly or indirectly through other forms of unethical behavior. This obviously costs the organization through lower efficiency etc.
Overtime has obvious bad effects on the mental and physical well being of the individuals, and consequently has adverse effects on the society as a whole.
Furthermore, the employees are sometimes not bold enough to resist being “forced” to work those unpaid hours due to fear of losing the job etc. Here, the role of the government / regulatory framework comes into play. The laws can empower workers to refuse long working hours. However, a major part of the problem can be solved if the employees are forced to pay for the overtime. This will dissuade them from the practice of forcing the employees to work extra, unless it is really necessary. Further, the employees will be forced to find more efficient methods at workplace so that the “work can get done” within the working hours. Companies can reduce unproductive hours and wasteful activities at work through reward / punishment mechanisms, and by proper communication. Proper education about ethics, and a strong corporate ethical culture would help in alleviating the problem.
Is overtime an issue in your own organization? If so, then how has your HR team or senior management team addressed it?
No, overtime is not an issue in my organization. Though there are occasions where people have to work overtime, they are compensated for same. Of course, there are those 10-15 extra minutes employees put in from time to time which are unpaid. My organization, focuses on reducing the time wasted during the standard work hours by employees. Social networking and similar activities are restricted, and there is an efficient monitoring system to minimize other time wasting behavior. Employees are made to understand that benefits of efficient working, like reduced requirement of working overtime, spending more time with families etc. Senior managers lead by example, and there is also a reward-punishment system at work.
Tutorial 6: Activity 1
How well can you recall your organization’s code of ethics?
I remember the code reasonably well. Basically, this was part of my induction training, and we give a copy of the code to all employees during the induction training. We also have periodical quizzes to check that the employees remember the principles. No one is expected to remember the codes by heart, but we attempt to inculcate the moral framework in their minds.
If you can’t what do you think this is so?
I remember it reasonably well because we associate a lot of importance to it.
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