Personal and Organizational Ethics Essay Example
Having Personal and Organizational code of ethics is one of the most important requirements which are needed by employees to attain favorable working environment. Over the years I have learned that, organizations should have well clearly defined code of ethics for employees to follow. This is essential for the purposes of attaining and understanding the utmost type of behavior which of employees are expect to practice. In this regard, I have come to understand that code of ethics requires dedicated and committed staff that work as team work and carefully exercise self discipline and are responsible.
In reference to Joel, ethics is an authority that deals with what is good and bad and with moral responsibility. It is a set of rules of conduct that reflects the character and the sentiments of an organization. It enables an organization to establish standards of honesty, loyalty, and fairness. As a manager, it has also come to my knowledge that, individual ethics development entails cognitive development, work ethic, personality and emotion. In this case, cognitive development refers to how individual staffs think, perceives, and gains an understanding of their organization through interaction, influence and academic aspects.
Analysis of personal and organizational values and ethics
Personal values and ethics influence the mode of behavior and values which are followed in an organization. For example, terminal values are self sufficient principles which are desired under circumstances of survival and an individual need to put great effort to attain it in an organization. On the other hand, it has come to my knowledge that, personal values and ethics guide individuals on the way they walk, dress and communicate on daily basis in an organization. In this regard, every organization has a different values and principals which determine the way of interpreting and defining what is right and wrong. For example moral ethics in an organization are developed to determine what are the accepted norms of the organization.
In addition, I have understood that, Ethical management in an organization involves making decisions about what is right and acting on those decisions as well. At certain times, the decision making process of ethical leadership and management can be easy as well as difficult, and occasionally be agonizing. Some accomplishments of ethical management   still may go without being seen and they are often un applauded hence resulting to negative reparations. The ethics of manager’s accounts for of cited observation that no one guarantees easy Ethical management but execution of what it is currently being recognized as one of the most critical issues management as managers.
An ethical manager must have both good value and good judgment skills which amount to good character. It does not count enough to be a good person but also persons as managers must make sound mind decisions based on judgments that emerge from a set principles, values and ethics. To behave ethically, managers should not only think ethically but also behave in line with the definition of organizational culture.
Culture and climate in an organization
Good working ethics develops a salient working environment which brings forth good working behavior. Individual’s staff members feel obligated to put into consideration not only our own personal well being but also that of others and the society at large. As a matter of fact, good organizational culture combines sound mind ethical decision making and ethical behavior which occurs at the level of an individual and an organizational context. The good working climate balances both individual and organizational obligation to benefit the community within which the organization exists. This means that as a manager one should create an organization that is consistent with good working environment where staff and other works enjoy fair working condition which favors everybody.
Further, it has come to my knowledge that an effective organizational culture should encourage ethical behavior and discourage unethical behavior as well. At the same time unethical behavior may sometimes cost the fortune of an organization. For example loss of sales when a multinational organization refrains from paying bribe to be accorded a chance to do business in a particular state. In such cases organizational staff might be reinforced from behaving unethically particularly if they do not get caught. In a similar case, an organization might be forced to engage in un unethical actions. For example, a purchasing agent for a large organization might be bribed to purchase all needed office supplies from a particular supplier. Many times, such gains are often short term rather than long term in nature and thus an organization cannot operate if its prevailing culture and values are not congruent with those of society Thus an organizational culture that promotes ethical behavior is not only more compatible with prevailing cultural values, but, in fact, makes good sense.
Although much remains to be learned about why unethical behavior occurs in organizations and the way of creating and maintaining a good organizational cultures that encourage ethical behavior, organizations can benefit from proper development of code of ethics. In this case, an organization should be realistic in setting up sound mind organizational values and ethics which address matters of employees’ relationships. In an attempt to address this matter, it is advisable for managers not promise what the organization cannot deliver. Instead, they should encourage and promote employees input which the organization promote reasonable values and practices towards implementing organizational cultures. The organization should choose values that represent the views of staff at all levels of the organization. Managers not automatically suggest strong culture for staff ( Ronald 1994).
Personal vision/ mission statement
As a strategic  manager, organizational  planning frame work entails laying down success strategies, goals and action to intertwine and create an appropriate steps to accomplish organizations mission and vision and achieve your values as a manager. Organizations need strategies, goals, and action plans to cascade the mission through the organization and engage the talents of all employees.
In this regard it has come to my knowledge that, quality of service provided by an organization is highly influenced by the vision and mission statement that support the well being of employees ethics. This includes all the working staff and the entire organization fraternity in which they service. It has come to my knowledge that the mission and vision statements, as well as good leadership are core values that increases the organizational reputation among staff and the community at large. It is evident that mission and vision statements,  as well as availability of other sound mind information sources of information enables an individuals in organization to present them in a manner which is presentable and accepted improving  personal values, mission and ethical beliefs.
