Organizational Ethics is an ongoing subject with the goal of helping businesses understand how to do the right thing in whatever situation that they encounter. There are never easy answers, or just one answer, to the difficult ethical questions which people encounter everyday, but a solid ethical foundation will help the people involved make good decisions.

 

 

References

 

 

Sm90 (2009, July, 31). The Office season 5 episode 2. retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkaozXsKrcs

Ethics Resource Center

The Ethics Resource Center is a nonprofit research center created in 1922 to advance ethical standards in industry, both public and private. Recently they have been focusing on the ethical issues related to the government response to the global recession. Their online presence is at www.ethics.org, which is a portal to many articles and other resources that provide guidance to the various businesses, policymakers, scholars, compliance officers, and others who use the site.

The ERC has been around for 90 years and has a mission to perform independent research regarding various ethical issues. They conduct national surveys to gather data from employees and organizations, which are used by government, business, and schools to show the current trends in ethical issues.

There are also various online articles and reports published and made available throughout the year for public use. They have a bi-monthly e-newsletter which is sent to over 10,000 readers.

The ERC offers surveying services to businesses who wish to improve their ethical standards and they offers benchmarking to help the companies conduct themselves more ethically and reduce their risk of violations. The Benchmarking Services team works with each company to conduct the surveys, identify and understand the issues and information, and work with the senior management to help them develop strong ethics standards for their company. They strive to create a well-implemented ethics and compliance program, which is understood by and used by the employees. They also try to build a strong culture of ethics, with management leading with integrity and a good example, and workers who look out for each other to “do the right thing.”

This site looks like a very good resource for a business that is looking to build a strong ethically-focused company

References

www.ethics.org

Affirmative Action

The US Commission on Civil Rights defines affirmative action as:

any measure, beyond simple termination of a discriminatory practice, that permits the consideration of race, national origin, sex, or disability, along with other criteria, and which is adopted to provide opportunities to a class of qualified individuals who have either historically or actually been denied those opportunities and/or to prevent the recurrence of discrimination in the future.

Retrieved from: www.aclu.org

Affirmative action was put in place to give equal opportunities to minorities and women who were underrepresented in the workplace. The goal is not to arbitrarily give jobs to unqualified applicants, but to level the playing field for people who have been historically at a disadvantage for employment. Over the years, affirmative action has expanded to include veterans as well as African-Americans, Latinos, women, and others.

Although the term “affirmative action” has been in use since the 1960s (www.aclu.org), many myths and misunderstandings persist and the topic is still fervently debated (www.understandingprejudice.org).

Some of the myths include:

• Affirmative action has not succeeded in creating greater worker representation for minorities and females -- This is not true. Minorities and women have representation has been increasing in many industries since affirmative action was put in place.
• Affirmative action is no longer needed because the playing field is now level – Affirmative action is still necessary because women still make significantly less than men and African- American men have twice the unemployment rate of white men. There are still many areas that do not have very equitable distribution of jobs for the different members of society.
• Affirmative action doesn't have public support – Studies have shown that the public does still support affirmative action.
• White workers lose out with affirmative action – government statistics show that even if all African- Americans in unemployment were to receive a job, it is still a small percentage of the white workforce, so there could not be a huge impact on white workers.

There are many more listed that I could go into here, but I think the point is clear: Affirmative action is still needed to help equalize the playing field for minorities, women, and veterans to overcome the systemic practices which have kept them from having an equal opportunity.

References

https://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/affirmative-action

https://www.aclu.org/files/images/asset_upload_file583_37286.pdf

https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/FilesPDFs/affirmative_action99.pdf

http://www.understandingprejudice.org/readroom/articles/affirm.htm

RR Donnelley’s Principles of Ethical Business Conduct

I would like to look at Organizational Ethics through the lens of the company where I work. RR Donnelley has a focus on Ethical Business practices, which are listed in a pamphlet that is available in our HR office, and reinforced throughout the company through refresher training and by working the practices into the culture of the company.

