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Running head: CREATING THE ETHICAL-BASED WORKPLACE
Effects of Global Ethics
Chris Allen
Southwestern College
Ethics in the Global Marketplace – 560
Dr. Roger Fuller
December 22, 2013
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CREATING THE ETHICAL-BASED WORKPLACE
Creating the Ethical-Based Workplace
One important element of marketplace management, which could have an effect on the
greater success of an organization, is ethical decisions that are being made by individuals
involved within an organization. Every organization, at some point, will be faced with ethical
challenges that they will need to address and how they address them could have an effect, either
positive or negative, on that organization. It is important that organizations take into
consideration their actions as they can have an effect on many related parties, such as employees,
customers, and other stakeholders. This paper will take a look at some of the factors that
surround ethical actions that could assist and understand some of the aspects that organizations
face with considering ethical responsibility. When setting ethical standards or goals, an
organization or managing party will need to develop the framework of ethics. How are ethics
going to be viewed and what is the purpose for pursuing ethical excellence. From there, setting
and developing a culture of ethics standards will ensure that everyone within and surrounding the
organization will know what is expected of them and how decisions should be made. All
members of an organization should understand what is expected from them, but what sort of
responsibilities do the members and organization have towards aspects outside the workplace.
Corporate social responsibility and environmental sustainability are two areas that will be looked
at when discussing the topic of marketplace ethics. Finally, a look at whether pursuing ethical
excellence is something that should be considered a responsibility to all organizations or if there
are times where certain organizations are not set up to handle all positive ethical practices.
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Creating a Framework of Ethics
In short, ethics refers to the understanding of what is right and wrong and can be defined
by Webster’s dictionary as “the branch of philosophy dealing with right and wrong and the
morality of motives and ends” (Shaughnessy, 2002, p. 20). It can be assumed that most
employees know the difference between right and wrong, but why do they feel that way? Is it
merely because it’s the right thing to do or does a threat of punishment affect an employee to act
in an ethical manor. DesJardins (2011) provides three examples to ethical constructs:
utilitarianism ethics (decisions based on the overall consequences of our acts), deontological
ethics (decisions based on moral principles), and virtue ethics (how various character traits can
contribute to, or obstruct, a happy and meaningful life” (p.24). Understanding these three
examples can greatly help an individual form their ethical framework. A framework can also
assist an organization develop and maintain an ethical culture within the workplace.
Developing a Culture within the Workplace
When establishing an ethical culture within the workplace an organization is setting the
standards and responsibilities that are to be followed by members of an organization. Since not
all ethical choices are black and white and negative actions can be harmful to an organization,
leaders can choose to establish a code of conduct which can be used to outline what principles
are to be followed by employees of the organization. There are two approaches to developing
code of conduct: compliance approach and cultural approach. A compliance approach is put in
place to help avoid any legal issues that can come with wrongful actions. The State Services
Commission of New Zealand (2002) defines a compliance-based approach as a strict adherence
to administrative procedures and rules (often detailed in legislation, which define what public
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servants should do and how. The other approach is a cultural approach which takes into account
the many different cultural differences between co-workers and others the organization does
business with.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Along with managing and overseeing what an organization is doing internally to set
ethical standards, it is also important to also consider finding ways to benefit the surrounding
society in which the organization operates. This focus of finding ways to be beneficial to
surrounding communities is known as corporate social responsibility. Bowen (1953) describes
corporate social responsibility as “the obligations of businessmen to pursue those policies, to
make those decisions, or to follow those lines of actions which are desirable in terms of the
objectives and values of our society (p.6). In short, social responsibility is the responsibility for
organizations to not just look at financial interests as the only means for successful operations,
but also look to the society in which it operates. As many organizations look for economic
returns to shareholders, corporate social responsibility offers a possibility to enhance public selfimage (Freeman & Hasnaoul, 2011, p.421).
Environmental Sustainability
Another responsibility that is becoming increasingly monitored is that of environmental
sustainability. Many organizations are seeing the benefits of having their operations be more
environmentally friendly. This can be seen in recent studies which show organizations prior to
2011 thought that implementing sustainability operations were more of a hassle than good, but
post-2011, organizations the main reason for pursuing sustainability was to lower operational
cost and improve efficiency (Holden, 2012, p.6). Environment sustainability is very similar to
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corporate social responsibility in the idea that by pursuing ways to cut cost and be more efficient,
their public image in attempts to benefit the environment puts them in good light with the public.
Although environment sustainability is a positive idea on how to benefit many parties, without
proper management and vision, many plans for sustainability are not successful as originally
thought. Holden (2012) states, “companies often struggle to bridge the gap between the fuzzy
rhetoric of sustainability and the concrete realities of implementation”, and “[a small number of
surveyed companies] indicated that any competitive advantage had actually been achieved as a
result of their organizations’ sustainability practices” (p.8). It should be understood that being
sustainable isn’t always the easiest route to take, but through proper instillation of practice can
lead to many benefits including lower costs and better public image.
Economically Viable?
Although there is a general understanding that organizations have a better chance at being
successful through high ethical decisions making related to corporate social responsibility and
environmental sustainability, many organizations believe that it is just not optimal for their
operations and the cost of implementing these ideas is more costly in the long run. O’Toole and
Vogel (2011) define conscious capitalism as “the integration of “social responsibility into
mainstream practices” (p.61). This is the idea that organizations are trying to implement
responsible operations because it is the proper thing to do. O’Toole and Vogel (2011) believe
that conscious capitalism is a very plausible action, but many factors can affect an organization’s
ability to perform these actions, such as size and type of business. Others, however, believe that
it is a strict responsibility for organization to try to optimize conscious capitalism. Branson
(2011) who is a speaker to businesses of all sizes addressing conscious capitalism principles in
attempts to show that it is possible to for all organizations to succeed financially and socially.
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Conclusion
Creating an exceptionally ethical organization is something that has to have a structure
design for implementation. Starting with setting the standards of how employees and members of
the organization are expected to act by implementing a code of conduct. Creating the code of
conduct and encouraging proper actions within the workplace can make it a better and more
rewarding place to work for all the employees. Ethical actions don’t just stay within the
workplace, but can also branch out to local communities through corporate social responsibility.
Corporate social responsibility is not only beneficial to communities, but can also help a
business’s reputation within the community. And finally, when thinking about ways to cut costs
and preserve the environment, sustainability plans can assist any business when properly
implemented. It is clear that these ideas can all benefit an organization, but only with proper
guidance and support for the programs can an organization be successful with their goals.
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References
Bowen, H.R. (1953). Social responsibilities of the businessmen. New York, NY: Harper and
Row.
Branson, R. (2011). Screw business as usual [Kindle version]. Retrieved from Amazon.com.
Freeman, I. & Hasnaoui, A. (2011). The meaning of corporate social responsibility: the vision of
four nations. Journal of Business Ethics. 100(3). P.419-443.
Holden, G. (2012) The state of state of sustainability. Research Technology Management. 55(6).
P.7-9.
DesJardins, J. (2011). An introduction to business ethics (4th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
O’Toole, J. & Vogel, D. (2011). Two and a half cheers for conscious capitalism. California
Management Review, 53(3), 60-76.
Shaughnessy, A. (2002). Workplace ethics. Printed Circuit Design. 19(6). P. 20-25.
State Services Commission. (2002). Compliance-based versus integrity-based ethics
management: a typology. Retrieved from http://www.ssc.govt.nz/node/574.