As a manager it has also come to my knowledge that ,one has the responsibility to come up with organizational sound mind ethics and values that uphold vision and mission requirements. The values and principles should promote organizational decisions and behavior. In this regard, organizational members should have a stake in the ethics of their organization, and they understand and adopt the ethical code and norms, they have a responsibility to seek clarification or to advocate for a change in organizational ethics. For this case it is the responsibility of the manager is to make ethical decisions and behave in ethical way to see that the organization understands and practices its ethical code.
Social responsibility
According to Joel Social responsibility is an ethical ideology and theory entity that an organizational staff has an obligation to act towards the benefit of an organization. The social responsibility may be inactive by keeping away from engagement in social detrimental acts or active by performing activities that directly advance social goals of the organization. I have learned that managers can use ethical decision making to secure their organization by coming up with decisions that allow other agencies to improve their involvement with other organization. For instance, if an organization is positively following government policies regarding protection of environment then the guidelines and rules governing the emissions of dangerous pollution should be disposed following the instruction to the latter.
The organization should even go an extra step further and get involved in protecting the community by addressing the major concerns which arise from the public towards pollution emissions. An organization should investigate and conform to major environmental concerns which are a major significant element of international environment concerns, for self regulation rather than being followed by government mechanism for protecting community environment Supporters reason that, organizational social responsibility absorbs the fundamental economic role of individual persons and organization.
Social responsibility is also concerned with decision making which is also part of leading to attainment organizational of goals. The successes of an organization specifically depend on the sensitivity of its employees and concern for staff organization. As an entrepreneurial culture, social responsibility does not just bring changes in the environment but also creates the necessary change and commitment to experimentation, innovation and being on the competitive edge.I also learned that, social responsibility entails individual initiative, flexibility and freedom which promote growth and is both encouraging and rewarding. In addition the bureaucratic culture values, standard goods and services are more concerned with predictability, efficiency and stability of social well being of the community. The tasks, responsibilities, authority, rules and processes also promote social responsibility.
Graham (1986) argues that in an organizational development there is much room left for creativity and innovation. Individuals are highly valued and staff members in the organization are encouraged to work towards attainment of social responsibility goals. In many times social responsibilities do not exert much social pressure on organizational members, but when it does, the members are expected to conform to set rules and regulations’. However, organizational staffs conform to socio economic incentives by operating in peers and network setting. For this reason an individual must make sure they know the culture of an organization such that the organization ethics, values do not conflict with their personal ethics and culture
Training personal and organizational values and ethics
Moreover, it has come to my knowledge that, providing an ethical and value training program to all organizational staff is one of the best ways to explain the underlying success of an organization. Drake argues that understanding of all ethical situations makes the trainer to know what to train. Like any other organization, the manager should sit down and analyze the basic situations and recognizes the ambiguous and conflicting issues of where ethical tradeoffs are necessary. More importantly, some situations contain solutions which are critical for ethical decision making and the performance appraisal process (Harrington 1991).
Before starting to create a training program for organizational staff the manager needs to analyze the staff and determine their strengths and weaknesses. The manager should first establish and identify the ideal attributes that build and strengthen the organization traits that will allow our staff to achieve the organization goals. The training should entail addressing of the gaps that require the staff to think in terms of long term solving of problems that challenge achievement of organizational goals. The purpose of training staff is to identify the work to be carried out to achieve organizational objectives and goals. Training Plans should be drawn up to identify long term objectives as well as short term plans for the forth coming short seasons. Managers should concentrate on the development of the short term annual Training which comprise of a single sheet in identifying the overall plan for the year, and more detailed weekly reviews
The moral philosophy and ethical principle in organization
In response to Ronald (1994) the philosophies of top managers as well as immediate managers in an organization are critical in influencing the ethical behavior of staff members and employees. Stead et al (1990) argues that over a research over period of ten years clearly support the conclusion that ethical management has a major impact on the ethical behavior of staff members in an organization. Philosophers have used this idea to develop moral theories to help guide behavior development and postulated ethical standards and principles based on these reasoning. Common sense morality for example is based on moral theory, it points out that employees are aware of norms which require them to treat others as they would like to be treated .the theory maintains that  keeping your promise and being fair and doing the best at the same time, helps one to use common sense. The theory is concerned with acting as a common guide to behave ethically. In addition, one learns that, there are values that are perceived to be good and brings forth  happiness, honesty, justice, charity, courage, integrity, community, love, knowledge and freedom (Joel 2003).
In conclusion I also learned that as my personal and organizational values and code of ethic are concerned in guiding me to determine what is right and wrong as a future manager. I also understand that code of ethics is a major tool useful in building good staff and employee’s characters. In addition, developing your own code of ethics is also part of personal development of character and behavior where as a manager one begins to take a look at his or her personality character traits and how they affect his or her life as well as others around him or her. As part of maturity, code of ethics and values are necessary for ones growth from one stage to another. As a manager I also learned that I should re evaluate my ethical growth and maturity in light of cultural factors, religious factors, cultural factors, employee interaction and personal experience among other factors.