            RR Donnelley’s Principles of Ethical Business Conduct is broken down into sections to address the various ethical topics which the company wants to adhere to. The RR Donnelley ethics policy is:

·         “Each employee in every country must act with integrity and in compliance with all applicable laws” – This is the same as the APA Ethical Principle C

·         “We must deal with our suppliers, customers, employees, competitors, and the public fairly and honestly, while protecting company and third-party business information” – Much like APA Principle B Fidelity and Responsibility, with some wording to protect company information.

·         “Avoid any conduct in your business or personal life that conflicts with your obligations to the company” – This deals with conflicts of interest, and instructs employees again to act with integrity. It goes into confidentiality, and not using insider information for personal gain.

·         “Antitrust laws require fair competition among competitors” – RR Donnelley cannot violate antitrust laws.

·         “We will obey the environmental laws and comply with our operating permits” – RR Donnelley strives to act ethically in dealing with environmental issues and obeys environmental laws.

·         “We are committed to safe, healthful working conditions for all our employees” – RR Donnelley has a commitment to its employees to provide them with a safe workplace.

·         “Each employee should work in an atmosphere free of discrimination of any type or form, and free of sexual harassment” – There are yearly refresher courses to help make everyone aware of the non-discrimination policy which all employees must follow. This is comparable to code 3.02.

·         “We will be fair and accurate in our dealings with government, both as a regulator and as a customer” – This goes along with Principle C Integrity and states that the company will be honest and have integrity when dealing with the government.

·         “We will not make improper payments to influence government officials” – This deals with the ethics of bribes which is addressed in the APA code in Multiple Relationships code 3.05 around gift-giving, and can lead to 3.06 Conflict of Interest or an Exploitative Relationship code 3.08.

·         “Employees will not trade in securities of the company, its customers, suppliers or other business partners based on confidential information” – RR Donnelley’s Confidentiality Agreement, which all employees sign on a yearly basis, is comparable to the ethics code 4.01.

·         “The company’s computer systems, including e-mail, are company properly and must be secured” – This informs the employees that they must follow company guidelines when using company computers.

·         “We will cooperate with reasonable government requests and investigations while preserving our own rights.” – This is another example of the company’s commitment to acting with integrity.

References

Author Unknown (2004). R.R. Donnelley principles of ethical business conduct, Eighth Edition. RR Donnelley Printing.

Fisher, C.B. (2013). Decoding the ethics code: A practical guide for psychologists, Third Edition. Los Angeles: Sage Publications

Dilbert - Ethics gag

You can count on Dilbert to sum up Organizational Ethical issues quite nicely. In this clip, the pointy-haired boss is shocked to find out what all of the employees know, that the company has been acting unethically.

Reference

HexElf (2009, December, 10). Dilbert - Ethics gag[Video file]. retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4MoGjalaNYs 

Introduction – What is Organizational Ethics?

Organizational Ethics are rules and principles which can be used to guide a business to act with integrity, honesty, and with the greater societal good in mind. They can help an organization make decisions which are in their best interest in regards to their shareholders, employees, and norms of their society. They are not absolute, but can help the organization make good decisions (Liataud, 2013).

Organizational Ethics are important because organizations are a part of society, so there are certain obligations that they have to the society in which they exist to not cause harm to the people who make up the society. Organizations should strive to act ethically in their business dealings to remain in good societal standing. Businesses that are viewed as having integrity and high ethical value have a greater opportunity for success because they will have more community support.

This blog will focus on some of the ethical issues that organizations have faced and will examine an example of a company's ethics policy and some resources for ethics research.

• RR Donnelley's Principles of Ethical Business Conduct
• Affirmative Action
• Ethics Resource Center (ethics.org)

References

Liautaud, S. (2013). Untangling the confusion over organizational ethics. Stanford Social Innovation Review. Retrieved from: http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/untangling_the_confusion_over_organizational_ethics