Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations. Sin is limitations. As soon as you reach the limitations of a man, everything ends for him.

Emerson

In today’s society, personal and group ethics shape the formation of values ​​in organizations. Organizational ethics and culture can affect the success of an organization in the following ways: (a) group cultures influence ethical behavior more than the sum of their individual ethics, (b) ethical reasoning is a logical sequence in the that policies are ultimate, thus policies are the result of ethical reasoning, not a substitute for it, and (c) ethical and cultural gaps can only be reduced by preventing their root causes early in the process. Ethics in organizations is more influenced by the group ethics system (culture) than by the sum of individual personal ethics systems.

Ethics play a fundamental role in leadership. Ethics is defined as the code of moral principles that governs the behavior of a person/group towards what is right. People will not respect a leader low on integrity. A leader cannot cheat them with promotions or bribe them with money. Ultimately, character counts in an effective organization. Draft, an organizational management expert, explains that leaders at the highest managerial levels develop internal moral standards that can often enable them to break the law if necessary.

A leader’s unethical conduct brings about his own demise and the embarrassment of his organization. Therefore, it can be shown that effective leaders must have accountability mechanisms in place so that they do not run into ethical minefields. Can you imagine what happens in an organization without accountability?

Each individual brings their own personal beliefs to the workplace. Leaders are no exception. An individual’s family background, traditions, spiritual values, and experiences affect how moral decisions are made. At the midpoint of development, individuals learn to conform to the expectations of moral behavior defined by their peers and society. Most leaders at this crossroads are willing to follow laws and social expectations.

However, the highest levels of value formation are individuals who develop their own internal set of standards. Therefore, these individuals develop their own ethical principles that become more important in their decision making than any external expectations. This high arched principle allows them to make unethical decisions, such as breaking laws or compromising organizational values, because it allows them to uphold their moral principles internally. Obviously, values ​​will continue to play a critical role in organizational development in the future.

References:

CNN (2005). Reid: The White House owes an explanation. Retrieved October 31, 2005 from http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/10/30/leak.probe/index.html.

Ciulla, J.B. (1998). Ethics: the heart of leadership. Westport, CT: Praeger.

Draft, R. (1995). Organization Theory and Design. Congress gets low marks on ethics, honesty.

Harris, J. (April 12, 2005). In recent scandals, a rethinking of the conventional wisdom of capital. Washington Post.

Heuser, B. (2005). The Ethics of Social Cohesion. Peabody Journal of Education. 80(4), pp. 8-15.
Kern, C. (2003). Creating and Maintaining an Ethical Workplace Culture, Pepperdine University.
King, S. (2006). The Moral Manager. Public Integrity. 8(2), pp. 113-133.
Lester, W. (2005). Associated Press. Congress gets low marks on ethics, honesty.

Nelson, M. (1994). Why Americans hate politics and politicians. Virginia Quarterly Review. 70(4), p.636, 18p.
Yukl, G. (2002). Leadership in Organizations. Delhi, India: Pearson Education, Inc.
© 2006 by Daryl D. Green